Sunsuper’s move to an e-claims process has increased satisfaction amongst claimants by 35 per cent.
E-claims was launched last November, with the average lodgement taking 20 minutes, allowing assessment to begin a lot earlier, compared to the standard paper and snail-mail based approach.
Within three months of launch, Sunsuper was receiving 70 per cent of its lodgements through the e-claims service.
“Not only did customer satisfaction improve, our employee cultural engagement results also improved,” Amalie White, manager of member benefits at Sunsuper, told delegates at the Group Insurance Summit in Sydney.
“Online forms can adapt to the information presented, to ensure the member only answers questions that are relevant to their situation and to their condition.
“This reflective questioning enables personalised lodging experience for members and is the reason we received an award from the FSC (Financial Services Council) for consumer innovation.”
She added it was important to get the right mix of human and digital interaction and as such, the member (or their representative) could lodge over the telephone, online in their own time, through traditional paper and snail-mail or through a combination of all the options.
An aspect White sees as important for e-claims success is that during the lodging process both the assessor and the claimant see the information displayed in the same way on the screen, assisting with the ease of communication.
“The next release in e-claims will include claims tracking,” said White. “We expect this to further increase our customer satisfaction and reduce complaints, particularly around keeping members informed and up-to-date during the claims process.”
Sunsuper uses an embedded service model that sees 30 AIA claims assessors and underwriters sitting with the super fund’s claims team in the head office.
“Whatever the outcome of the claim, whether it is an approved or declined [claim], we want our members to feel supported, emotionally and financially,” White say.
“Part of our member service offering is talking about financial advice, particularly for members who are declined on a claim, as they are likely going to be financially troubled and we want them to know we can offer them some support in terms of advice.”
