Making a commitment to customer experience requires a strong understanding of the customer’s journey – and their thoughts, feelings, and concerns along the way.
That’s why Penn National Insurance, a property and casualty insurance company, worked with Paragon to improve their customer experience strengths by digging deeper into a specific but common journey – customers submitting a personal auto insurance claim.
Penn National Insurance relies heavily on independent insurance agents who sell multiple policies, not just their own. Penn National Insurance values these independent agents and recognizes the importance of examining the policyholders’ experience, too. Paragon interviewed policyholders, independent insurance agents and internal stakeholders to get a complete view of the insurance claim process – focusing more precisely on a personal auto claim. The research included call listening with the customer contact center, internal employee journey mapping sessions, and three in-person group sessions with policyholders that had gone through a personal auto claim in the past two years. The findings revealed that while in general the experience was very positive, there were quick-win opportunities to improve the experience such as setting clearer expectations and instructions for the policyholder during the claims process, among others.
Additionally, there was an opportunity to improve their claims process, first notice of loss (FNOL), by applying service design techniques. Because Penn National Insurance has limited interactions with the policyholder, it’s important to be thoughtful and specific when delivering information to them. By discovering the moments that matter in the journey, Penn National Insurance can improve the service design (or backstage processes) to be sure all people involved in the claims process know their role and how they fit into the overall journey from start to finish.
Paragon provided us with a resource that was able to quickly come in to our organization and add value, we have been working with him for years and he has become an integral and vital part of our team.”
Renis Desai,
By developing unique personas, Paragon was able to understand how different “types” of policyholders (budget conscious, moms on-the-go, etc.) have different needs throughout the claims process in order to help Penn National Insurance better meet those expectations.
Although in general the claims process was viewed as a very positive experience, through service design methods, Paragon uncovered strategic opportunities and quick wins Penn National Insurance could implement to improve customer experience. This included standardizing best practices, recommendations for measurement and metrics, and quick wins centered around improved communication tactics.
