Meet Sandy Boyle, Gradient AI's New P&C Customer Success Director: How She Fosters Engagement and Champions Growth for Clients
What Is a Customer Success Director? And Why Is This New Role So Important to the Client Experience at Gradient AI?
Sandy Boyle serves as the Customer Success Director for the Property & Casualty line of business at Gradient AI. In this capacity, she collaborates closely with Sales, Product, and Implementation teams to advocate for clients and to ensure the successful deployment of solutions that drive profitable growth, reduce claims and underwriting costs, and enhance operational efficiency for them.
Sandy’s primary objective is to champion Gradient AI's P&C customers by understanding their workflows, aligning with their strategic goals, and facilitating their growth.
With over 20 years of experience in the insurance and Insurtech sector, Sandy is a seasoned leader in service and support. Over the past decade, she’s held leadership roles in customer success, where she has focused on developing and implementing strategies to boost adoption and enhance overall customer satisfaction with insurance claims, policy, and risk management systems. Sandy holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from San Francisco State University, and is an active member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). She resides in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
We recently sat down with Sandy to ask her about her new role, and how it will help Gradient AI clients maximize their integration of AI.
Question 1: What can customers expect from Gradient’s Customer Success role and how do we measure success?
My role focuses on fostering a strong relationship with our customers, providing continuous support beyond implementation, and a deep understanding of customer needs to enhance the overall value of our products and services. A customer success professional is responsible for ensuring that customers achieve their goals using our products, maximizing the value of their purchase, and alleviating challenges.
Success in this role is normally measured by customer satisfaction. Many companies will do this with a standard red, yellow, or green status which is determined by a few interactions per quarter with a particular person. To truly understand if a customer is happy, we look at key metrics:
- engagement
- referenceability
- retention
- growth
My goals are to foster relationships and drive engagement at all levels, from executives to end-users, optimizing these key metrics, and ensuring clients realize the full value of our products. I believe that when customers get the most out of a product, they want to build on and share their experiences.
Question 2: Gradient recently introduced this new role of Customer Success Director. Why do you think this will appeal to clients and to those interested in Gradient’s products?
To answer this, let me start with an example from a prior position. I’ve had the opportunity to observe and analyze customer engagement levels before and after implementing a customer success team. I remember one of my first assigned customers at a prior company, I was told “not to spend too much time with them because they were on their way out”. After one call I realized the issue was that this client didn’t know how to get the value from their system because no one had spent time helping them do that. There was a mistaken belief that they were causing issues in interactions with the support team. But what they really needed was someone to advocate for them, stand by their side, and get them the information and resources needed to achieve their goals.
I stepped into that role, spent time with their administrator and a team of end users to understand what they needed to make their work easier. I worked with the configuration team to update the system to meet those needs and followed up to ensure the customer understood what had changed and how to use it. I went back to their leadership team to discuss a renewal and they were fully on board for a 5-year commitment based on the time I spent and changes we made. They went from “one foot out the door” to being a case study – and all they needed was someone to step in and help, which is the definition of the role of customer success.
Here at Gradient AI, the integration of a Customer Success Director enhances the appeal of our P&C solutions by ensuring that our AI technology seamlessly integrates with existing customer processes and systems to improve efficiency.
Gradient AI’s P&C solutions focus on these benefits:
- automating administrative tasks
- enhancing training
- highlighting critical areas that could incur significant costs if overlooked
These benefits underscore the value of our AI offerings. With numerous AI solutions available, our emphasis on delivering consumable and accurate outputs distinguishes Gradient AI as a preferred choice for organizations seeking effective and reliable AI solutions. Adding a customer success role here helps to ensure each customer receives full service and understands how to get the best value from their AI solutions.
Question 3: How can AI best help improve the claims process, and address other challenges in the P&C insurance industry?
The value of artificial intelligence in insurance is substantial, particularly in addressing the challenges of burnout among claims adjusters and examiners, the difficulty in attracting new talent, and increasing workloads. As technology advances, the insurance industry requires corresponding advancements to remain efficient. AI can facilitate the early detection of red flags, allowing for timely interventions that support injured parties in their recovery.
AI can also help:
- streamline administrative tasks through straight-through processing
- enhance the identification of claims suited to specific workflows
- direct the attention of supervisors, managers, and mentors to claims that may otherwise be overlooked, saving time and cost
One significant challenge for insurers is the limited talent pool, exacerbated by burnout from repetitive, routine administrative tasks. Additionally, the insurance industry may appear outdated and unappealing to younger professionals, leading to difficulty attracting new talent. AI can address these issues by modernizing the industry, making it more attractive to newer examiners. Automating routine tasks, thereby alleviating the burden on examiners, allows experienced adjusters to concentrate their expertise on more complex cases and mentoring where their skills can have the greatest impact on supporting injured parties.
Question 4: How does the Customer Success Director partner with Gradient AI’s Sales and Implementation teams, and how does that benefit our clients?
The Customer Success role is integral to both the Sales and Implementation teams, ensuring alignment and clarity throughout the customer journey. This role collaborates with Sales to provide insights that refine customer requirements, set realistic expectations, and offer feedback to bridge the gap between sales promises and delivery. During the implementation phase, Customer Success ensures that the agreed-upon solutions are effectively executed and supports the customer through full system adoption. This partnership ensures that the commitments made by Sales are fulfilled. Customer Success focuses on long-term relationships by continuously advocating for the customer throughout our partnership and highlighting new advancements that are of value to the customer.
Question 5: There is a wave of transformative AI innovation currently impacting the insurance industry. What prior industry innovations would you equate this wave to?
The current wave of AI innovation in the insurance industry can be likened to the transformative impact of transitioning to a paperless system. Going paperless streamlined insurance processes, enhanced collaboration across platforms and vendors, and significantly reduced turnaround times for invoices, bills, and correspondence. AI can revolutionize the industry in a similarly profound manner.
AI will automate routine file handling, allowing examiners to concentrate on complex claims that require their expertise. It will also assist less experienced examiners by guiding them through each claim and directing their attention to high-risk claims, thereby reducing the likelihood of significant errors. AI will not eliminate the need for mentors, training, or supervisory oversight – but it will help focus attention on the claims that need it most, thereby optimizing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the claims process.
Question 6: We know that client feedback is critical. How do you ensure that this feedback is communicated effectively and efficiently to the product teams and then used to influence product development?
As a dedicated customer advocate, customer feedback is crucial to my role. I gather and organize relevant information to support each request, presenting it in a compelling manner that highlights its impact on the customer experience. This involves direct, proactive engagement with client executives, product managers, and engineering teams. By actively participating in meetings and discussions, I ensure that each request is addressed promptly and not lost among other priorities. This approach helps to integrate customer feedback into product development more effectively, driving meaningful improvements based on real-world insights.
Conclusion: Sandy Helps Drive Meaningful Outcomes for Gradient AI’s P&C Clients
In her role as Customer Success Director, Sandy Boyle exemplifies Gradient AI's commitment to delivering exceptional value and fostering lasting partnerships. By deeply understanding each customer's unique needs and challenges, she ensures that our AI solutions not only meet expectations but exceed them, driving meaningful outcomes. Sandy’s proactive approach, combined with her dedication to empowering customers, reinforces Gradient AI’s position as a trusted partner in the P&C insurance industry. Check back on our blog to hear more from Sandy in the future!