Insurance Business ReviewDECEMBER 20258IN MY OPINIONEVOLVING CUSTOMER NEEDS IN INSURANCEBy Cheryl Muschette, Director, Claims, BMOCustomer service expectations have significantly evolved and gone through significant transformations during my two decades in the claims insurance industry. Whether you are in the landscape of group insurance, individual insurance, or auto insurance, the one constant that can drive your business to successful heights is understanding and adapting to the customer service journey. Everyone ensures that they have coverage for their personal needs in a time of uncertainty in their lives either through their employer or for personal reasons, but needing to file a claim for these benefits (Life, long term disability, auto/property, Critical illness) is not a cheerful time in the customer's life. Understanding and learning about the customer's journey is an area that I have learned over the years cannot be overlooked. Once the final product or service is ready and purchased by the customer, if there are not efficiencies to keep the customer journey going well, it will be difficult to maintain. There are challenges to optimizing the customer journey, and for me, what stands out is ensuring that there is empathy and communication integrated into these journeys. Data driven decision making and also having an Omni channel approach are also important factors. Although these are key factors to success, customer focus needs to always modernize with automation and now integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into these solutions to keep pace with modern trends in the industry. Simply writing a letter to advise of a decision or update on a policy is no longer the only requirement for communication from a customer standpoint. Previously, it was thought that this type of communication would suffice. Eventually this has evolved to using telephone and Cheryl Muschette
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