After this year’s hurricane season in the US, it’s important to reflect on the entire catastrophic events (CAT) season — and how that affects the insurance claims experience for many of those impacted. During these extremely stressful and emotional events, how — and when — property and casualty (P&C) insurance companies reach out to those affected can make a significant difference. Simply providing a standard experience is one approach. But delivering an exceptional customer experience can build long-term loyalty. And one key ingredient in the latter is empathy.

As a Floridian, I’ve come to accept the hurricane season as part of the tradeoff for living in a tropical climate near the coast. I’ve repeated the phrase, “It comes with the territory…” more times than I can count since moving to Florida in 2021. And I’ve joked about not needing to “shovel sunshine” living here. However, when a couple of hurricanes make landfall close to your home and you must navigate evacuations, you get serious.

Having worked in and around the insurance industry for almost 20 years, I was interested to see what sort of response and customer experience I would see from my insurance companies during the recent storm season. In the past, I’ve sold property and casualty insurance; worked in operations; been a developer; provided financial analysis; handled project, program and portfolio management; and managed omnichannel applications. The idea of CAT and claims support — and what that means to a customer — has been fundamental to my job.

CAT readiness, weekend support, inventory, testing, huddles and emergency changes have been constants during the hurricane season. So, I was surprised with the varied responses I’ve received from all the companies I do business with, especially compared to other industries like utilities and banking.

My utilities companies reached out to me via phone, email and text message in the days leading up to each hurricane with simple messaging: We are here for you. The messaging was informative but empathetic, focusing on topics, such as what they were doing to prepare for the hurricane (adding resources), how I could lessen my impact during storm season (consultative measures and options to receive proactive status updates). The messaging continued throughout the hurricane and the following days until services in my area were restored.

The financial institutions I use for banking, loans and credit cards all had a similar approach of reaching out through proactive outreach and focused on acknowledging that my family and home were most likely going have some impact with the storm. They also shared information on options and programs available to me in the event that I needed assistance. And they sent follow-up messaging to make sure that I was OK.

Knowing that I had options and assistance was comforting, especially in the days before the storm made landfall — when any slight change to the storm track could mean evacuation and potential devastation of my property.

These experiences mattered to me, which makes the responses I received from my insurance companies that much more perplexing. In fact, I received zero messages from my insurance providers before, during or after the storm.

Unfortunately, it seems that the P&C insurance industry has some work to do regarding outbound engagement. Changes could be made in how they leverage proactive messaging in multiple channels to improve the policyholder’s experience — and still save money.

Putting on my CX hat, I found myself asking where the digital messaging was on how to prevent excessive damage by preparing for a specific type of catastrophic event — whether we needed to evacuate or not. Not to mention that this was an easy opportunity to send a text with directions on how to file a claim without waiting on the phone in a long queue for a representative.

I’m happy to use self-service tools to make my life more convenient, whether that’s AI-powered virtual agents, chat and SMS, or outbound engagement. The cost to send a simple prevention-based outbound communication to a policyholder is a fraction of the cost of what an inbound phone call costs, which is what you need to use when you don’t have proactive engagement. This also highlights that the insurance industry is lagging in providing the same experiences consumers receive — and have come to expect — from banking, retail or tourism companies.

Having worked for multiple insurers, the message around selling policies and retaining customers has been consistent: Speak about the value of the policy and brand. Build a relationship and provide solutions. Use active listening and consultative selling to build a rapport and combat objections — and always ask for the sale.

They don’t want to compete on price, but on experience and value. But what happens when a customer needs to use their policy and goes through a suboptimal claims experience? Or better yet, what does a policyholder think when every other company they do business with checks in with them and offers guidance and service?

We are all aware of the link between customer satisfaction (CSAT), customer effort scores, Net Promoter Scores and retention. And one of the biggest events that trigger satisfaction, or the lack thereof, is making a claim. We expect that a claim will lead to a higher premium, but if we have inconvenient experiences — or even zero engagement from an insurance company when we need them and we know our rates are going to increase then — isn’t the discussion only about price?

Evolve Support with Outbound Engagement

This brings us back to the value of outbound engagement.

There are many elegant solutions to outbound communications that insurance companies clearly need to study and invest in. It takes little to send a text or email, but the downstream impacts — customer engagement, prevention, self-service, inbound deflection and more — are quantifiable and massive in scale. Pushing policyholders and claimants toward the web and mobile channels for resolution is only the tip of the iceberg as far as opportunity and use cases are considered.

Technology can use artificial intelligence for predictive engagement and routing to give customers a better, shorter experience where they feel heard, understood and have their issues resolved. In fact, according to the 2024 Genesys report “Generational dynamics and experience,” 73% of consumers surveyed globally say respectful and empathetic treatment from customer service representatives is one of the most important factors during a service interaction. This is critical for the insurance industry and its customers when you consider what might be discussed — the loss of homes, property or loved ones.

I want to make clear that I am not trying to profit from the damage of any CAT; I believe it’s an opportunity for the insurance industry to evolve in how it supports its customers during an incredibly stressful time while also leveraging outbound digital engagement for better business results. The insurance claims industry can, and should, use newer channels, such as digital and social media, to build better relationships, deliver better experiences and be empathetic in how they interact with customers.

This is especially true for an industry that’s there to help people during catastrophic events and difficult times — that’s why people have insurance in the first place. Providing proactive and empathetic experiences during these times can build long-term customer loyalty. This is especially true when there are so many opportunities to reframe the discussion in how the industry is viewed in terms of customer experience.

Read this eBook to discover why leading brands choose the Genesys Cloud platform to elevate their customer experience and build long-standing loyalty — and learn how you can take the next step in your customer engagement.