Claim payout delay frustration, app interest rises, study

Delays in payouts are one of the biggest frustrations for policyholders when filing vehicle insurance claims, according to a survey of 250 policyholders in the U.S. and Canada, from Publicis Sapient, a consulting firm.

Lack of information about the claims process, smaller than expected claims payouts, denial of claims and inability to reach claims staff were also noted as frustrations from respondents. The survey included people between 18 to 75 years old and above. Over 100 of those surveyed had an insurance policy with an insurtech and 130 had a policy with a traditional property and casualty insurance provider.

“There’s an increasing demand for tech-enablement of claims along with greater disasters and losses,” said Jason Paau, senior director of program management at Publicis Sapient, in the report. “Handling these claims efficiently and at scale is important.”

Apps appear to be an area where respondents want more engagement, according to the survey. Participants suggested that they would like to be able to file claims from an app.

“These results show the demand for more engagement through apps, which allow the use of photos, videos and voice transcription to make gathering supporting data for a claim easier,” the report states. “This can also happen in real-time with an agent on the other end. However, as much as people want more out of mobile apps, people will always want a more personal touch (face-to-face/video) when it comes to more consequential moments and decisions.”

More than 25% of those surveyed changed insurance providers in the past year. All of those policyholders who did switch cited an experience with their previous insurer as the reason for the switch and almost 70% said pricing was a part of the decision.

Respondents also suggested that filling out forms and providing personal information were also pain points. Survey results may indicate that retention of customers could be linked to a smoother claims process and communicating coverage more effectively.

“If you look at the P&C industry holistically, it really hasn’t changed much,” said Mike Chiaramonte, senior principal, management consulting at Publicis Sapient, in the report. “It certainly hasn’t experienced the exponential growth traditional financial institutions have seen in the marketplace. But insurtechs raised roughly $2.1 billion in Q1 of 2021. There’s a lot of money being invested in a wide range of insurance products across the entire value chain.”