Posted by Dean Peck, Senior Business Solutions Analyst and Project Manager, Allianz Global AssistanceEditor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Dean Peck, Senior Business Solutions Analyst and Project Manager, for Allianz Global Assistance in Australia and New Zealand. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.At Allianz Global Assistance, we have a simple and often rewarding task: we’re here to help people, anytime, anywhere. With over one million members in Australia and New Zealand, every year we help roughly 120,000 people stranded during car breakdowns and connect those in need with a complex network of service providers — from locksmiths to emergency medical personnel.
To make this happen, we rely on minute-to-minute mapping data to pinpoint our customers’ location and then find, dispatch and track service providers. We have thousands of service providers, and we store the information about them in our incident call centre system called ‘MIDAS’. Until recently, our mapping software was also embedded within MIDAS but it lacked some vital functionality.
We set out to look for a contemporary, cost-effective alternative that would integrate with MIDAS. After considering a range of options, we chose the Google Maps API because of its familiarity, reliability, accuracy, ongoing innovation and relationships with other data providers.
We use the Google Maps API to pinpoint the whereabouts of customer and service provider vehicles when they share their location with us. The Google Maps API is also used to overlay the incident address from MIDAS. Using different layer shadings, service assistants can quickly see which providers offer the needed services within the right coverage area. They can accurately calculate travel time and distance to the incident and overlay traffic information to warn service providers en route if they are about to encounter a slowdown.
The integration of Street View with Google Maps helps us deliver better customer service too. When our assistants are on the phone with stranded customers, they’re able to see exactly where the client is located and provide them with reassuring feedback.
Google Maps API is making a positive difference to agents, the business overall, and most importantly to customer satisfaction. The fluid, simple functionality, familiarity, visual nature, easy pan and zoom, and accuracy of Google Maps allows our agents to serve customers better. And these improvements have made us all realise that we can genuinely make a difference in our customers lives.
