Policyholder expectations pose challenges for life insurers at every stage of the customer journey
Press contact:
Fahd Pasha
Tel.: + 1 647 860 3777
E-mail: Fahd.Pasha@capgemini.com
Policyholder expectations pose challenges for life insurers at every stage of the customer journey
- Best-in-class life insurers – those delivering quantifiably outstanding customer experience – achieve a 38% higher Net Promoter Score (NPS) than their mainstream counterparts
- 67% of best-in-class carriers are ready to leverage generative AI to innovate their policyholders’ experience and optimize operations
-
Life insurance industry must shift perception away from simply ‘death insurance’ to engage new generation of policyholders
Paris, October 15, 2024 – The Capgemini Research Institute’s World Life Insurance Report 2025, published today, reveals that the life insurance industry is struggling to meet today’s customer experience expectations, with legacy technology being a major barrier to driving meaningful change. However, the report identifies a small group of life insurers globally delivering quantifiably outstanding customer experience to achieve ‘best-in-class’ status. In comparison to mainstream insurers, these innovative companies have been rewarded with a 38% higher Net Promoter Score (NPS), an 11% lower expense ratio, and a 6% higher revenue growth than the rest of the industry in the last three years.
Faced with high inflation, economic uncertainty, and waning interest, life insurers are at a critical juncture as the industry confronts a 33% fall in penetration in mature markets1 between 2007 and 20232, with one-in-two policyholders saying their experience is underwhelming. Much of this dissatisfaction permeates through the entire customer journey, particularly across product offerings, onboarding, servicing and claims/surrenders.
Insurers face challenges at every stage of the customer journey
At the onboarding stage, one-in-three (35%) retail policyholders struggle with complex terms and 27% don’t like the lengthy application process. After purchasing a policy, one-in-four (25%) retail
and group customers express frustration due to long wait times, while 23% are frustrated by the inability to access self-service options for policy changes. The claims process also poses
challenges, primarily due to a lack of digitization: one-third (35%) of retail policyholders say they face a complicated claim application process, with 27% noting a lack of empathy during the
claims experience.