What Scales & What Fails in Insurance Contact Centres with Emily LeMay

What does it really take to run insurance contact centres at scale without losing trust?

In this episode, host Olivier Lafontaine speaks with Emily LeMay, Co-Head of Individual Markets at Global Atlantic, about what she has learned leading and supporting contact centre teams across the insurance industry. Emily walks through how early roles shaped her view of service operations, and why strong fundamentals matter when teams are growing, changing, or under pressure. From training to communication, she explains how small decisions often have the biggest impact.

Emily shares her perspective on balancing performance expectations with human connection, and why contact centres sit at the centre of the customer experience. She also shares how alignment across leadership, operations, and frontline teams creates stability, even as technology and customer needs continue to change.

Key Takeaways:

• Contact centre success in insurance depends on culture, clarity, and consistent leadership.

• Strong people-led practices support better customer outcomes and more resilient teams.

• Long-term trust is built through communication, accountability, and thoughtful operational design.

Jump Into the Conversation:
(00:10) Meet Emily LeMay
(02:46) Global Atlantic explained: products, scale, and where she leads
(04:15) Starting in a MetLife contact centre changed everything
(05:04) Serving customers across 25 screens and fixing friction
(09:29) Why people issues beat technology in every change effort
(11:51) What comes after digital transformation
(15:56) Using policy data to shape sales and product decisions
(17:47) IRI data standards and APIs that cut timelines fast
(21:03) Leadership rules when projects break and perfection traps you