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March 5, 2024
NEENAH — Mike Alexander, Jewelers Mutual Group’s chief operating officer, said for the past 110-plus years, it’s been the company’s focus to support the jewelry industry by putting customers at the heart of everything it does.
The Neenah-based insurer must be doing something right.
For the 10th consecutive year, Jewelers Mutual has earned top marks from its customers, attaining a “world-class” Net Promoter Score (NPS) ranking above 80 for its service — particularly at the time of a claim.
Alexander said this far surpasses the insurance industry standard of 15, according to Qualtrics XM (Experience Management experts).
Developed in 2003 by Bain and Company, NPS, according to its website (bain.com), is the gold standard of customer experience metrics — which is used by millions of businesses, measuring the loyalty of customers to a company or brand.
NPS is measured with a single survey question and reported with a number from -100 to +100. The question asked is: “How likely would you be to recommend a company to a friend or colleague?”
The higher the score, the stronger the indicator of customer satisfaction.
Raising the bar
Alexander said Jewelers Mutual takes “tremendous pride in our high customer satisfaction scores — especially at critical times when our customers need us most.”
“This achievement reflects our unwavering commitment to be there for our customers where and how they need us to be with every call, question and interaction,” he said.
To support continuous improvement, Alexander said Jewelers Mutual regularly surveys subsets of its customers — which is made up of jewelry businesses, including retail jewelers, wholesalers, manufacturers, suppliers, designers and appraisers, as well as individual jewelry consumers.
The insurer attributes its high claims experience scores to its customer-centric business model, as well as its uniquely specialized expertise in insuring jewelry.
Mike Alexander
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“Our relentless focus on experience improvement is ingrained in our culture, and we strive to set new standards of excellence in the insurance industry,” Alexander said. “We are tremendously proud of our decade-long journey of maintaining a world-class score.”
Scott Murphy, Jewelers Mutual president/CEO, said providing a unique, positive and personalized customer experience is central to the mission of Jewelers Mutual.
“We discuss this with all our employees as our top goal in everything we do because the only reason we exist is to serve our customers,” he said.
Murphy said Jewelers Mutual is proud of its customer base of 1.5 million individuals and businesses across the United States and Canada.
“As the number of customers who put their trust in us continues to grow, I am proud of this score as it shows our team has not lost focus on ensuring we provide a personalized customer experience,” he said.
No small feat
Being in business for more than a century and consistently remaining at the top of your game, Murphy said, is not an easy task.
In the case of Jewelers Mutual, Murphy said he believes at the core of the company’s success is its employees’ commitment to “delivering personalized customer experiences with every customer interaction, especially at times of loss when they need us most.”
“We are continually evolving to meet our customers’ changing needs so we can be there for them where and how they need us to be, and that comes from constantly asking for their feedback,” he said. “We listen and transform how we do business based on what they tell us they need and want. We embrace new technological solutions to improve efficiencies that allow us to serve them better and faster and exceed their expectations.”
Murphy said the company also continues to embrace technology and evolve its digital experience — serving customers where and how they want to be served.
“At the end of the day, when a customer picks up the phone to talk to us in their time of need, they are going to talk to a live person who will help guide them with compassion and professionalism,” he said. “We also continually publish educational content for our customers to help them protect and purchase jewelry, as well as keep themselves and jewelry businesses safe and secure.”
Murphy said Jewelers Mutual is also always working to empower customers to interact with them in the environment and capacity they feel most comfortable — whether that’s via a phone call or digitally.
Accountable to policyholders, not shareholders
Being a mutual company, whose only accountability is to its policyholder-customers, rather than shareholders, Murphy said allows Jewelers Mutual to do whatever is necessary to provide the best solutions and experiences to their customers — and that sets the company apart from other similar insurers.
“This allows our team members to truly be dedicated to supporting the jewelry industry and jewelry-buying consumers in ways that maintain a long-term focus,” he said.
Murphy said it also allows the company to create a lifetime relationship with customers — especially because often, “we are providing them protection on some of their most important and sentimental possessions.”
“We strive to be more than insurance,” he said.
Founded in 1913, Murphy said Jewelers Mutual is “truly part of the jewelry industry.”
“We continue to reinvest in the jewelry industry in ways that help protect and strengthen jewelry businesses,” he said. “We also invest in educational opportunities that challenge our jewelers and other jewelry industry partners to think outside the box and to stay on top of potential new technologies, new product offerings or new ways to serve their customers.”
Beyond that, Murphy said, the company takes pride in investing in expanded solutions and exploring new ideas their customers tell them they need — working across all aspects of the jewelry supply chain.
Additionally, Murphy said Jewelers Mutual employs Gemological Institute of America gemologists and American Gem Society-Certified sales associates, plus many staff members who have experience in the jewelry industry.
“We are endorsed by the jewelry industry’s leading authorities, such as the American Gem Society, Jewelers of America, Jewelers’ Security Alliance, Women’s Jewelry Association and many more,” he said. “We understand what we are protecting is more than metal and stone — it is about protecting people’s lives and livelihoods and the special moments and memories attached to each piece of their jewelry.”
Overcoming challenges
All businesses, Murphy said, experience challenges — some that are the same, no matter the business type and some that are industry-specific.
But how a business deals with challenges, he said, often determines if it can overcome the hurdles or not.
In the case of Jewelers Mutual, Murphy said he believes being aggressive and opportunistic has allowed the company to take a long-term view.
“In my opinion, this combination of immediate-term aggressiveness with a long-term focus is an advantage that has been key to our long-term success,” he said. “Long-term survival means being able to adapt to market changes and innovate to meet customers’ evolving needs.”
Murphy said Jewelers Mutual actively seeks ways to disrupt itself.
Scott Murphy
“This means we look at where our customers and the industry are likely headed and then do the things we need to do to be out front of change in a way we can assist them,” he said. “This sometimes means we must make big, disruptive changes. To ensure we do so, we continue to invest in our talent, keep our focus on the customer, embrace a digital mindset and drive data and technology advancements that allow us to continually enhance the overall customer experience.”
One of the biggest challenges in the industry over the past several years, Murphy said, has to do with the fact the jewelry business has experienced an unprecedented increase in crime.
As a result, he said Jewelers Mutual has increased its investment in loss prevention solutions — continuing education and state-of-the-art risk management solutions to keep jewelers and its staff safe, while at the same time reducing its risk of loss.
“Our strategy to support jewelry businesses focuses on risk mitigation products and services, education and training and inspection and risk counseling support,” he said. “We also invest heavily in other organizations that are focused on protecting the industry.”
What the future holds
Though Jewelers Mutual got its start in Neenah, where its headquarters remain today, Murphy said the company is a 500-employee-strong organization with additional offices in Dallas, Miami, Cincinnati and Philadelphia.
As the company looks ahead to the future, Murphy said it will look for opportunities to expand globally — along with continuing to diversify its portfolio of products and services beyond traditional insurance to non-insurance solutions to better serve the growing needs of the industry and customers.
“We will also continue to embrace emerging technologies, data and analytics to further personalize the customer experience,” he said. “We will explore ways to broaden our footprint and bring our expertise to serve more customers in more markets, but while never losing sight of the fact our competitive advantage exists only when we provide superior customer experience along the journey.”
