Kajal Vakas
Senior manager, claims
LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Insurance, UK and Ireland
Creating a single customer view will soon help balance the scales between assessing risk and maintaining customer satisfaction as the consumer duty standards loom
The Association of British Insurers’s (ABI) annual conference this year focused on the new standards of consumer protection coming into force in July. Broadly, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consumer duty standards will require insurance providers to act to prevent poor outcomes for their customers at any stage of the customer journey. Claims teams will have noted that consumers should not face ‘unreasonable barriers’ to making a claim.
It would make sense that those insurance providers that take steps to gain a better understanding of the needs of their customers, will be at an advantage when the new rules and guidance becomes effective. It comes down to leveraging the data they already hold to build a single customer view based on every past touch point with that customer to help create a smooth, flawless claims journey.
However, recent merger and acquisition activity, combined switching activity (albeit at much lower levels than prior to the pricing reforms), means customer data management remains a challenge for insurance providers. This puts pressure on claims handlers who don’t have the luxury of time to collate the data required to understand the relationship with the customer and quickly verify who they are dealing with to help prevent fraud.
Imagine then, if a claims professional could gain that consolidated ‘golden record’ for a customer so that they know instantaneously that this is Mrs Brown who has renewed her home insurance policy for the past three years and has never had an insurance claim before. The same ‘golden record’ could notify the claims professional that Mrs Brown recently downsized and reduced her policy cover accordingly, but her new home has a history of roofing claims. Alternatively, it could be Ms Smith who changed name and moved home after a recent divorce and had multiple successive claims for flooding under her previous name and address.