Economic crises has insurers shifting their priorities
Though the peak of the global economic crisis may have passed, many people throughout the world are still reeling from the catastrophe. As such, many people have become much more leery of the insurance industry than they were in the past, and this is leading to problems concerning customer retention. Consumers are not the only victims of the economic crisis, of course, as businesses have also suffered to some degree. This is true for insurance companies as well, many of which have become much shrewder when it comes to the matter of claims and controlling costs and exposure to financial risks.
Trillium, a prominent software company, has released the results of a new survey, which shows that the top priority for many insurers is to monitor, evaluate, and improve the interaction between consumers and claims adjusters. Customer retention has become more important for insurers than it was in the past due to the increasingly negative stigma that is coming to surround the insurance industry as a whole. The survey suggests that many insurers are beginning to focus more aggressively on retaining the customers that they have rather than pursue dramatic expansion of that consumer base.
How claims are handled has become the major point of concern for insurance companies.
Because insurers have become shrewd on the matter of claims, policyholders have begun seeing their claims rejected more often than they are approved. The discontent that this sparks among policyholders is typically directed at insurance companies, but funneled through claims adjusters that have direct contact with consumers. As such, insurers are keen to take steps to improve the relationships that policyholders have with these claims adjusters in order to mitigate the leakage of customers.
Trillium notes that the claims departments of insurance organizations typically have access to a varying degree of data that can be analyzed to uncover problematic trends in claims service. This data can also be used to identify easy-to-resolve claims quickly. The problem, however, is that many claims departments appear to be putting easy issues on the back burner, opting to focus their attention on larger issues that require more commitment. The easy-to-resolve claims are typically more plentiful, meaning that the longer they are ignored, the more a large portion of policyholders must wait for their claims to be either rejected or approved. This waiting period has a major impact on whether consumers opt to renew their policies or seek coverage from another provider.
