Ivonne Doornebos (ANWB): “You can only be commercially successful if you are doing something that fits you”

For the third time in a row, ANWB.nl is the winner of the WUA! Orientation study into car insurance in The Netherlands. A conversation with Ivonne Doornebos, commercial director of ANWB insurance. About business flexibility, NPS, and the sweet taste of success. “We start over every year, there is no such thing as a last year’s credit…”

Ivonne Doornebos, congratulations on winning the WUA! study. Are you guys starting to get used to winning? Do you think it’s important?

“I see winning as customer recognition, and also as customer appreciation. For us, this WUA! study is a real online consumer survey, and the opinion of consumers is very important to us. We therefore see this win as a confirmation that we have done well over the past year. But I must add: we start over every year, there is no sucht thing as a last year’s credit…”

You managed to improve the WPS score once again compared to previous measurements. What is your approach, what is going so well?

“We put a lot of energy and effort into all forms of research. We are in close contact with our ANWB members. Therefore, we get many insights from our customers, and we are continually developing online, in small steps. Nothing grand and compelling, but small steps and therefore extremely flexible.”

How do you view service in relation to sales? How do you address that with ANWB?

“You can only be commercially successful if you are doing something that suits you. That means that we are commercial in a way that suits ANWB. We are a membership organization with 4 million members, we have high customer satisfaction and are very service minded at a reasonable price. Service is paramount and something we feel very strongly about. That exactly matched who you are as ANWB. This attracts people who want to be a part of that. And yes, that is followed by sales…”

Centraal Beheer is doing very well and has risen from 7th place to number 3, according to our study. Were they on your radar, how do you look at the competition?

“We are very much focused on the needs of our customers. Since we are an association, it is difficult to compare us to other providers, I think. It is therefore logical that we rely on our own strength and mission. But I’m not saying that I don’t look at our competition at all…”

At WUA! We strongly believe in putting the customer first and listening to real customer experiences, and acting on that. Are you sufficiently succeeding in doing that at ANWB.nl?

“We have an advantage because we know many of our members very well. We do a lot of research, including nps measurements, and we offer a lot of feedback possibilities such as test panels, and there are many members who wish to contribute to our association. When people get stuck, for example, they can give us a call to get the problem resolved, for instance with co-browsing. We get continuous feedback and have the flexibility and manpower to adjust everything based on that feedback. That is a very important point. If you’re doing a new site launch twice a year, it’s a different story than when you can continually develop online in small increments.”

What are your most important challenges for 2016 as a commercial director?

“For us, there is only one task: to be as interesting as possible to our members. So they will choose ANWB for their car insurance in addition to the ANWB Wegenwacht, for example. That is our mission and we want to be even more successful with that.”

The ANWB Insurance team in Utrecht during the ceremony.