Disruptive Customer Service.

Disruptive technology in the insurance business has seen doorstep selling made obsolete by the call-centre and now the call-centre being replaced by the internet. Similarly on the complaints side. It costs £25 to deal with a client's letter in the UK, £15 if the back office is moved to India, £9 if the complaint is made to a call centre and 50p to reply to an email.

So costs are being pared and price competition is paramount. The result: no customer loyalty and Norwich Union is cutting 4000 jobs from its 36,000 UK staff in face of competition from online insurers that can sell 100,000 policies with a staff of only 100.

As an editorial I read on this subject said "Unless drivers abandon their taste for cheap cover and internet convenience, tens of thousands more jobs will disappear overseas and into the digital ether."

Perhaps, but what if an insurance company thought about eliminating complaints rather than costs? Might the consequently hassle-free experience generate word of mouth and be worthy of higher margins? Disruption doesn't have to be technology-led.