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By Connections Editor

“I believe in Applied Systems, and I believe in this industry,” says Gregory Shiple, AIS, Applied Systems Senior Vice President of Support. “So many people at Applied do. I believe in what we’re doing and that it has importance. Enabling millions of people around the world to safeguard and protect what matters most has truly noble meaning.”

In an interview with Connections, Shiple talks about his lifelong career with Applied Systems and details how to provide the optimal customer experience.

Tell us about your role as Applied Systems Senior Vice President of Support.

Shiple: Support has the most customer interactions than any other department at Applied Systems. We have a half a million opportunities annually to make a positive impression on our customers, and customer experience is everything.

As we onboard individuals to work within Applied Systems Support, we ask them to always put themselves in the customer’s seat – to think about what their perception would be of the person assisting them on the other side of the phone or the chat. The products we have are growing in nature and scope, so we too are growing. Within my area of Applied Support in the U.S, Canada, U.K. and Northern Ireland, we have some 300 individuals. I look at every single one as peers of mine, and I want to ensure they are equipped to deliver outstanding, memorable service for our customers each and every time.

Today, we’re bringing all of Applied Support on a single platform to service the customer. On May 1, we implemented 24/7 support for our customers here in North America and further we’ve enhanced that offering on July 1 by bringing our call centers in the U.K. into what’s called the Follow-the-Sun support. This program means that our customers will always speak to a live Applied employee. If one of our customers in the United States or Canada calls in at 3:00 in the morning, our great staff within the U.K. picks up the phone, services our customer and resolves their issue. The feedback from our customers on Follow-the-Sun has been extremely positive.

Do you think approaches like 24/7 service and the Follow-the-Sun separate Applied in customer support and service?

Shiple: Yes. In this marketplace, certainly it’s a first of its kind. With demographics changing in our industry, the expectation is I need assistance now. If it’s after hours, Applied Systems is going to be there for them just as they must be for their customers.

How does your team manage the range of support inquiries your customers have?

Shiple: The products we offer are broad in scope and functionality, so our role in Applied Support requires ongoing education about the products and how customers can better utilize them to become more efficient in their organizations. The product teams we have – product management, development and QA – are doing an outstanding job, are great ambassadors for the industry and for our independent marketplace. Because of the investments we’re making not only in the products but also in the cloud centers along with the tools and processes of our teams utilize, there is also much more for our customers to learn day.

Are there lots of questions around Applied Mobile and Applied Cloud?

Shiple: Mobile and Cloud really make our customers’ lives easier. Number one, these products are very intuitive and available anytime, anywhere. Everybody has a mobile phone and Applied Mobile offerings are very full featured and rich. Certainly we’ll answer questions when they come in but right now with the way those products are being developed, they are extremely intuitive.

Relative to the cloud, there is absolutely no reason any of our customers shouldn’t be on the cloud today. Using Applied Cloud is intrinsic, and it has all started from the personal side of our lives. It is a complex world out there, and Applied has made the transition to the cloud very simple. Because of the investment and because of my counterparts on the data service operations team, Applied Cloud is extremely secure, scalable and accessible.

Switching gears for a little bit, I see you’ve developed and promoted agency carrier communications new technology and insurance standards.

Shiple: One of the areas where Applied stands on its own and is being a great ambassador for the industry is the EDI standards that we have and continue to help make a core here within the United States and Canada. We have a wealth of people with great domain experience and carrier interface is critical component to the independent marketplace. The personal relationships we have with the insurance carriers – both from a business and technical expertise perspective – has made that integration very seamless between our products as well.

What’s exciting to you about what’s on the horizon?

Shiple: I’m a geek at heart. I’ve been here at Applied 31 years and have seen immense changes not only in Applied but also in the industry. I still like coming to work even after 31 years. Applied is on the leading edge and aggressively taking our independent agents forward. The people at Applied continue to make that fun for me day in and day out. Leaders like Reid French and Kris Hackney and all the other executives at Applied are wickedly smart individuals at helping the industry. Within Applied Support, I’m certainly excited about bringing our worldwide, world class organization together as equal parts and to be there for our customers when they need us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Do you think there are big challenges on the horizon for your customers? Like technology trends, big data, artificial intelligence?

