VIDEO | Farmer’s Insurance, Head of Data and Analytics: We Aim to Grow Through Meaningful Customer Engagement

(US and Canada) Tom Marlow, Head of Data and Analytics at Farmer’s Insurance, speaks with Jeffrey Dobin, Head of Sales, Duality Technologies, in a video interview, about his responsibilities and evolving role, creating a data-first culture, and leveraging data to deliver a personalized customer experience.

Marlow begins by mentioning that he led the data strategy and transformation role at Farmer's Insurance for a few years before pivoting to the divisional Chief Data Officer (CDO) role. Speaking about responsibilities, he states that the initial focus area was driving data technology and promoting a data-first culture to ensure company-wide data prioritization. A part of the process was encouraging the business teams to articulate specific data requirements and educating the application development teams to ask the right questions upfront.

Moving forward, he stresses the importance of data in assisting organizational strategic investments and monitoring the performance of features and functions. Additionally, he focuses on instrumenting the processes and measuring the number of clicks and the performance associated with those features.

Delving further, Marlow shares how he established three new teams at Farmer’s, including engagement and adoption, data innovation, and data solution advisor. The purpose of these teams is to gather meaningful and long-term data, provide insight, and help business partners adopt and understand the data, he adds.

The data innovation team encourages thinking about the possibilities with data, while the data solution advisor team serves as embedded “navy seals of data” within development teams to ensure correct data implementation and representation, states Marlow.

Shedding light on his evolving role at Farmer’s, Marlow discusses shifting from a strategy and transformation role to engaging with three business units: distribution, marketing, and service operations. Expanding on business units, he states that each unit is customer and agent-centric and strives to drive profitable growth from the market.

Speaking about quantifying growth, he affirms that customer and agent experiences drive profitable growth. These include customer journeys and personalization, modernization, and simplification of the IT and data stacks. The main goal is to engage meaningfully with customers and focus on understanding their needs to ensure they are covered, says Marlow.

He also wants to be proactive in obtaining sources of information to understand their current situation and help customers in the future. Furthermore, he highlights how agents have access to numerous brands under Farmer’s umbrella, enabling them to create tailored solutions to suit customers' specific needs.

In conclusion, Marlow acknowledges the value that agents bring to the table in terms of delivering a positive and personalized outcome. He maintains that the conversation between agent and customer is complex, and creating data-powered tools helps agents provide the right products and coverage to customers.

CDO Magazine appreciates Tom Marlow for sharing insights and data success stories with our global community.