As Hurricane Sandy bore down on the East Coast at this time lastyear, I started to get messages from some unusualsources.

Living in Connecticut, I was potentially in the storm's path – afact that apparently didn't go unnoticed to a number of businessesI patronize. In the days leading up to the storm's landfall,among the companies I got e-mails from were:

• My electric utility, providing a phone number and web addressto report outages, as well as information about emergency sheltersand how long food can keep in freezers and refrigerators withoutpower.
• My credit card company, offering assistance should my familyand me need emergency financial, medical or travelassistance.
• An airline I frequent, notifying me of schedule disruptions anda temporary waiver of ticket cancellation and rebookingfees.
• An online retailer, advising me of delays in shipping packagesto some affected areas, and providing a phone number for moreinformation.
• A local arborist I had used years ago, providing his contactinformation should I need to have storm-damaged trees removed frommy property.

But one company I never heard from… was my insurer. Andthey never heard from me, because, fortunately, I didn't experienceany damages from Sandy.

Checking with friends and family in the Northeast, I learnedthat many of them, too, hadn't heard a peep from theirinsurers.

This speaks to one of the greatest missed opportunities in theinsurance industry – the chance to engage policyholders in ameaningful way that has nothing to do with claims.

When insurance carriers think about their customer experience,many tend to focus on claim handling. This obviously makessome sense, since claim time is the ultimate “moment of truth” inthe insurance business.

(Never mind that many Sandy claimants were underwhelmed by theirclaims experience, as reported by Consumer Reports and J.D. Power. Carriers may focus on claimhandling, but that doesn't mean they're good at it!)

Here's the issue with concentrating on claims: most of aninsurer's customers are unlikely to experience one with anyfrequency. (And, if they do, then that carrier – and itsunderwriters – clearly have a bigger problem on theirhands.)

So if an insurer relies on the claims experience to endearitself to customers, that's going to leave a lot of people feelingneglected… which is sort of how I felt thinking back on mySandy experience. J. Crew was considerate enough to contactme as Sandy approached, but not my insurer?

How is it that the company tasked with helping me manage life'srisks had nothing to say to me, no advice to share, in the daysbefore Sandy's landfall? Their silence was made even moreconspicuous in light of how many other businesses didproactively reach out to me (some with far less obvious ties to thesituation).

Hurricane Sandy presented insurers with an incredibleopportunity to demonstrate their value – not just to claimants, butto all customers.

But insurers routinely fumble these opportunities because theydon't grasp what really matters to people: Not their autoinsurance, but their automobile. Not their homeowner'sinsurance, but their home (and the people living in it). Nottheir business insurance, but their business.

Instead of interacting with customers across these moremeaningful dimensions, insurers bombard people with unintelligiblepolicy documents, irrelevant cross-sell offers and feel-goodadvertising. Is it any wonder why consumers show little lovefor insurance companies?

Advances in this regard don't necessarily require huge capitalinvestments or an army of Big Data scientists. It just hingeson insurers shaping their products, services, and communicationsaround one simple question: what does my customerreally care about?

In the case of Sandy, people cared about preventing damage andminimizing the storm's impact – not just dealing with claims in theaftermath. With a simple e-mail, as Sandy drew near, insurerscould have reminded homeowners to secure loose items on theirproperty, encouraged business owners to dust off their contingencyplans, or even just provided contact information for their Claimsdepartment.

There were countless ways that carriers and their agents couldhave engaged policyholders on the eve of the storm, informing andreassuring people who were in harm's way.

But, at least based on my experience and those around me, manyinsurers elected to remain silent, following the industry'straditional and decidedly reactive approach to managing customerrelationships.

With that business model, consumers will continue to viewinsurance as a grudge purchase – an intangible product for whichthey pay, but are never quite certain if they'll see any benefit inreturn.

That's a poor foundation for any business, and hardly a formulafor turning policyholders into raving fans.