Commentary: Customer Experience Needs to Be Front & Centre

This week, Gartner revealed that insurance CIOs and technology executives are prioritising improving customer experience (CX) and operational excellence, rather than growth, for their 2023 digital strategies. The most common areas being invested in are application modernisation, cybersecurity/information security, and BI/analytics. Insurers are also seeking to reduce their infrastructure investments, instead opting for cloud technologies. Despite this, the majority of insurers are either behind or have just accomplished their value expectations, such as improving CX and increasing revenue.

Recent mainstream media coverage of FCA stats on claims being refused, or at least abandoned after a consumer phone call, has also put the spotlight onto insurers and their CX overall. If customers don’t understand what is, or isn’t covered, then is the industry doing the best job on spelling out T&Cs in plain english, or other languages?

Ash Finnegan, digital transformation officer at Conga, comments on the areas insurers should be prioritising in their digital strategies to ensure they don’t fall behind in 2023, particularly with economic volatility likely to be a dominant challenge:

“It is great news to see that priorities by insurance companies have branched out beyond just increasing profits, and that technology will continue to play a pivotal role in improving CX throughout 2023. However, delivering an effective digital change programme is no easy feat.

“Whilst Gartner revealed that organisations may have a good automation foundation in place, far more investment is needed to deliver the more complex digital strategies and support ongoing customer needs. If leaders are looking to improve their CX and operational efficiency, they will need to review their revenue operations and get their data in order.

“Clearly, market demand and economic pressures are driving technology investment, but leaders need to be more careful with how they approach this – as misjudging a large transformation project can prove costly. Often, organisations approach their CX transformation projects all wrong by simply picking a technology and implementing it at speed. In most cases, leaders will have no real idea of how this will improve their customer journey or digital experience, how it may affect their employees or how it will improve productivity and collaboration between teams.

“Instead, insurance leaders need to establish clear business objectives from the start. This will likely involve reviewing their own operational model and reconsidering all the touch points across the entire user journey; offline and online processes will need to be far more aligned. CIOs need to remove any unnecessary processes, streamline their data cycle, and integrate a 360-degree view of the internal and external user experience across all teams and systems. Here, cloud technology will enable organisations to transform at speed.

“By reassessing and streamlining their operational model, organisations will leave themselves better prepared for all outcomes. Only then can they establish a unified experience that benefits all end users.”