It is always nice when companies recognize the excellence of their people by giving them more responsibilities. This is true in every vertical market and organization, but is particularly relevant when it comes to contact centers where to put it mildly operations are undergoing profound changes. These changes include, just to name a few, such things as: moving to the cloud, accommodating omni-channel needs, attracting, training and retaining great agents in an industry where there is a shortage of talent and traditionally high turn-over, and obtaining C-level buy-in on the need to enhance capabilities that seemed adequate only a few years ago as the customer experience becomes more important.
One company that recognized the importance of one of its customer interaction executives is Minneapolis, MN-based Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America. The company has announced the promotion of Erin Krawiecki to assistant vice president (AVP) Customer Contact Center and Fulfillment in the Enterprise Operations division. In this role, Krawiecki manages costs, quality and controls in the contact center to create positive results for the customer. She also leads the strategy for strengthening policy print capabilities and the digitalization of processes. Krawiecki reports to Senior Vice President of Enterprise Operations, Jasmine Jirele.
This is a big job as Allianz, helps more than 78 million private and corporate customers achieve their retirement income and protection goals with a variety of annuities and life insurance products. It is part of Allianz SE, a global leader in the financial services industry with 148,000 employees worldwide, and is one of FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2014.
Commenting on the promotion, Jirele stated that “As a leader, she builds high performing teams and I am confident Operations will continue to improve under her leadership.”
“Erin leads many critical efforts that improve the effectiveness of Allianz Life for our customers and drives results for our overall customer experience...As a leader, she builds high performing teams and I am confident Operations will continue to improve under her leadership.”
Krawiecki joined Allianz Life in 2005. Most recently, she was an Operations senior director where she led the contact center to win top DALBAR, Inc. service awards for fixed and variable annuities, helping more than a million customers and financial professionals. She also led business analysts to optimize the company’s policy print process and developed annual department strategies while managing an almost $10 million budget. Krawiecki was also an Operations manager. Prior to working at Allianz Life, Krawiecki held director and manager roles with Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota, which is based in Minneapolis for more than eight years.
Krawiecki holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She has FINRA Series 6, 26 and 99 licenses.
The insurance sector is one where contact center transformation recently has become an increasingly important due to a host of factors including the increased use of telematics in the automobile and healthcare sectors, the employment of big data for better risk analysis and competition from online insurers including traditional competitors who are rapidly upgrading their own capabilities. It no doubt is why somebody with Krawiecki’s background was a logical choice for promotion to this increasingly mission critical position.