Serving our customers

Our claims philosophy

At Zurich we recognize that making a claim is a moment of truth. It provides us with the opportunity to deliver on our promise at what is often a difficult time for our customers.

Zurich’s claims philosophy places our customers at the heart of the claims handling process by ensuring we treat them with empathy, by being responsive, proactive and communicating clearly.

Our customers are the individuals, families, businesses and institutions that face risk every day. We must earn their trust – and the commitment of the agents, brokers and others that help us serve them. We must deliver the insights, products and services that empower them to understand and protect themselves from those risks.

Floods, hope and pasta

The historic town of Benevento sits approximately 50 kilometers northeast of Naples. It is a place known for food, including fine pasta. As an insurer, Zurich is helping customers in towns like Benevento to become more resilient to floods.

Helping Portugal cope with floods

In the final hours of October 2015, a powerful storm and heavy rains pounded the Algarve region. Flood waters rose quickly, threatening residents and businesses in communities along Portugal’s south coast. By Sunday morning, November 1, it was clear that some of the worst-affected areas faced a major disaster.

Our approach

Caring for our customers is part of our commitment and customer centricity is one of our core values. We have set ourselves challenging targets in terms of customer delivery and we are committed to improving the service we provide. Our claims teams regularly monitor performance against these targets, looking for opportunities to improve service.

A program is underway to simplify processes and how we interact with our customers; its goal is to increase customer advocacy, and make our service faster, simpler and more transparent.

We work hard in each market to bring the strength and experience of the Group to our claims handling while respecting local market practices.

Customer complaints

We aim to provide customers with a high standard of claims service, but there may be times when they feel they have not received the service they expect from us. We know it is important to deal with customers in a professional, courteous and fair way. We take our customers’ concerns and complaints seriously and we are proactive about using the feedback we receive to improve all customers’ claims experience.

Measuring our claims performance

We regularly ask customers to provide feedback about their claims experience. We measure customer advocacy using a process called Net Promoter Score. We value the information we get from our customers, which helps us to improve our service.

Feedback from employers has shown us that they want their insurer to do more than just pay claims.

Zurich in Ireland provides security to thousands of companies and their employees by providing a disability product, aimed at providing support in times of illness.

Feedback from employers with this product has shown us that they want their insurer to do more than just pay claims. Employers are looking for our specialist advice and expertise to help them reduce workplace absences and to provide rehabilitation services and assistance with medical treatment, helping their employees return to work quickly, where possible.

In response to this feedback, Zurich introduced an Early Intervention Programme. We use our experience to identify, at an early stage, absences that have potential to become long-term and help facilitate a faster recovery and a successful return to work for employees. Zurich also offers to provide treatment options which otherwise might not be available, for example cognitive behavioral therapy or, if an employee is waiting for treatment, we can offer to fund treatment privately.

Employees benefit from the availability of medical opinions and treatment at an earlier stage and the knowledge that their employer will provide support for them in the event of illness.

Supporting vulnerable customers who can find dealing with companies confusing and difficult

Vulnerability is a topic of growing importance across the financial services industry and our UK business has been working to ensure vulnerable customers, for example, someone with dementia or who has been recently bereaved, are supported in their interactions with them.

Zurich in the UK have developed a vulnerable customers policy which outlines the approach Zurich takes when identifying potentially vulnerable customers and the commitment it makes to not intentionally run its operations in a way which would negatively impact vulnerable customers. It has set out a strategic aspiration to serve every customer in way that feels personal, is effective, and is uniquely Zurich. Zurich recognises that its customers are individuals with specific needs and requirements and believe that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach for ensuring the delivery of good outcomes to vulnerable customers.

On-line training for all UK employees aims to ensure that they are able to recognise a vulnerable customer, understand the impact that vulnerability can have on an individual’s ability to do business with Zurich and suggest ways to improve the service we offer for vulnerable customers. Vulnerable Customer Champions have been appointed across front-line services with responsibility for sharing best practice as well as supporting any referral/escalation from customer service employees. Our UK business has also sought to integrate vulnerable customer considerations into its product development process.