Received my yearly update of my insurance policy details from my Insurance company recently. Reading through it reminded me how rarely I even think of my insurance unless I need to make a claim. Except when I get their letter.
This time I’ll read it through carefully and have also rung and asked them for a copy of the wordings, house, contents and car. Having worked in the industry for several years I also realised I should have kept up to date with the changes in both the coverage, the company and the industry as a whole.
This also led me to wondering how many regular customers are of the same – out of sight, out of mind – attitude. With earthquakes, severe weather episodes to name only a couple, it would really benefit consumers to also be reminded of insurance changes and conditions more often than once per year.
Conditions within the policy can often throw you a curve ball. I am reminded of an incident many years ago regarding the theft of a borrowed water blaster from outside of our house and the discussion about the coverage of this between my husband and myself. The confusion here related t the fact that the item was only borrowed, not hired with a contract, and so of course we were not the owners. My husband’s interpretation of the wording was not the same as mine and I expect many other consumers would have had the same understanding as he did.
Doing some research this morning, I was impressed by an innovation by one insurance company, which encourages customers to take photographs of the accident and send it, on an app, to a claims adjuster, facilitating a much shorter turn around. An excellent aid for their customers.
Another company offers a special kind of car insurance for drivers, aimed at those who don’t have to use their cars all the time. From my point of view a real plus.
I read of a house fire doing more than $1M damage to the property. My goodness, that must have been a heck of a lot of house!.
Something that showed up more and more often was the need for agents who can provide personalised advice and service. Not just instructional notes on a website. While many of us these days are familiar with the web and how to find our way around it, there are still many who (like a friend of mine) have no idea how to use a computer, nor any desire to do so.
So this advice is still sound, especially if you want to appeal to customers you’re unlikely to find just using online options.