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Insurance has long functioned as an industry where the product dominated over the experience. The client arranged a contract, and if no problem occurred, the relationship with the insurer remained practically invisible. However, this model has fundamentally changed in the last decade. With increasing digitalization and comparability of services, customer experience (CX) has become one of the main differentiators.
According to the PwC Future of Customer Experience Survey (2018), 73% of customers are convinced that experience is a key factor in their purchasing decision. In insurance, this trend is even more pronounced: products are often commoditized, and it is precisely the quality of interactions, the speed of problem resolution, and transparency that decide.
One large European insurance company therefore decided to systematically rebuild its approach to CX—not as an isolated initiative, but as an organizational principle permeating the entire company.
More than one number: Why a combination of metrics makes sense
One of the first findings was that relying on a single customer experience metric leads to an incomplete picture. The traditionally used Net Promoter Score (NPS) captures loyalty and willingness to recommend the brand well, but does not provide sufficient insight into everyday interactions.
Therefore, the insurance company introduced a combination of three key indicators:
Net Promoter Score (NPS) – measures overall satisfaction and loyalty, including partner entities
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) – captures the quality of specific interactions, for example contact with a call center
Customer Effort Score (CES) – evaluates how demanding it is for the customer (or employee) to resolve a specific request
This approach is also consistent with the conclusions of Gartner research (2019), according to which organizations that combine multiple CX metrics achieve 20% higher accuracy in identifying key problems in the customer journey.
The result was not only more data, but above all the ability to distinguish between “strategic” and “operational” problems- i.e., between what affects long-term loyalty and what worsens everyday experience.
Speed as a competitive advantage
In insurance, the real quality of service is not recognized at the time of sale, but at the moment when the client is dealing with a problem—typically a claim event or a complaint.
It is precisely here that the insurance company set new key performance indicators (KPIs), focused on:
- speed of first response
- total case resolution time
According to a McKinsey study (2020), companies that are able to reduce the time to resolve customer requests by 20% have up to 15% higher customer retention rates.
The technological basis of this change was the InsightSofa tool, which:
- automatically categorized individual cases
- tracked their progress in real time
- automatically escalated responsibility in case of delay
However, it was not only about technology. The key was setting processes and responsibilities so that no input “fell through.” The speed of response became measurable and transparent across the organization.
Data without context is not enough: The role of internal tagging
One of the most common problems of CX programs is that organizations collect a large amount of feedback, but are unable to interpret it effectively.
This insurance company therefore introduced a systematic process of internal tagging of feedback, which combines automation with human input.
The process works in three steps:
1. Automatic tagging based on predefined rules
2. Contact with the customer, aimed at identifying the real cause of the problem (the so-called root cause)
3. Final categorization of feedback by an employee
This approach reflects the findings of Harvard Business Review (The Most Important Question You Can Ask Your Customers, Reichheld, 2003), which point out that quantitative data alone without qualitative context lead to incorrect decisions.
Thanks to the combination of automation and human understanding, the insurance company gained a much more accurate map of problems – and the ability to prioritize those that have the greatest impact on customer experience.
CX as an organizational discipline, not a project
The most important result of this transformation was not the introduction of new tools or metrics. It was the change in the role of CX within the organization.
Customer experience became:
- a source of decision-making at the management level
- an input for adjusting processes and products
- a tool for managing team performance
According to a Forrester study (2021), companies that systematically integrate CX into management achieve up to 1.6× higher revenue growth than their competitors.
From service provider to partner
The result of this transformation is a shift that is fundamental for the entire industry: the insurance company ceases to be a passive service provider and becomes an active partner to the customer.
This is manifested in three areas:
- the ability to respond quickly to the needs of clients and partners
- decision-making based on real data, not assumptions
- long-term strengthening of loyalty and trust
In an environment where products are ceasing to be the main differentiator, this capability becomes a key source of competitive advantage.
Insurance is thus entering a new phase—a phase in which those who are able to systematically manage experience win. Not as a marketing initiative, but as the core of their business.
