Insurance CX: How to Go from Average to Assured

Insurance industry CX is stuck in a plateau. Here are some recent benchmark data:

1. Same performance for P&C, life, and health insurance in 2022 and 2021 in the latest ACSI CSAT benchmarks

2. CX performance for auto and home insurance was lower in 2023 than its score in 2020, per the Forrester CX Index

3. Commercial health plan member satisfaction declined, largely driven by a 33-point decline in satisfaction with customer service (Source: J.D. Power, 2023)

4. State of Digital Customer Service Report 2020, (Source: Dimensional Research)

5. State of Agent Experience Report 2022 (Source: BenchmarkPortal)

So, what should P&C insurance carriers do to get out of the CX rut? Interestingly, many of the findings in items #4 and #5, outlined above, lead to the poor performance outlined in items #1, #2, and #3, offering a roadmap for P&C insurance carriers to get on a path to CX and EX (employee experience) transformation. Here are some steps they should take:

Accelerated by millennial and Gen Z preferences and the pandemic lockdowns, consumers have doubled down on digital with 80% saying that they had increased the use of digital channels during the pandemic and 90% of digital novices saying they will remain digital, according to research surveys conducted by the likes of McKinsey and others. Moreover, today’s digital customers want to go beyond simply checking and paying their bills online to accomplishing more complex tasks such as research and selection of plans and human-assisted, video chatting for tasks such as reporting property damage, and secure form-filling. Where they are not able to self-serve, they are looking for answers through human-assisted digital channels such as live chat and messaging apps, where they often “live.” This would require P&C insurers to go beyond the basics to provide service through touchpoints like next-gen chatbots, messaging, live chat, cobrowsing, in-app service, and proactive notifications.

While self-service is getting increasingly smarter and more effective, there are still queries from digital-first customers that require human assistance over digital channels like messaging and chat and if all else fails, over the phone or in person. Unless customer conversations are all “hubbed” or unified into a single desktop, agents won’t have complete context. They then wind up asking the consumer to repeat information, a big no-no for good CX.

The biggest deterrent to good CX is getting inconsistent answers across touchpoints and lack of knowledge among customer service reps, according to a Forrester survey of 5,000+ consumers, sponsored by eGain. As mentioned earlier, 63% of consumers point to this problem when it comes to insurance customer service. The cause? Inconsistent knowledge silos across the enterprise. The solution? An omnichannel knowledge hub with content management, conversational AI, generative AI, and analytics, all unified and orchestrated in one place. This approach will ensure that the knowledge—content, knowhow, and insights—is correct, consumable, compliant, and consistent.

Technology matters as the world goes digital and AI. So do best practices and domain expertise. Make sure you pick a partner whose technology is proven, who has had success at scale in the P&C insurance sector, and who is compliant with privacy and security standards. Does the vendor provide end-to-end services, including training/education, implementation, and managed services? Do they have a formalized customer success program? Do they offer risk-free production pilots—not just a toy sandbox—to try out their solution with expert guidance, all free of charge in the pilot phase. Vendors’ willingness to put real skin in the game shows their commitment to your success and confidence in their own solution.

Prioritizing member service digitalization, unifying conversations and knowledge with omnichannel hubs, and working with a proven solution provider will enable P&C insurance CX to go from average to assured of quality and wow!