Library: Ember – The Joy of CX

October 2020 featured report:

Customer experience is increasingly a focus for insurance companies. However, this report asks whether insurers are really committed to implementing it within their businesses.

Insurers must commit to CX 

The Joy of CX is a white paper by Ember looking at whether customer experience is improving in the UK insurance market, while insurance products become more commoditised, and consumers have found it easy to switch through comparison websites thereby reducing interactions. The report brings together data from other reports and sources, interviews with industry leaders – from the world of insurance, data analytics and customer experience – alongside research conducted with UK consumers, to explore what insurers can do to improve their CX appeal.

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Expectation and experience mismatch

Data from PWC’s Future of CX report shows a massive 18% gap between the expectation and experience of customers in the insurance industry. And this figure is getting worse, according to the latest report by the Institute of Customer Service. Insurers may want to improve customer experience, but they’re not getting the basics right. Exemplars are platform businesses such as UberEats, Amazon and Netflix, which have created a seamless experience that give customers the feeling of control with value added benefits. These systems are grounded in the use of data. If insurers used data to the same extent as platforms, it would inform their understanding of customers, and allow them to improve the customer experience, creating a virtuous circle.

Driving customers away

The way insurers treat their customers is in fact driving them to comparison sites, as they make it easy for consumers to get cover that way, breaking any connection a consumer has with their insurance company. About 40% of people now switch auto insurer in the UK every year, according to the report, usually on the basis of price.

But insurers have failed to communicate regularly with their customers, or create an environment that makes those customers wish to deal with them. This is because despite the importance of customer data, which is driving digital transformation – including the customer experience – traditional methods of contact remain important. The report says that more than half (55%) of people who still buy insurance over the phone appreciate the human interaction that they have.

That said, a growing number of consumers (15%) don’t want any interaction beyond a simple transaction with their insurer. Even so, 62% of consumers would opt for a tailored solution for their needs, whether that is intermediated by robot, website or call centre.

One finding in the PwC report showed that the more technology that consumers interact with, the more they (75% of them) want to speak to a real person. This figure increased with those over the age of 50.

Make it good to talk

Making the phone experience feel more like a human Interaction will go a long way to improving customer experience. Ember’s research shows that 42% of those who chose not to buy insurance over the phone in the previous year, were not deterred by cost (that was only 14%), but by the automated telephone systems that stand between them and speaking to someone who can help them. In almost half of cases (49%), it was the need to repeat details multiple times that put them off.

While the insurance industry should look to other sectors for how to improve CX, it should be considered within the context of insurance. Levels of engagement remain low and there are few contact points they have with their customers. The industry won’t leap to a fully digitised approach overnight – in fact, that may not ever be a desirable objective. Therefore improving the existing customer experience channels such as telephone, where the small number of interactions tend to take place, is an obvious place to focus.

For more, see the full report:

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