Sometimes as the editor of a news organ brandished in the general direction of the insurance industry, you just know you have something pretty explosive in your hands. That is surely how Insurance Tights editor Norman West must have felt when research firm Consumer Intelligence offered him the exclusive right to publish utterly shocking new research ‘findings’ proving unequivocally that motor insurance customer service is quite literally going to pot.
Yes, that’s right, you read it here second: in the 24 months to June 2016, the motor insurance industry’s claims satisfaction score has fallen by a massive 2%, from 8.3 to just 8.1. “It’s like customer satisfaction has quite literally gone off a cliff,” commented someone we just mentioned this to in the office. And so it is. Maybe even worse than that.
Naturally, Insurance Thighs had a field day with this shocking revelation. Seeking deeper insight, the magazine went straight to the horse’s mouth, quoting Ian Huge of Costumier Intelligence who attributed this massive decline in people being OK with how their claims were handled to mass panic among insurers hell bent on finding their next fix of profit, quite literally, any way they can. The shock decline, Huge said, “is symptomatic of a period of austerity in the motor claims market as insurers search desperately for profitability.”
Penny pinching cash-strapped insurers are frantically stripping out costs wherever they can, as they quite literally wibble and throb with abject terror at the prospect of not making any money, again. “The industry is under an increasing amount of pressure due to costs,” Huge explains. Something had to give, and that something, these damning new figures clearly show, was the poor old customer!
“The other thing,” Huge revealed to Insurance Ties is that the War on Claims is starting to impact claimant satisfaction as many making claims discover to their chagrin that the tide has turned against them. Gone are the cheap and easy “euphoric highs,” Huge confides, “of receiving compensation cheques for injuries in the post.” This, he claims, could also be impacting the overall quantum of satisfaction motorists derive from their interface with motor insurance providers.
Even well-established brands are floundering, Huge points out, with M&S experiencing a massive 0.3 point decline in customer pleasure, a precipitous drop which Huge suggests may be something to do with people generally going off M&S a bit lately.
Be that as it may, there could yet be a glimmer of hope amidst this desolation…
Huge detects an opportunity for far-sighted insurance providers to stand out by offering a superior claims service amidst the prevailing pattern of cavalier contempt and discourtesy. Even something as simple as picking up the phone every now and then – or paying the occasional claim – could soon be enough to mark you out as the provider of choice for all those consumers diligently poring over Consumer Intelligent’s latest research research findings whenever they next come out.
So come on, Insurance Providers: what are you waiting for. Now’s you chance to shine out like a beckoning beacon against the general gloom of consumer despair and disappointment.
Of course, if you really want to improve your claims service, you could always try contacting these people.
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