Innovating Service with an Eye Toward the Future
Insurance Networking News, June 2008
The old saying, “Who knows what tomorrow may bring?” is prophetic and accurate most of the time. But in the case of insurance companies devising customer service plans to deal with the changing shape of their consumer base, the saying isn’t as mysterious as many people may think. Most carriers have a pretty good idea of the shape of their customers to come; it’s just developing the proper service vision that remains the mystery.
Kimberly Harris-Ferrante
“We see most of the companies we work with struggle with determining what it is their customers want,” says Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, research VP at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. “When they phone the call center—when they’re interacting with us—what are their expectations? And, more important, what are the customers of the next 10 years going to look like?”
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It’s this last question that’s the key, as there is likely to be a seismic shift in the level of technological knowledge and expertise as the newest generation of customers begins to purchase insurance across all lines of business.
“If you look at some of the demographic research out there, where younger people—individuals who’ve grown up with technology and it’s part of their normal life—become insurance consumers, their customer service expectations are going to be very different than what you have as your average insurance policyholder today,” Harris-Ferrante says. “And, what we see lacking is a general understanding of how to develop a customer service strategy for the customers of 2015. How do you start making good decisions—both in business process as well as in technology — to meet the needs of the multi-channel, highly technology-savvy consumer of 2015?”
I CAN SEE CLEARLY
Employees at Farmers Insurance Group, Los Angeles, are aware of this customer shift and have already begun to adjust their claims strategies in response.
“We recognize that, over the next decade, we’re going to have an influx of tech-savvy customers in the marketplace,” says Rob Howard, assistant VP of national operations, “and their needs are going to be different than our existing customers. We have to anticipate what those needs are going to be and proactively build out our claims capabilities and claims technologies to meet them. Our future vision for claims is about transforming the ways claims are worked and connecting with insureds in a way that fosters collaboration.”
Farmers drilled down deeper into the issue, conducting research to determine what its Generation X and Y customers currently expect in terms of service.
“We commissioned a study late last year to focus on the next generation of customers and how they deal with claims,” Howard says. “The key moment for us in the study was when it came to a claim, 85% of our Gen X and Y customers still preferred to do the initial communication on the telephone as opposed to e-mail or on the Web.
“When we dug into that,” Howard continues, “the reason was that this is such a rare occasion for the customers, they’re completely unfamiliar with the process, and their comfort level is much higher with that initial communication being done over the phone.
Once they had communication over the phone and got into the claim itself, their preference was overwhelmingly to conduct all future communication through e-mail or on the Web. Because of this, we don’t see the call centers diminishing in importance even with the next generation.”
SERVE YOURSELF
Farmers believes their future customers will be looking for a variety of self-service options. Currently, its claims operation’s service vision revolves around customer choice, and the carrier is committed to providing choice options to all customers who meet their individual needs and circumstances.
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