The insurance sector saw the third biggest increase in the number of customers citing them among the worst for service (see chart below) – rising 2.9 percentage points to 27.9%. Only airlines and broadband/pay-TV firms saw a greater rise among the 14 sectors covered in the latest annual study by service design consultancy Engine.
Consequently, insurance’s rise in negative citations means it’s the fourth worst sector for customer service – behind only the much-maligned public transport (cited by 38.0%) utilities (36.9%) and broadband/pay-TV (33.5%) firms.
“Insurance firms could learn a lot from banking, which has done the most to improve customer service over the last three years of the survey,” said Joe Heapy, co-founder of Engine. “Obviously insurers don’t have the day-to-day interaction that banks have, so they need to find ways to make themselves more relevant to customers more often – developing the immediacy of their proposition and designing themselves into the routine of people’s lives.
“For example, banks have improved their mobile and digital service offerings, enabling them to gather more data to provide a more personalised experience. This has then been matched by more engaging personal interactions online and with call centres. Greater customer segmentation abilities have also enabled banks to respond to differing consumer needs in a way that makes sense to customers individually. Insurers could do more to show that they are responding to customer's requirements."
In terms of what insurers need to focus on to meet customers’ expectations, Heapy adds, “People aren't asking the earth. The three things they value most when dealing with a company are honesty, efficiency and reliability – and it’s been these three consistently for the last four years of the study.”
At the other end of the spectrum, restaurants (cited by 47%) and hotels (46%) increased their lead in being seen as the best sectors for service. However, when it comes to the best individual companies for service, retail dominates with Amazon leading the way followed by John Lewis, M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
Heapy concludes, “The leading sectors and companies in customer service don’t think of it as an add-on at the front line, they put as much effort into designing the customer experience as they do their actual products.”
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