Sydney-based Andrew Chanmugam CPA, executive general manager – group customer advocate, Suncorp, is a champion of digital transformation and a dedicated customer advocate.
At a glance
Andrew Chanmugam FCPA is executive general manager – group customer advocate at Suncorp in Sydney, Australia.
Born in Sri Lanka, Chanmugam grew up in Sydney. He studied accountancy and finance at Macquarie University, coming from a family of accountants.
Chanmugam’s experience is defined not by numbercrunching but by the development of a strict focus on the customer experience.
Chanmugam is better characterised as “the people’s CPA”, because so much of his career has revolved around his relationships with people.
Today, he regards his CPA qualification highly, recognising the doors it has opened and the many networking opportunities it has provided.
Digital transformation
“You have to make sure that whatever you do, you have a great experience with people because, let’s face it, you’re only as good as the people who surround you. I’m fortunate because I stand on the shoulders of giants,” Chanmugam says.
Working at Telstra in the early 2000s, not long after graduating from university, Chanmugam recognised that the emerging digital transformation would never thrive unless it solved people’s problems or improved their lives.
The way forward was to offer customers an experience they immediately felt they could not do without. Not the shock of the new, but the delight of innovation.
Customer experience
“At the time I arrived, we had lost over a million customers,” he says.
“It was very clear to everybody where we played in the market and what we had to do to get back on top.”
Chanmugam’s work at the time was oriented around building trust and relationships, which he describes as a “customer‑led strategy” to get back on top.
"It’s our job to understand the challenges some of our customers might be facing, and you won’t get that without speaking to them. That’s always at the heart of my job – to listen, learn and act."
— Andrew Chanmugam FCPA, SUNCORP
Chanmugam also developed the annual operating plans each year and tracked actual turnaround performance against the commitments the company made.
If there is any commonality to his work, Chanmugam says it is about managing large sets of customers in consumer and business environments, using best-in-class technology.
“Everywhere I have worked, there has been the challenge of improving multiple channels including the digital experience, the contact centre of the organisation and, of course, the old bricks and mortar – the physical branches.
Strategy meets technology
Part of the job includes fielding and managing customer complaints – an admittedly difficult task. Chanmugam prefers to see the glass as half full – it is about improving systems, so that a customer’s experience is as fair and transparent as possible.
These include parametric insurance, where policyholders set their own levels of cover for specific events, and usage-based insurance, where the behaviour and level of use dictate the cost of premiums, which is most widely used in setting car insurance cover.
“We get the reports and the data, but until you speak to a customer or jump on a call at a contact centre and hear customers at the edge, you don’t really know what is going on out there,” he says.
Ref: CPA
