Survey: Customer Engagement Must Be Top Priority for Insurers & Banks |
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Written by U. S. Insurance News
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Monday, 09 June 2008 |
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A failure to communicate properly could cost insurers and banks a fair share of their customers.
According to a recent Thunderhead survey of 500 consumers in the United
States and United Kingdom, 61 percent of those polled are actively
considering switching insurance providers—car, home, and travel
insurers—in the next year, with 63 percent saying the same about their
banks.
The survey showed that consumers’ willingness to change financial institutions may be partially linked to the communication they receive from those companies. When asked about the quality of communication received from their banks and insurance companies over the last year, only 26 percent said that they felt their current bank or insurance company sent them “personalized” communications that were immediately “relevant” to their needs.
More alarming for these institutions, only 17 percent surveyed feel a sense of loyalty to their insurance providers and just 16 percent felt the same to their banks. The remainder of those polled said they were uncertain if they would switch providers this year.
“Maintaining customer loyalty continues to be a key issue for our banking and insurance clients,” said Glen Manchester, CEO of Thunderhead. “Customers have never had higher service expectations and have come to expect today’s providers to communicate with them across the range of devices they use in their daily lives.”
The widespread use of mobile phones, BlackBerrys®, and social networking sites is affecting how customers want to communicate, the survey showed. Half of consumers said that receiving communications in real-time was “very important” to them. More than three out of four said they would like the option to receive communications via email, and 40 percent preferred the option of receiving information delivered to them via personalized Web portals.
An emerging segment indicated that they would like to receive messages and notifications via SMS messages and were also interested in having messages and new product offers delivered to popular social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook.
Only 50 percent those polled said they want to continue to receive communications from their bank or insurance company via the post.
Clearly, Manchester concluded, the days when financial providers can rely on bank tellers and brokers to build relationships with clients are over.
“Ensuring personal, relevant, and timely communications with each individual customer, via a number of different channels, is critical to building and maintaining a strong relationship and retaining customers,” he said. “As a result, customer engagement and multi-channel communications must be a top business priority for banks and insurance providers.”
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