Rob Burr

In today’s world, insurance has become a universal product. No matter how old you are, which gender or what kind of job you have. But insurance is intangible. We can’t try before we buy and may never get to see the benefits of it. That’s why one of the most important aspects to consider is coverage. Coverage allows you to claim when unfortunate things happen.

As an insurer, one of our most important roles is to pay claims. The claims process is a significant touchpoint between insurers and customers because it is often the first time a customer is actually communicating with their insurance company.  A good claims process is often the moment of truth that either makes or breaks the trust between the insurer and the customer, which in turn determines the level of customer satisfaction and whether their emotional needs are met.

The question is, how do you measure a good — or bad — claims process? To a customer, the obvious answer would be simplicity and speed. That is, how simple (or complex) the claims process is and how quickly the claim is paid out.

For decades, the insurance industry has been exploring innovations which will simplify and shorten the claims process. Data collection, the first and most significant step in the claims process, is constantly being optimised. Some businesses have developed different technologies to simplify data collection, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and image upload). All these innovations are a step in the right direction to improve customer experience. In terms of speed, some insurers have approached this by having a small threshold amount which is paid immediately. This increases customer satisfaction without burdening the company with too much risk.

However, enhancement of the claims experience has challenges, including factors that impact the development of innovation in the insurance industry. While most insurers have invested in digitalisation, the pace of change has not been as rapid as in other industries, and many insurers have legacy systems which have not kept up with consumer demand. This means many processes are still handled manually — including but not limited to the claims process. As a result, insurers are perceived as slow.

Additionally, many insurers tend to focus on the scientific aspect of improving the claims experience, but ignore the fact that people are emotional beings, especially when they need help. The claims process is not only a significant point of interaction between insurers and customers, but also an emotional touchpoint that impacts the trust between both parties. While quick pay outs and easy to apply claims are appreciated, customers value humanity just as much, if not more.

At iptiQ, we are a young company with a digital-first approach leveraging the integrity and quality of our heritage with Swiss Re. The advantage of youth means that we can start fresh with new innovations and technologies, but always with an emphasis on customer centricity and humanity.

While others concentrate more on the buying process, we are laser focused on the claims process, because this is where we believe customers most rely on their insurers.

iptiQ strives to constantly optimise the claims process for today’s customer, not only focusing on the scientific numbers such as speed or Turn Around Time (TAT) for a claim, but also paying attention to humanity during communications.

At iptiQ, Empathy, Trust and Social Influence are our top indicators for a positive claims experience.

It is important to acknowledge the customer’s situation with compassion. Trust can be built by being reciprocal, using simple language and being transparent and patient when explaining the claims process.

Once the claims process is complete, customer satisfaction must be gauged through feedback. By utilising claimant surveys, we are able to identify the features of the claimant journey that are the key drivers of the overall experience. At iptiQ, this is done through the Behavioral Insights Group (BIG)who help understand and explain thinking processes and decision making. For claims, BIG has found that it is not always rational things, such as the speed of the claims process, that create satisfaction, instead it could be the level of communication and empathy that make the most difference.  

According to an NPS survey on claims conducted by one of our partners,  iptiQ scores 4.72 on the CSAT. More than 66% of respondents strongly agreed with the statement “the agent I interacted with was sympathetic and understanding” as one of the main reasons for satisfaction. This clearly shows that humanity plays a vital role in the claims process.

The survey also showed that 86% of customers would recommend iptiQ to a friend, based on their claims experience, while 66% of customers thought the insurance agent was “sympathetic” and “understanding”, and 69% said their claim was dealt with quickly and efficiently.

This leads to Social Influence, where reviews and comments can be shown to claimants and positive customer experiences can be highlighted, increasing credibility amongst insurance providers and attracting new customers.

Of course, we do not neglect the scientific side of the claims experience. Thanks to our technologies and processes, the average TAT for iptiQ is approximately 6.8 business days for non-contestable life claims, with 99.1% occurring within 10 days.  For contestable life claims, the average TAT is 8.8 days, with 99.5% completed within 40 days[1].

And we don’t stop there. We are currently focusing on optimising the existing claims process with integrations from our up- and downstream partners, aiming to further improve the efficiency of communications between customers, partners and ourselves, as well as enhancing a customer’s claims experience by implementing the top positive claiming experience indicators.

No matter what the claim is, we are committed to upholding Empathy and Trust as key values. We know that making an insurance claim can be a deeply personal and emotional experience. That is why iptiQ aspires to give our customers the due care, attention and understanding that they deserve while also ensuring practical efficiency at every point of the claims process.