Insurance 2020: Shaping the Customer Experience

  • Chandra Mariyal

October 30, 2019

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In 2020, digital customer experience continues to be a top priority for the insurance industry. Consumer demands are driving digital evolution and forcing the industry to embrace an accelerated pace of change and exponential advances in technology. Insurers are seeking new strategies to develop technological capabilities, access new channels, and expand offerings to deliver the customer experience that consumers expect.

This heightened drive for customer experience excellence is driving insurers to look to the future—at changing business models and products in the market. The need for a truly digital customer experience has been a driver of significant change in how insurers seek to engage with their policyholders, claimants, and third parties.

A key component of that digital experience is providing a variety of options for both incoming and outgoing payments.* New payment technologies continue to shape customer expectations of how an online experience should feel. Speed and convenience from Amazon, transparency from Uber, and control from Dell are all experiences that drive expectations across insurance. Claims payments represent one area that yields the fastest customer experience results.

The General, a Guidewire customer, has embraced new claims payment technology to deliver a better digital experience. “By leveraging Guidewire ClaimCenter and moving the claim payment process to InsurPay, claim payment costs and cycle times have been reduced, saving time and money for the business and improving the customer experience,” says Molly Cook, Director of Claims at The General.

The speed of a claim payment is a critical component of the customer experience. Most insureds have minimal interaction with their insurance provider—except for when they need to file a claim. The claims process, therefore, provides an ideal opportunity for insurers to deliver a superior experience. In fact, customers need their insurance providers the most when a claim occurs. The faster the insurer can make the claims payment and provide the payment option that’s preferred by the policyholder, the better the overall online experience.

The average time to settle a claim is one of the key metrics used by the P&C industry. Even though the amount of time to settle a claim varies from policy to policy, many companies strive to settle a claim as quickly as possible with straight-through processing (STP). Despite this, some claims can still take days or weeks to process.

However, pressure on insurers to re-examine their payment offerings is coming not just from consumers. Insurers themselves want to continue decreasing the cost of claims expenses as well as improving interactions with third parties, lienholders, and mortgagees.* By considering lienholders and mortgagees during the claims process, insurers can pay claims faster, resulting in an improved digital customer experience.

In summary, insurers that want to strengthen their processes should consider working with trusted technology partners such as Guidewire to improve overall customer experiences.

To learn how The General is leveraging ClaimCenter and InsurPAY, click here to view the case study.