The legalistic nature of insurance policies can sometimes result in misunderstanding and misinterpretation, producing friction between insurers and their customers. Reducing this friction by delivering greater transparency of the claims process has been a key element of AXA’s approach to claims for nearly a decade.
At AXA, providing clarity for customers and improving efficiency are key business priorities so they are giving their award-winning Making Claims Clear initiative a revamp.
Launched in 2014, Making Claims Clear is designed to help policyholders and their brokers fully understand the policy, how it is intended to work and how best to keep within the terms and conditions to give the best chance of a seamless claims process.
“One of the things we want to do this time is focus on preventing issues arising, getting ahead of matters so it’s not at the point of claim when our customers, who may have already faced difficulty and stress, find they are not covered as expected,” says Karl Parr, Claims Technical Services Director at AXA Insurance.
“We are looking at some of the common reasons for repudiation and offering practical guidance to help get customers back on their feet with a focus on explaining terms and conditions in plain English, so customers know exactly what they are buying.”
The guides, which will be available digitally on AXA Connect from November 2021 onwards, cover everything from personal injury and escape of water claims to underinsurance and storm damage.
The advice is being updated to take into account changes to regulation and the law over the last seven years and to highlight emerging areas of contention.
“We’ve got a couple of new topics such as the whiplash reforms and business interruption in the wake of the pandemic claims,” says Karl.
“We have had a real diverse group of people working on these, including our broker advisory group, to make sure that things like changes in case law have been updated and kept current.”
While the guides can’t guarantee a faultless claims experience for customers and their brokers, Karl believes anything that gives clients more insight into their policy and how it works is vital to improve the customer experience and shore up the industry’s reputation.
“They should certainly help clients and their brokers to understand the issues that can arise but, crucially, they will hopefully make brokers better equipped to manage client expectations. Through proactively educating both groups the claims process will become more seamless and more transparent,” he says.
“Increasing the level of transparency with brokers and clients in this way will make the claims process easier, more efficient and, hopefully, result in less opportunity for confusion.”