Insurance is often referred to as a ‘grudge purchase’, a necessary evil and something that only really delivers any value if the policyholder is propelled by an accident or incident towards the ‘moment of truth’ – the time at which they have to call on their policy and make a claim.
At that point, it can come more ‘begrudged’ than grudge, if the claim is not handled in a manner living up to expectations. Policyholders have a set idea in their mind about how their claim should be handled and become highly engaged in pursuit of that vision. They are even prepared to phone up and be held in a queue for 30 or 40 minutes at a time, just to gain some reassurance that someone is looking after their case.
Knowing the importance of a claim for policyholders, insurers have made great efforts to make the process highly efficient. There has been heavy investment in technology and many insurers now provide the means to open a claim online, on a dedicated website. This will usually allow the policy-holding claimant to track the progress of a claim, access recent correspondence between their insurer and the third party and discover whether repairs or treatments have been authorised. All of this is just a click away, a far cry from the situation even just a decade ago.
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