Another recent study by the Institute of Customer Service found that insurance places in the mid-rankings of UK businesses for service satisfaction across nine sectors: higher than telecoms, utilities and public services, but lower than retail, banks and tourism companies.
Most interesting in this annual survey were the findings about what consumers say are the main factors that drive service satisfaction. The speed of resolving a complaint came out on top, followed by the way companies handle complaints, and staff doing what they say they’re going to do. Consumers also said the ability of staff to understand their issue, and the attitude of staff, were key ingredients of good customer service.
There is a clear link between employee engagement and raising trust with the customer, and likelihood to recommend the brand.
30% of customer service staff say they want their chief executives to listen more and spend more time on the front line, way ahead of the numbers of staff who say business leaders should be ‘hard working’ or that they should ‘show empathy’. Most of all what customer service staff say is important, is honesty on the part of business leaders, trustworthiness, and leading by example.
There is a real opportunity to use technology to segment and personalise the insurance claims experience. Looking at the claims value chain, there are now around 400 apps and insurtechs targeting all parts of the process from first notification of loss (FNOL) related to telematics programmes, to repair estimation, to crash reconstruction, to anti-fraud, to authentication and recognition of photos from the incident scene.
The recent Motor Claims Conference by I Love Claims gathered together industry leaders to talk about these issues of improving claims satisfaction, robotic process automation, propensity to fraud score models, and where best to apply the technology.
Customer satisfaction lies in human interaction, not just the transaction
It is perhaps a surprise that insurance ranks as high as it does for customer service in the UK, considering how much the media likes to criticise, taking a negative approach to the industry.
In the insurance claims eco-system there are so many elements in the chain that are not insurance-owned – from vehicle recovery and salvage to legal, to regulation in the aspect of personal injury protection – it’s understandable that so much of the costs and the customer experience are largely out of control.
“Customer service should run through the whole insurance business. It’s not something that’s just done in the call centre,” commented Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service, speaking at the Motor Claims Conference.
“There is a lot of data now, and the ability to use it and to navigate it is key,” she added.
“Making the customer feel special is still important, not just the transaction….That should be a major focus [for insurance] going forward. Make it easy. Take the stress out of it. Where you have the opportunity for a human interaction, make it count.”
With so many potential new entrants, as well established insurers using technology for faster and more efficient claims handling, bringing in new data sources at the point of claim, digital is creating challenges as well as opportunities. There are many factors in play:
- Advanced analytics and AI offers the opportunity to personalise and re-route the consumer journey
- Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are altering the risk profile of vehicles, although the risk data is still in the formation stage, on the road to the fully autonomous vehicle
- Electrification of vehicles and advanced new vehicles with expensive features are reducing claims frequency whilst also raising average claims cost
- Claims fraud is reducing using advanced analytics techniques and with new telematics data (such as G force, impact speed, vehicle location) becoming available for crash diagnostics and reconstruction
- Vehicle theft is reducing with new smart technology such as biometrics and keyless entry
- Motor insurance itself is being disrupted by ride-sharing fleets, also with new telematics offerings and with auto manufacturers starting to think beyond just the experience of driving their vehicle
- Like a smart phone, the connected car is becoming a platform for all kinds of B2B and B2C services.
Just a glance at some of the new entrants in the claims process such as Motions Cloud, True Motion, Zen Drive, Tractable, Shift Tech, Photo Cert and our own LexisNexis® Telematics Exchange gives a picture of the many ways the industry is moving towards greater claims automation with greater use of AI and predictive analytics.
All of the above must be based on verified and normalized data of course, that is cross-referenced across device types, data sources and vehicle types, for example Ford data compared to Volvo data, compared to Toyota or Mitsubishi data and so on.
There’s a huge amount of market talk and punditry going on in relation to connected car data and claims. But one thing is for certain, the data needs a level playing field and it needs to work in the interests of safety for road users.
Speaking at the Motor Claims Conference, Manjit Rana, founder of Ingenin, said: “There is disruption to the insurance eco-system and I think insurance propositions are going to change quite dramatically….The whole claims eco-system is going to be transformed, using data to make better decisions, making a better experience.”
“Driving down the cost of data is key,” commented Stewart McCulloch, UK Managing Director, Nuvalaw, speaking on the subject of personal injury claims and driving out unnecessary legal cost and spurious claims. “We need an information super-highway for managed information, and a data exchange for structured negotiation and facilitation.”
There is today a need for a new data integration layer that encompasses claims history and counter-fraud measures in the industry, as well as telematics data from the vehicle, CCTV and in-vehicle video where available, as well as incident alerts and real-time medical help in the event of any impact detected in the data.
Predicting next-generation applications of telematics
The word ‘telematics’ does not really tell enough of the story about these major changes and the way the promise of claims fulfillment is delivered to the customer.
The ability to deliver data precisely to the point of need is going to be paramount, thinking of incident alerts, roadside assistance, appraisal drones and photo recognition at the scene—for example assessing the safety of people and vehicle damage in near-real time (with or without automated voice-activated processes)—optimizing repair estimates, and decision trees for where to transport the vehicle and other claims decisions. Increasingly when we talk about telematics 2.0, we are talking about the more fundamental changes taking place in motor insurance.
Partly as a result of GDPR, consumers have woken up to what they can do with their own data, and in future they will be able to take their own telematics driving score with them when shopping for insurance. Insurance providers meanwhile need more data in the connected world and there’s a danger they will be at the mercy of the automotive giants, the vehicle OEMs, in terms of claims and other information flowing into, and out of, the vehicle.
It’s important for insurance to turn its attention to these new skills for the Internet of Things (IoT). Certainly with new technologies for vehicle telematics and insurance claims, there’s an opportunity to turn the technology into something new and exciting.
At LexisNexis Risk Solutions, working with our telematics customers and through the global Connected Car Team team, we are proud to be playing a role in the evolution of new claims alerts and FNOL processes.
Follow these links for information on our Connected Car Team, the LexisNexis® Telematics Exchange or the LexisNexis Risk Solutions website for US insurance or UK insurance to find out more.
Article is care of Lexisnexis, this article can be found here.
