The Hartford Taps Ritchey for New Service and IT Role

Last year, The Hartford (Hartford, $27.1 billion in revenue) consolidated several lines of investment and retirement-related business units under president John Walters to present a common face to the market as the company's U.S. Wealth Management division. It now has chosen Sharon Ritchey to drive unified technology and service functions as the division's SVP and COO. "She has a proven record of excellence and ... the skills and leadership to take us to the next level," Walters comments.

That record was accomplished at the company's P&C operations, where Ritchey drove a major initiative to improve the experience for end customers and distributors within both personal and commercial lines. In her new role, Ritchey says, she will drive the same concept of customer experience management as a "closed-loop system" that guided her earlier work at The Hartford.

The loop "begins with capturing the customer's data and voice, both from a transactional and needs perspective," Ritchey explains. It proceeds by developing the right metrics around both customer and service reps' behavior, and analyzing that relative to processes appropriate to the product and transaction, she adds. The last piece "is the 'What do you do about it?'" Ritchey concludes. "Now that you have the data and you understand it, what training, coaching and staff development are required to get you to the next level?"

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio