Proven Strategies for Insurance Carriers to Increase Customer Satisfaction: With Case Studies

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Unum measures customer satisfaction using the Harris Insights & Analytics survey and a Market Decisions research. John Charles, the research analyst that handled the Unum customer satisfaction research for Market Decisions used predictive modeling to identify drivers of consumer satisfaction.
SunLife’s customer satisfaction measurement is officially done in-house. According to the company, it implements a comprehensive consumer satisfaction research program that measures the company’s ability to provide its global customers with a welcoming helpful experience that simplifies their chances of achieving lifetime financial security.
Four best practices leveraged by insurance carriers to maintain/increase customer satisfaction include reducing friction, providing answers through content, aligning with customers’ social issues, and helping clients in times of need.

Introduction

The research provides an overview of best practices leveraged by insurance carriers to maintain/increase customer satisfaction, research in support of measuring customer satisfaction using modified Net Promoter Score (NPS) methods, case studies of companies leveraging the NPS method to measure customer satisfaction, a deep dive into how companies are making NPS actionable, and how some employee benefits carriers measure customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction Measurement: Unum

In 2017, Unum processed over 625,000 new claims and paid $5.8 billion in benefits in the U.S.
According to Unum’s disability claims and customer satisfaction survey results, its customer satisfaction was measured through a survey conducted by Harris Insights & Analytics and a Market Decisions research.

Harris Insights & Analytics Survey

Survey by Harris Insights & Analytics Harris Insights and Analytics (fondly referred to as The Harris Poll) is a worldwide consultancy and market research firm specializing in social intelligence. It focuses on corporate reputation, brand strategy, performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research and provides insights and advisory to help business leaders make data-driven decisions.”
The Harris Poll is a poll conducted by the business that measures popular opinion, motives, and social mood.
Its omnibus survey technology delivers fast, accurate, and insightful data, all supported by the Harris Poll’s reputation for reliability.
Harris consultants collaborate with users throughout the process, from questionnaire design to data interpretation, to enhance the value of survey research.
For more than two decades, this quick, cost-effective tool from opinion polling specialists has assisted executives in brand management, public relations, communications, consumer insights, and innovation in making better choices.
Its benefits include a robust sample, media-ready within 24 hours, global reach, and research expertise.
Harris Insights & Analytics asked about 1,000 of the Unum employer customers to rate the company in the areas of the overall relationship, claims processing, and customer service. Among the results:
The result of the survey revealed that Unum customers like doing business with the company.
According to the survey:
- 98% reported they are likely to renew their Unum group products
- 93% gave the company positive marks for overall quality of products/services and for overall value
- 91% gave the company positive ratings for being easy to do business with.

Market Decisions Research for Unum

Market Decisions is a collaborative research team that works with non-profit, for-profit, and government organizations of various sizes throughout the country.
It begins each project with a meeting to discuss the project’s objectives, work strategy, schedule, survey subjects, and sample plan, as well as to set communication expectations.
The collaborative meeting’s aim is to create and complete the project’s methodology and procedures in order to guarantee that the project’s objectives and the client’s expectations are fulfilled.
John Charles oversaw the Unum customer satisfaction study.
John utilized predictive modeling to determine the factors that contribute to customer happiness for Unum.
The research conducted by Market Decisions revealed that people who have filed claims with Unum express high levels of satisfaction with the company:
- 98% of long term disability customers and 96% of short term disability customers rate our claims representatives as courteous and respectful
- 95% of voluntary benefits customers are satisfied with the overall handling of their Unum claim.

SunLife

SunLife’s customer satisfaction measurement is officially done in-house. According to the company, it implements a comprehensive consumer satisfaction research program that measures the company’s ability to provide its global customers with a welcoming helpful experience that simplifies their chances of achieving lifetime financial security.
SunLife’s consumer research program is based principally on Net Promoter Score (NPS).
The score is determined by asking customers to rate the business on a scale of 0-10 their willingness to recommend it to a friend or colleague.
SunLife began using this method in early 2012 across the US, Asia, and Canada, with initial results indicating that progress is being made.
Using NPS, SunLife learned that its US customers are unable to see how its products fit into their lives because of how the products are named, described, and sold.
It also learned that customers are of the opinion that SunLife does not advocate for them when bad things happen.
In Asia, SunLife found the need to improve its problem resolution process, while in Canada it identified four (4) priorities.
The company reported that the results of its global research program have begun to inform the decision-making processes of its global leaders across the different countries where it operates.
SunLife developed a systematic assessment approach in 2015 to enable us to more accurately evaluate the performance of all our leadership initiatives.
This approach showed that 96% of participants expressed satisfaction with the training they had finished.

Principal Life Insurance

Principal Life Insurance states that it tries to make the claim procedure as simple and straightforward as possible.
Customer satisfaction ratings reflect the company’s dedication to service:
- 97 percent were pleased with the company’s claims services.
- 97 percent were pleased with the promptness with which they received rewards.
- 97 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the accuracy of benefit payments.
The company opined that its customer satisfaction measurement metrics are contained in the company’s “2018 Individual Disability Claimant Satisfaction Survey.” However, the report was not found in the public domain.
Another survey revealed that 95% of the people Principal Life helped have ranked the company high in satisfaction surveys. This is also said to be contained in the company’s “2015 Individual Disability Income Claimant Satisfaction survey.” However, the report was not also found in the public domain.

Research Supporting Measuring Customer Satisfaction using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) Method

Examples of research work in support of measuring customer satisfaction using Net Promoter Score (NPS) score in the public domain are outdated (beyond 24 months of publication) and so cannot be used to validate the use of NPS in recent times.

Among these are the following:
- The Net Promoter Score as a proxy for student happiness and loyalty in higher education (published September 2015).
- Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics: Enhancing the ‘Net Promoter’s’ Score (published June 2008).
As an alternative, three (3) research works, which analyzed the barriers/lapses in leveraging the NPS method in measuring customer satisfaction and proposed alternative NPS-related methods to use.

A Machine Learning-Based Classification Method for Customer Experience Survey Analysis

Ioannis Markoulidakis, Ioannis Rallis, Ioannis Georgoulas, George Kopsiaftis, Anastasios Doulamis, and Nikolaos Doulamis published the study on 7th December 2020.
The research examined several significant disadvantages of using the conventional NPS method to measure customer satisfaction, including the large number and temporal variability of the attributes considered in the NPS scoring process, as well as the possibility of losing a percentage of its customer base.
The study went on to alter the NPS approach by developing a bias index to enhance consumers’ descriptions of their loyalty.
The NPS Bias is a widely used technique for addressing the problem of poor NPS drivers’ statistical fit by considering subgroups of respondents with similar score patterns.
The present article investigates this idea of customer categorization into subgroups via the creation of a new measure termed NPS bias, which is established for each respondent to the NPS survey.
When compared to the traditional NPS score, the suggested NPS bias seems to enhance the findings.
Additionally, it used new machine learning techniques, including deep learning tools, to evaluate this data intelligently in order to enhance both the user experience and the outcomes produced.

A Combined Method of r-NPS and t-NPS Evaluations for Identification of Negative Triggers of Detractors’ Experience

Lin Feng and Wei Wei released the findings on 22nd February 2020.
The research used NPS techniques to decipher the key triggers of users’ bad experiences by combining relationship-NPS (r-NPS) and transactional-NPS (t-NPS) methods to examine both the short- and long-term user experience for the product under consideration.
This was accomplished by analyzing the outcomes of three waves of data collecting on NPS ratings in order to get insights into the factors that contribute to poor user experience.
Additionally, the study showed a quantitative approach for assessing and implementing the concept of a sustainable digital business model by integrating r-NPS and t-NPS assessments.
It sought to identify the most potent triggers of detracting behavior, particularly radical detraction, and discovered that the current management approach of equating the size of a user experience issue with its priority is unwarranted, as the most significant drivers of the degree of detraction appeared to be those with lower prevalence in survey results.

Best Practices Leveraged by Insurance Carriers to Maintain/Increase Customer Satisfaction

Removing Friction

According to Jacobs Clevenger, West, and Majorel, insurance companies must make it as easy as possible for consumers to get what they want. Customers wishing to make a claim are often routed to several individuals before completing a lengthy procedure to actually file the claim. This lowers their satisfaction rating with the business.
According to Jacobs Clevenger, insurance firms should consider how they can make it easier for customers to contact an agent, submit a claim, and more.
According to the source, adopting measures such as expanding customer service options (such as online, 24-hour phone lines, or social media) would convince consumers that obtaining assistance will not be difficult.
West recommends additional steps, including simplifying customer authentication, speech recognition, and predictive intent, enhancing routing and cross-functional visibility to make necessary agent interactions more meaningful, providing 24/7 self-service for claim initiation and inquiries, roadside assistance, and bill payments, and responding. in mobile channels to reassure customers when they experience an outage.

Provide Answers Through Content

Insurance companies are required to make customer service information readily available.
Whether they’re seeking to better understand their policy choices or connect with an insurance agent, insurance companies should make it as simple as possible for customers to do so.
Insurers must consider methods to educate their consumers about their products and their value in a seamless manner.
According to the source, you should create a brief film that rapidly outlines the dangers of not being insured in order to educate and teach people about the value you offer.
This may include, but is not limited to, readily accessible material that demonstrates what is covered for consumers and content that explains insurance to younger audiences.
The scope, maturity, and prominence of an insurance provider’s communication channels should be fine-tuned and’connected’ in accordance with the client agenda, business model, and strategy used by that company or business unit.
Currently, insurers interact with consumers mainly through telephone (51% ) and conventional mail (50% ). These techniques are costly and result in fragmented encounters.
Customers are increasingly seeking interactions via digital means, such as a business’s website.

Align With Social Issues

When marketing to younger generations, it is critical to connect the brand with a cause they can support.
Millennials and Gen Z audiences are interested in businesses that share their values and strive to improve them, since 73% of people think businesses should do more than provide a product or service.
It is critical to spend sufficient time in understanding a cause that is meaningful to the audience and communicating how the brand supports it.
According to KPMG, non-life personal lines insurers who want to earn the loyalty of 21st-century consumers require an enterprise-wide strategy that integrates the capabilities of the front, middle, and back offices – allowing them to properly concentrate on the customer agenda.
A connected enterprise approach enables insurance companies to view and serve their customers as individuals with a diverse range of insurance needs and preferences, rather than as policyholders defined by their business units — as homeowners, vehicle owners, business owners, or insured lives, for example.
According to research, the non-life personal lines insurance sector as a whole is far behind other industries in terms of implementing and extracting value from this idea.
Rather than being passive in the relationship and depending on consumers to communicate, insurers should assert more control and ownership by educating customers about comprehensive hazards and the need of protecting against them.

Help Clients Take Advantage of Discounts

While offering discounts may seem self-evident, assisting consumers in using these savings is critical to maintaining their engagement.
When consumers contact support, they want three things: a personal experience, a quick response, and a simple process. To live up to this expectation, insurers must combine traditional communication channels with digital alternatives.
Allstate’s Drivewise program is an excellent example of this in the insurance business.
The initiative recognizes car insurance customers who drive safely by monitoring factors such as time of day, speed, and phone usage.
Additionally, the software provides consumers with customized feedback on how to improve their driving skills.
Every six months, customers who drive safely get money back.
Such initiatives benefit both the business and the consumer.
The business has accident-free clients, which helps keep rates low, and the consumer can monitor their driving and earn rewards for being cautious.

Personalization Across Channels in the Purchase Decision Phase

When consumers reach the decision-making stage, the customer experience becomes even more critical to the relationship.
With the development of digital channels, a client may buy a policy via a variety of channels, including personal sales, an intermediary, your website, or comparison websites.
According to the IBV study, insurers should emphasize customized digital communications, which were rated as a high priority by 50% of consumers but only used by 17% of insurers.
With more than 80% of consumers ready to utilize digital and remote channel choices to accomplish activities and transactions, it is essential to engage customers across many channels with a highly customized approach regardless of the purchasing platform.
Customers put a premium on simplicity and customized choices and prefer to purchase from insurance firms that provide full policy information suited to their unique circumstances.
Across all purchasing channels, the human element (or personal touch) is critical to converting a prospect to a customer.
While personal consultations are critical, customers increasingly expect to contact you promptly through intermediaries, service centers, or digital means.
Insurance firms must provide personal consulting services in addition to other channels for communicating the value of goods and services in order to provide comprehensive and customized communications.

NPS Case Studies: All Company Types

Bonobos: Measuring what Customers Enjoy about their Products

Andy Dunn, CEO of Bonobos, wanted a method to evaluate customer experience and sentiment in order to make product development choices.
Because Bonobos caters to working male professionals, Andy and his team need a survey technique that is both easy to administer and gathers the data necessary to make informed business choices.
The team used NPS as one of their primary metrics for determining how satisfied a consumer was with their Bonobos experience and if the customer would recommend Bonobos to friends or family.
Bonobos chose Delighted as the easiest method to accomplish its goal of determining how a consumer felt about their Bonobos experience, why they would or will not return, and the probability that customers will refer Bonobos to their friends.
Each week, the business utilizes Net Promoter® to assess both the online consumer experience and the performance of each shop. Bonobos categorizes consumer comments anytime a particular product is mentioned, which enables the company to enhance its T-shirt line, for example.
Additionally, it integrates Net Promoter Score feedback from consumers with their purchase history to build a sophisticated system that enables salespeople to provide a more personalized experience, both online and in its physical “Guideshops.”
Delighted provided detailed customer, product, and Guideshops data. Bonobos was able to compare the Pleased NPS ratings for the Austin Guideshop to those for the Chicago location, as well as compare delighted scores across Bonobos’ shirts, sweaters, and trousers.
Additionally, the team may monitor the overall trend from quarter to quarter.
Because everyone at Bonobos has access to data that quantify that love, everyone at Bonobos becomes a shareholder in their goal to become the most loved apparel business of all time.
This has enabled Bonobos to expand its product offering beyond trousers, with shirts and other items now accounting for the bulk of the company’s online sales. Additionally, Bonobos has established such a strong reputation for high-quality goods and service that they were able to partner with department store giant Nordstrom to expand distribution.
Finally, their Guideshops seem to be a success, providing Bonobos brand fans with an even more personalized buying experience.

Taylor & Hart

Taylor & Hart is a London-based jeweler that specializes in custom-designed engagement rings set with ethically sourced diamonds.
NPS enabled the business to validate its growth plan, improve its production process, and more than quadruple its annual sales to €4.5 million.
One of its objectives was to identify the ‘One Metric That Matters’ to their company, a metric on which they would report daily.
Taylor & Hart initially believed that the optimum measure would be sales. They are, after all, in business to earn money.
Stefan Milev, the firm’s chief marketing officer, saw that something more was required to monitor and assess the customer-centric approach the company desired.
Convinced that revenue cannot be increased without increasing NPS, the business chose NPS as their primary measure.
This proved to be a smart move, as it became clear very quickly that many consumers were hesitant to purchase a ring from an online-only store, as Taylor and Hart were at the time, without first seeing it in person.
Taylor & Hart desired to convert hesitant visitors into one-time purchases and one-time buyers into lifetime customers by monitoring NPS and ensuring that each of its jewelry consultants focused on outstanding service.
This customer-centric mentality, in turn, will guarantee explosive company development.
Taylor & Hart tracked their NPS using a four-step approach that included identifying key customer experience milestones, collecting required data, automating all data replies, and monitoring the outcomes.
The business is constantly aware of its monthly and quarterly NPS numbers, as well as the NPS for each individual consultant on their team, as a result of these measures. They then meet regularly to discuss and evaluate their NPS results.
Taylor & Hart is now proud to have one of the best NPS scores in the industry: it has consistently above 80 for both service and product for over two years.
These excellent ratings are achievable because Taylor & Hart places a premium on increasing their NPS.
Taylor & Hart’s success is largely due to their dedication to monitoring and increasing their Net Promoter Score (NPS) by identifying the most critical milestones in the e-commerce customer experience and tracking customer satisfaction.

NPS Case Study: Insurance Carriers

USAA

USAA, a diversified financial services group of companies and one of the leading providers of insurance, investing, and banking solutions to members of the U.S. military and veterans, is said to be in a class by itself.
Almost every satisfaction survey and brand benchmark in the banking industry is dominated by the business.
USAA’s Net Promoter Score was more than four times that of the typical banking provider in 2018, and they have earned the greatest Net Promoter Score in the financial sector for eight consecutive years.
64 percent of USAA members are very pleased. This is a 50% improvement over credit unions.
USAA supports this idea, since it is one of the highest-performing businesses according to the Net Promoter Score. Additionally, each of their three service offerings (banking, insurance, and credit cards) was rated in the top 10 in their respective product categories.

Making NPS Actionable for All Companies

Ask the Question in Context

According to Mind the Product and Get Feedback, one of the challenges associated with most NPS surveys is sample size and dispersion.
Each day, the typical knowledge worker gets 121 emails and spends hundreds of hours in meetings.
This renders email an unsuitable medium for communicating with an audience or soliciting feedback.
Businesses that request customer feedback through email risk decreasing their NPS score as a result of unsolicited communications.
Mind the Product advises that you ask the question contextually, inside your product.
Several companies have taken this step, including TrendKite, which raised its response rate from 10% to 20% by using in-app surveys, and Henry Schein, which experienced a tenfold increase in survey answers by implementing in-app surveys.
Additionally, the in-app survey enabled such businesses to see answers in real time.
By surveying consumers at the point of greatest engagement and in real time, they were able to interact with and learn from the data, rather than just reading a one-dimensional report.

Combine Quantitative and Qualitative

At get to the all-important why, top product managers are utilizing the best of NPS — its simplicity, universality, and comparability – and combining it with behavioral, transactional, and other operational data sources.
This is because, for the majority of brands, NPS is a rather ineffective operational indicator. Rather than that, it informs consumers about how they feel, but not why they feel that way.
Without a clear knowledge of what motivates good or negative emotion, a brand cannot take particular measures.
By measuring what users do in their apps and understanding their sentiment, product managers may identify which parts of the product contribute to or detract from customer value, as well as which features please or frustrate customers.
Combining quantitative data with the score reveals the behaviors that underpin the emotion.
This comprehension may sometimes result in substantial income increase.
According to a recent study of around 200 CEOs and product managers, companies who utilize in-app feedback in conjunction with in-depth product analytics reported an annual product revenue increase of 109 percent compared to those that did not.

Segmenting the Score

One of the main reasons the Net Promoter Score is so imprecise is because it is much too wide and all-inclusive.
Another approach is to partition the score.
The various segmentations will vary according to the kind of company.
Users possess a number of characteristics that may help you get deeper insights: role, geolocation, tenure (the length of time they’ve used your product), and language are just a few examples.
For instance, discovering that French speakers are 50% less likely to suggest a product is an intriguing and possibly useful information. Additionally, B2B product businesses may split by account, industry, size, and revenue to illustrate the dynamics of positive and negative sentiment among a user base, and, more importantly, the measures that may be done to avert future churn.

Close the Loop

Along with serving as a barometer of user opinion, NPS provides a chance to interact with consumers.
If a product’s user base had a good experience, a positive NPS score provides a chance to learn why. If the product did not live up to their expectations, NPS would alert the consumer to any potential problems.
Multiple touchpoints across the client lifecycle provide the team with the input required to develop and improve your product constantly.
Following the adoption of all NPS methods, it is essential to conduct follow-up.
A plan should be put in place to gather input on a consistent basis and to allow for follow-up.
One may begin by contacting critics, particularly those who have purchased the goods. Then, establish a weekly goal of engaging with about 10 people. NPS may be increased simply by listening to and reacting to input.
Additionally, it is essential to engage promoters, since they serve as references and waiting advocates.
Additionally, companies should engage neutrals (passives, as they are called in NPS parlance). Converting passives to promoters is often the simplest method of increasing NPS.

Making NPS Actionable: Insurance Carriers/Employee Benefits Carriers

Setting the Foundation

IBM and Unblu advise insurers to create an agile business structure and culture by putting the requirements of consumers ahead of organizational “red tape.”
This is also accomplished via the recruitment and training of the appropriate people capable of envisioning, designing, developing, launching, executing, and continually optimizing experiences, rather than just generating and executing campaigns.
Additionally, the source advises creating with the consumer in mind. It implies that every component engaged in the overall experience should be included into the overall design and constant feedback monitoring.
This comprises direct writers and claims adjusters, as well as workers who execute underlying procedures, middlemen, and external partners.
Finally, insurers may provide the groundwork for intelligent workflows by using exponential technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and straight-through processing (STP) to integrate the front-end experience with back-end systems.
Insurers can provide experience management using AI- and cloud-based technology that enables them to coordinate, organize, execute, deliver, listen to, and measure intelligent workflows.
A smooth online customer experience substantially increases customer satisfaction and results in cost savings of 15% to 25%.

Listening to customers

Insurance companies must encourage consumers to share data by clearly communicating the advantages of sharing, such as additional value offers, and ensuring that sharing occurs in an ethical, transparent, straightforward, and easy manner.
To increase customer happiness, an insurer must first determine what factors contribute to a good customer experience and then convert these findings into tangible changes to their service.
This includes using consumer insights and analytics to reimagine journeys in a more customer-centric manner, as well as integrating a variety of digital technologies.
It’s worthwhile to spend time and effort in increasing customer satisfaction since 92 percent of consumers who feel valued will recommend their insurance business to others.
This data will be utilized to customize each contact, thus building trust and generating a positive feedback loop toward more data sharing.
Additionally, insurers may use their own data to build an enterprise data foundation, moving away from fragmented, outdated operational-focused data warehouses and toward open data platforms and governance that enable customer-centric analytics.
Additionally, this may be accomplished via consumer research (asking them about their needs and expectations).
Additionally, the internal staff should be provided with AI-powered, customer-centric technologies that aid in their comprehension of consumers and their requirements.

Looking Beyond

To get a better understanding of evolving consumer expectations, an insurer may benchmark itself against and learn from competitor insurers.
IBM advises that companies go outside their organization’s or industry’s four walls by emulating what is available in neighboring sectors such as retail, banking, and travel.
Insurers should strive to transition away from conventional coverage suppliers and toward becoming trusted advisers.
An insurer’s relevance in the customer’s daily life should result in more frequent contacts, whether via the provision of general liability policies on the job for contractors, on-the-spot travel insurance, or the creation of a daily health and wellness experience.
Finally, insurers may use platforms and partnerships to connect a particular need to a specific coverage, develop new on-demand goods and services, or collaborate with insurtechs to identify and integrate appropriate technology into their current organizations, thus accelerating innovation.