Process mining helps insurers answer the call for better customer service

What would you do if nearly half of your customers said they don’t have full confidence in you? That’s the insurance market reality. Some 42% of customers have low trust in their insurers, according to IBM's Institute of Business Value. And on top of that: 60% of insurance companies told IBM they lacked a customer experience strategy. 

It’s hard to imagine the two don’t go hand-in-hand. Insurance companies, in response, need to create customer experiences that meet expectations for omnichannel interaction. That includes everything from customer onboarding to digital interactions and tried-and-tested call centers.

According to research firm Gartner, insurers can catch up with their customers by working on their digital offering. Key takeaways from Gartner's top three customer experience trends for digital insurance include:

• Omnichannel is table stakes and insurers need a tight integration of people and technologies as well as the processes that connect them.

• Dynamic customer engagement drives loyalty and growth. For dynamic customer interaction, insurers need to shift from being reactive to proactive.

• Build speed for digital customer satisfaction with faster transaction processing, automation and process modernization.

Success across the three requires process mining today. Why? Process mining maps in granular detail everything from customer onboarding to IT service management and call centers. Those maps show process best practices and benchmarks: including where processes are being followed correctly (internally and externally) and where improvements need to be made – for the good of customers and employees alike.  

By bringing process mining into the go-to-market strategy, insurers can marry the best of people with technology; evolve from reactive to proactive ways of working; and streamline processes in ways that deliver better customer experiences. 

Insurers appear to be answering the call.  Two insurers that said they are making strides in the process improvements required to drive customer experiences below: 

1. On a March 17 investor call, Glenn Shapiro, President of Property-Liability of Allstate, said the company is "continuing to look at every level of efficiency in our business, every level of cost from distribution to our cost of doing business from an efficiency standpoint." 

2. Travelers CEO Alan Schnitzer said during the company's fourth quarter earnings call in January that the company has invested heavily in its customer experience. "In 2021, our leading claim organization completed a strategic three-year plan, we call right touch. That effort resulted in more than $125 million of annual run rate savings, which is reflected in our results," said Schnitzer. "In addition to creating efficiencies for us, investments in digital capabilities over the past few years have enabled us to improve the customer experience."

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Edward Baggaley

Senior Content Marketing Manager

Edward writes for and about Celonis from London.