They say it’s now all about digital, yet a new study has found that insurers could only answer 30% of queries on Facebook, 25% on Twitter, and 23% on email. Yes, the numbers aren’t good, and more so if we compare them to last year’s figures.
According to the 2017 Eptica Insurance Conversation Study, the UK’s leading insurance firms fail to accurately answer 68% of routine questions asked through their digital platforms – worse than 2016’s 47%.
The research also highlighted the gap between expectations and reality, with 78% of consumers saying they wanted to be able to switch between channels when talking to insurers. A reality check showed that none of the companies surveyed could answer on all four channels of email, chat, Twitter, and Facebook.
“Many gave completely different responses on each channel, showing a worrying lack of consistency in a regulated industry. Only 5% had answers that matched on three channels while 70% of insurers were completely inconsistent, with no matching answers across any channels,” said the report.
In terms of response times, on average it took 40 hours 25 minutes to get an answer on email, 49 minutes on Twitter, and three hours 45 minutes on Facebook. Eptica said this is generally far outside what consumers expect: “44% said they wanted an answer on Facebook in 30 minutes, and 62% on email within 2 hours,” it claimed. The study revealed only 10% of firms met this deadline.
In addition, the study surveyed 1,000 consumers to find out if insurers are meeting customer experience needs. It also surveyed 20 home and car insurers by analysing their responses to routine questions asked via digital channels. Criteria included speed, relevance, context, personalisation, and empathy.
.jpg)
