Insurance industry ranked “below average” for e-customer service

The insurance industry performed well in phone customer service, but was ranked as below average when it came to customer service through email or the Web, an eGain survey found.
eGain Communications Corporation, a customer service software provider, evaluated multiple aspects of Web self-service and contact centre customer service of 175 companies in the U.S. and Canada.
The companies covered a spectrum of sectors, including, retail, insurance, healthcare, consumer goods manufacturing, financial services and pharmaceuticals.
Analysts used a “mystery shopper” approach. Aspects of the customer service experience were rated on a scale from zero to four (a score of less than one being ‘poor’ and above three as ‘exceptional’). Scores were abstracted to an overall service quotient for each of the companies, as well as for the industry sector and overall market.
The overall performance of the insurance sector was unchanged from 2008 with a “below average” score of 1.8.
Web self-service improved from 1.3 (below average) to 1.7 (still below average, but improved).
Email customer service dropped slightly from 2.2 (above average) to 2.1.
“The industry has yet to adopt eService [email, Web chat, co-browsing] best practices,” an eGain release says.
“For instance, a stunning 84% of the companies did not send an automatic acknowledgement of email queries, a common best practice that can help set the right expectations and elevate customer experience.”
Roughly 28% of the companies simply did not respond to email queries, ignoring revenue opportunities, it added.