Much has been written, and far has been completed in yesteryear decade regarding the customer experience in P&C. Progress has been created in understanding customer needs and journeys, implementing digital solutions for mobile and self-service capabilities and improving interactions with agents and policyholders. However, anyone involved in strategies and improving the CX in P&C will probably admit that the industry is still in the last stages of the journey. It is clearly a marathon, not really a short term, once-and-done project. But now, as a result of the pandemic and the momentous era of recent times, the race has changed.
A new SMA research report, Customer Experience in P&C: Transformation in the Pandemic Era, assesses your way of P&C insurers. Companies since the personal lines, small commercial and mid/large commercial market segments are profiled with different survey of executives and SMA's analysis of customer experience projects with insurers.
About one-quarter to one-third of insurers are in broader rollouts of customer experience strategies, using the personal lines segment being the most mature. There is a correlation between your status and maturity of CX officers and also the degree of overall segment maturity. There's two categories of CX-related projects which are vital to track: those that are strategy/organizational in nature and those that are oriented around technology capabilities. For example, flipping the lens from a customer service to a customer experience orientation and establishing a customer-centric culture would be the top two project areas, signaling a recognition that these are foundational aspects of a great CX strategy.
The project plans recognize the modification that is underway. Although it might be hyperbole to say the pandemic changed everything, the pandemic and all sorts of it has entailed altered customer expectations and caused insurers to rethink and reprioritize plans. The short-term focus has been on enabling and improving self-service, digital payments and digital intake for sales and repair. Improvements will continue, but, meanwhile, P&C insurers happen to be taking stock of the customer experience journey – which is where they're running a marathon. What once was movement in a steady pace has now adopted steadily increasing momentum. Just about any insurer is accelerating digital transformation, and customer experience is a vital element.
However, now that the expectations of agents and policyholders have risen, the conclusion line for that marathon has been pushed out. It's not as if there is ever a firm finish line in which a company could claim it was “done” with customer experience. But the race has become taking some new turns, will need adaptability and may require a longer sustained effort to remain competitive.