Shiple: We’re already providing tools for our customers in the way of data and analytics at their fingertips to understand their business and industry relationships with Applied Performance Management or IVANS Market Appetite. Internally Applied Support also actively researches industry trends, like AI, to potentially provide our customers a better level of assistance whenever they need it most. We provide information on these trends and insights through our Knowledge Base in the Applied Community, providing customers access to 14,000 articles.

What about the multi-channel customer experience?

Shiple: We’ve been doing omni-channel support for quite some time and very effectively. We have our live agent or chat, allowing individuals to connect to an individual on our team by product or subject matter. We’re a technical call center so some questions might be better answered with phone calls, which is predominantly how we handle the majority of the half million cases we resolve per year. We have seen a trend with more customers going from the phone channel to the Applied Community along with our live agent channels and will continue investing in all ensuring a positive experience for our customers.

How do you reach out to customers to get their feedback?

Shiple: We take the customers and their experiences very seriously at Applied. Anything customer facing, whether it’s our websites or community, documentation or training, has to be that top-notch Disney experience. To ensure quality after every case, we send a case summary and every customer has an opportunity to take a survey at that point to evaluate how are we doing at Applied, how did the support staff do on the case, and are there any other suggestions they may have, for example.

On an annual cadence we have a company-wide survey that goes out to every one of our contacts and we take that extremely seriously. The worst thing an organization can do is survey its customer base and if they tell you about an opportunity, you don’t follow up. We follow up on every single one of those opportunities where maybe a customer is frustrated at some sort of incident or occurrence and we want to make things right. At Applied we have a fantastic customer retention program as each of the arms of the organization – whether it’s sales or services or support – are singing from the same hymnbook to ensure customers are satisfied.

Do you have a favorite customer service story?

Shiple: I love survey responses where the customer says they ‘like Elizabeth within interface’ or they ‘like Jimmy with Epic software.’ It is those individual acknowledgments that I take to heart. One of my most important roles and responsibilities other than managing our customers’ expectations and satisfaction is ensuring that individuals within our organization are properly educated on our products and can serve as ambassadors for our customers. When a customer acknowledges one of our bright, enthusiastic, insurance-minded professionals here at Applied, we acknowledge them and reward them to ensure that they understand their importance in contributing to our success.

What do you do when you are not working?

Shiple: Family is key. I owe a lot of what I am to my wife through 31 years of marriage. I have a son of 27 who I love to play golf along with friends in the area. I’m a very competitive individual, but I also love to teach, like little league. I love to just to get outdoors spending time with family whether it’s Summer or Winter in Chicagoland!

If you look back at jobs you’ve held – what was your worst job?

Shiple: My worst position was probably as a paperboy back in the day delivering papers in a foot of snow! Seriously, Applied Systems is the one and only job I’ve ever held since school. I’ve been at this for 31 years. I’ve had other roles within Applied and each position had its unique challenges and rewards and I’ve completely appreciated each opportunity. My background is more on the technical side as a developer and in managing different teams over the years. I’ve been in my current role 11 years, working with some of the best people I know, bringing my technical expertise into the support center and enthusiasm day in day out.  

Being with Applied your entire career means you bring a lot of knowledge of the customers and products.

Shiple: One of the things that makes Applied different is a blending of individuals that have been here quite some time like Jeff Purdy, Jim White and Tim Sander and have that knowledge of where the industry was along with how it was built and where it’s going. But, we have also brought in some great individuals that have been successful within other industries. While I feel I have contributed to Applied’s success, I have learned so much in the last 10 years than I probably did the first 21 and that’s because of people like Reid French, Kris Hackney, David Whitley, Michael Howe, Teresa Smith, Jon Ingram, Paul Ramsey, Ryan Hobbs and Ian Hoffman that have brought new concepts to our industry.

I believe in Applied Systems, and I believe in this industry. So many people at Applied do. I believe in what we’re doing and that it has importance. Enabling millions of people around the world to safeguard and protect what matters most has truly noble meaning.

Gregory Shiple, AIS, Senior Vice President of Support, heads the Applied division servicing clients’ technical support needs, support operations and client retention in the United States, Canada and the U.K. Shiple began his Applied career as a programmer in 1986 and was responsible for developing a variety of leading Applied solutions. He helped develop and promote agency-carrier communication through various technologies and insurance industry standards. Shiple holds a bachelor’s degree in math and computer science from the University of Illinois at Chicago, along with an Associates degree in Insurance Services (AIS) from Insurance Institute of America.