Technology drives demand for great service

Technology is changing customer expectations. For the insurance industry, the ‘moment of truth’ is when policyholders make a claim following a collision. This is when there is the highest chance of a customer switching allegiance if the service isn’t exactly right.

Mobility is a critical service aspect for policyholders. While the issue of ‘at fault’ and ‘not at fault’ is essential to insurers in determining how claims are processed, fault is not likely to be a factor to premium-paying customers when it comes to their own expectations of the service they should receive at what, for them, will be a stressful time.

Customers accustomed to mobility on demand via mobile apps may be surprised to discover the complexity of accessing mobility following a car accident. Even a combined branch and car club network that puts an Enterprise vehicle within 10 miles of more than 93% of the UK population, according to Experian, needs to be backed up by technology (currently in roll-out) that enables car hire anywhere – at the roadside, at a bodyshop or at the customer’s home.

Technology also impacts the process of ensuring that a vehicle always gets to the right bodyshop at the right time.

Policyholders insuring one of today’s hi-tech vehicles may face a different technology/service challenge if their insurance provider doesn’t have the experience or network to repair the latest vehicles efficiently.

At Enterprise, we regularly repair thousands of vehicles that are typically less than nine months old, and have learned that building a UK-wide repairer network that can handle the demands of the latest cars is not an overnight process. Without such a network, it’s easy for repair times and costs to spiral, leaving customers potentially stranded without a vehicle for a protracted period.

Technology also enables all parties in the increasingly extensive vehicle repair supply chain to share up-to-date repair data. Without this, policyholders may struggle to get the information they need. We’ve introduced technologies that help the supply chain to integrate and communicate with faster, real-time updates that are visible to all parties to eliminate the potential for data gaps.

Enterprise has always believed that people are the key to great service. Today, we can see that people enabled by great technology are better placed to provide an even better customer experience. Technology disrupts but also offers choices. Staying on the right side of that disruption will be key to the future success of the insurance industry as a whole.