Allstate Canada’s All Inclusive Social Media Reach

Enterprise social media is truly an opportunity for an organization to separate themselves from the fray and become an industry gold standard on how to communicate.  For many communication within a company can be a no brainier.  There is however,  a chance for leadership to step up and shift the way people communicate in order to move forward.  Allstate Insurance is an excellent example.

An industry leader in the Insurance field Allstate prides themselves on their award winning ability  to help not only their customers sleep well at night but also to provide an amazing career opportunity.  Winning awards within their industry like Best Employer for five years strong can only be achieved if the leadership of the company is willing to  set the pace and engage the change on how the employees communicate.  Social media functions like internal chat platforms allow for agents to not only provide support to the person in the seat next to them but also a direct line of access throughout the organization.  When an Agent is speaking with a client about one of their claims chances are that the conversation is likely stressful and the person on the other end of the line is likely experiencing some level of distress.  Being able to reach out to the departments needed to escalate a claim or to get the answers needed in the moment is high value.

The Allstate YouTube channel includes video’s from Allstate employees explaining services offered to the consumer.  This real life account of the offering allows a better understanding of the product that the agent is selling.  With new systems and offerings rolling out much faster today than they did before this is a resource that is used by all.

What also can’t go unnoticed is that Allstate employees are also Allstate customers as they have insurance needs themselves.  This also allows them access to information provided to them by the organization via the company blog or the helpful hints on their newsroom  on social media usage and safety.

 

I had the opportunity to speak with Carrie Hammer a former Allstate employee regarding her thoughts on how social media played  a role on her day to day functions within Allstate.  “I found the internal chat option within Allstate to be of great assistance. It allowed me to reach out to agents in other branches, as well as at head office at any time. It allowed agents to communicate with the adjusters and claims agents to discuss what was happening with our clients claims. I found the chat system to be very handy when trying to deal with client issues while the client was on the phone. It helped to streamline and improve our customer service as we no longer had to speak with the client, call head office, and then follow up with the client a few minutes later. Overall it was a very useful tool that I am very thankful existed when I needed it most. ”

 

Lessons for Others

Social Media is a part of our lives and is not going anywhere.  In fact it is evolving a rate that makes some nervous.  What organizations can learn from the example of Allstate is that it is an excellent opportunity to improve communication between departments and to communicate relevant information to it’s target audience almost instantaneously.  This low cost solution will allow for departments to come together and efficiency  to improve.  The true cost will be the courage to look at things from a different perspective.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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