Launching new services and developing new features can be stressful, but not for Michael Lambert. As Analytics Manager at Aegon UK, he loves a challenge - even in the most difficult situations. We talked to Michael about his role in the financial service provider’s digital transformation and why he loves helping other people achieve their goals.
Tell us about your role at Aegon
I’ve actually been with the company for nearly 20 years! I’ve worked across lots of different business areas during that time and now head up the customer analytics team. We build dashboards, create reports, and extract insights to support projects and decisions - all the way to board level.
With analytics, we can understand our customers and our business better. Salesforce is critical to this process and helps us unlock valuable - and unexpected - insights. For example, we discovered the tone of the email header prompts a very different reaction with different demographics, which has allowed us to tailor our content to provide more relevant and insightful communications. Salesforce is a real enabler for the customer analytics team and the wider business.
What are the high points in your career?
I was really lucky to be part of the team working on the launch of a digital first service from Aegon that helps people manage their savings for retirement. We started with a clean sheet of paper and brought together the digital tools, channels, and processes we needed to provide a consistent and compelling customer experience.
From web chat and secure email to data analytics and diagnostics, we were able to revolutionise how we engage with customers. I was able to draw on this experience to help develop a new web chat service to support financial advisers, employers, and customers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Tell us more about the web chat initiative
It was our first day working from home during the coronavirus lockdown. We started pulling together a proof of concept - within 24 hours we knew we could have web chat running on the Aegon UK website really quickly and effectively. And we did - it went live to around 400,000 customers within five days. The uptake has been amazing especially as we’ve not formally promoted it - the service team now handle around 200 web chats a day.
I’m really proud to have been part of Aegon UK’s coronavirus response and to have helped Aegon employees stay connected with customers and advisers when they needed them most.
What’s your approach for starting a new project?
I always look at things from a business angle. I want to create things that make a difference to people - whether it’s my colleagues, Aegon customers, or financial advisers. It’s important to try to come up with solutions that enable people to solve today’s challenges and seize tomorrow’s opportunities, but at the same time stay focused on core goals.
I like to keep developing my skills - there are lots of great online tools. For example, I used Trailhead to learn about the new Omni-Channel Routing features in Salesforce to help with the web chat initiative.
What’s next on your radar?
I want to find new ways to help colleagues work remotely more effectively - people need easy and fast access to accurate real-time data. And not just customer records but customer insights too.
I’m also working with the marketing team to help them introduce more journeys as part of the customer communications lifecycle. The team has already used Marketing Cloud to optimise customer segmentation and create dynamic content but there’s a lot more we can do - and that’s where my Salesforce expertise comes in!
Connecting and communicating with people is more important than ever before - I always feel more relaxed and reassured when I’ve had a good chat with someone - normally my daughter. It’s important to give people a sense of security in an insecure world.
Find out more about how Aegon UK responded to the coronavirus pandemic here and introduced a new web chat service in record time
