With the end of the pandemic now a distinct possibility, Canadians are expecting the property and casualty insurance industry to up its game in customer service, industry execs observed in a recent webinar.
‘The move to digital [in March 2020] was so immediate and so abrupt that…it wasn’t done flawlessly,’ Nathan LaFayette, chief insurance officer at CAA, said during the Reuters webinar Tuesday.
‘Because of the quick pivot to digital in the industry, customers had a lot of patience….If you answered the phone, if you were able to get digital copies [of insurance documents] out, if you were able to handle their inquiry…they were happy.
‘I think what we’re seeing is that people’s patience is running out. That window of forgiveness is closing.’
When the World Health Organization first declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic in March 2020, governments across Canada ordered the closure of non-essential services that could not work from home. That sent Canadians — and the P&C industry — into a 14-month-long period of working remotely to help contain the spread of the virus.