RACQ award proves customer experience leadership

Queensland’s largest club, RACQ, has transformed the customer experience for its 1.7 million members with Microsoft’s three clouds – Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.

The organisation, which ranked second only to Singapore Airlines in the 2019 KPMG Customer Experience Excellence report, is replacing a 22-year old legacy platform with Dynamics 365 which is delivering a single source of insight for firstline workers responding to member inquiries, and for members themselves who engage online with RACQ.

Around 1,500 RACQ personnel use Dynamics 365 currently, with hundreds more to follow when RACQ Banking is transitioned to the platform shortly.

And, while the use of Microsoft Teams, has not been mandated by the organisation, it has spread virally and about 80 per cent of RACQ employees use the system daily to communicate and collaborate with one another.

Established as a traditional motoring club, RACQ has evolved and diversified to now offer broader assistance, insurance, travel and banking services. Today, besides its 1.7 million members it has assets of around $A4.5 billion.

The move into insurance and banking (the latter accelerated by its $3.9 billion merger with QT Mutual Bank) has also raised the compliance and regulatory bar for RACQ which comes under the watch of APRA, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

Matthew Redhead, General Manager, Technology Strategy, Architecture and Risk, said; “The success of RACQ is totally dependent on our technology capabilities. So, an RACQ in the future which is thriving, still has that reputation, is still of real value, will exist if we have really delivered on the technology challenge.”

Besides delivering a single source of truth to enhance the customer experience, and empowering firstline workers with more streamlined tools and processes – the move to Microsoft’s three clouds has also enhanced the security profile of RACQ.

As an APRA-regulated entity RACQ places a high priority on both the quality of its information and its data security. To that end it has rolled out multi factor authentication and conducts penetration testing. RACQ also complies with APRA regulations regarding information protection and meets its expectations related to the use of cloud, acknowledging that Microsoft’s cloud security credentials have proved an important asset for that purpose.

RACQ has further heightened its security and performance by establishing an ExpressRoute connection to the Azure cloud.

Digital feedback loop

Microsoft Australia, National Technology Officer, Lee Hickin said; “The transformation that RACQ has engineered is impressive, and bearing fruit in terms of heightened customer experiences and engaged firstline workers.

“Microsoft’s three cloud approach – combining Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 – provides a rich computing and data ecosystem which allows enterprises to streamline their processes thanks to the deep integration, and also establish a digital feedback loop that ensures data and insights are always available where and when they are needed.

“RACQ’s track record with satisfied customers is testament to the success of that approach.”