One-fifth of consumers who have filed property or casualty claims during the past three years are not satisfied with the way that their insurance companies handled their claims, a recent Accenture survey found.

Survey respondents who spoke to three or more people at their insurance companies during the course of the settlement process were nearly five times as likely to be dissatisfied as those who spoke to only one or two claim staff members. Three-fourths of the respondents said that they would prefer to speak to only one person about their claims.

Those with complex claims were more likely to rate their experiences negatively. Claims that took more than 20 days to be resolved were rated negatively by 40 percent of the respondents, compared with 20 percent overall. Claims that resulted in recovery of less than half of their losses received negative ratings by 28 percent, and claims that involved auto-related injuries were perceived as negative by 39 percent.

Percentage of respondents reporting negative claim experiences:

All – 20%
Spoke to 3+ at agency – 49%
21+ days to settle – 40%
Auto plus injury – 39%
Recovered < 50% – 28%
Minority – 29%
Age 18-34 – 28%
Urban – 25%

In addition, 67 percent of respondents think that it is important for their insurance companies to provide the ability to check the status of claims online, while 81 percent said that they would file claims online if it would expedite the settlement process. “Insurers need to continue to implement new automated claim technology to help further expedite the process and improve the customer experience,” said Michael Lucarini, a partner in Accenture's Insurance practice. “The most significant opportunities to improve claim customer satisfaction are reducing the carrier-to-customer interactions required to handle high-frequency, low-severity claims and keeping the customer more informed on longer, more complex claims.”

Respondents based their satisfaction levels on several elements, giving top priority to the perceived fairness of the settlement (45 percent of respondents), followed by responsiveness of claim representatives (19 percent), and speed of the settlement (19 percent).

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Some Insureds Find Claim Service Unsatisfactory

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