Don’t lose contact with your customers

For many, Christmas Day will mark the sixth month anniversary of this year’s devastating summer floods.

Having spent a day this week with the Association of British Insurers visiting flood-affected claimants who are still living in caravans as their homes dry out – it is a sobering anniversary. A kitchenette too small to swing a cat in is no place for a 26lb turkey, let alone a family.

The prospect of trying to find Christmas cheer in a caravan parked on the drive of your ruined home is bleak.

The people we visited were not there through any failing of the insurance industry. As I’ve said before, the industry has responded exceptionally well to the flooding and should be proud of their efforts.

That doesn’t mean that there is no room for improvement, however. Most of those that we visited had outstanding issues on their claims; many were in the hands of builders and loss adjusters. Insurers and brokers have the overall responsibility of those claims, however.

Some of these issues appeared on the face of it to be reasonably simple to resolve. For example, one couple had been trying to get more electricity for their home as they currently had to ration its usage between the caravan and the house. Being able to keep the heaters going 24 hours a day would mean that the drying process for the house would happen more quickly – yet no additional power had been forthcoming for this couple.

The ABI has published a report about learning the lessons from the summer floods in 2007 and it is only right that the industry is seen taking the initiative and responsibility for helping those people affected by the flooding, but government must play its part too.

The visit brought it home to me how important it is for the insurance industry to actually have face-to-face contact with their customers. It’s vital that we get back out there and re-connect with the public.

If nothing else we need to get our claims people out there so that can see just what the policyholder is up against – a bit of empathy can go a long way. Remember, all our good work could so easily be undone by a few complaints from dissatisfied customers emerging in the New Year.