Customer experience

Encinitas, Calif.-based Work Loss Data Institute (WLDI) released its 2012 State Report Cards for Workers’ Comp this week. The report, which is used to track trends and give states a grade and tier ranking based on their performance, now includes data from a 10-year period. Forty-three states are covered, plus Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

Professional insurance agents have what insurance customers are looking for, according to research results issued by the PIA Partnership. The PIA Partnership is a group of insurance companies that works collaboratively with PIA National to conduct research and develop tools and resources designed to benefit professional independent insurance agents. PIA is a national trade association that represents member insurance agents and employees who sell and service all kinds of insurance.

Amica Mutual received the top honor for overall excellence from InsuranceQuotes.com’s inaugural Insurance Quality Awards.

New survey puts insurance companies at the bottom of the list in terms of consumer-friendliness on the Web.

For the second straight year, MetLife leads life insurers in annuity considerations through the first three quarters, ended Sept. 30, 2011. Prudential Financial and Jackson National Life Group round out the top three in the rankings released by SNL.

According to data from ACSI LLC, P&C insurers are improving customer satisfaction, while life insurers are steady and health insurers are slightly declining. For its American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), ACSI annually conducts interviews with approximately 70,000 consumers and plugs the information into an econometric model to measure satisfaction with a wide range of industries, products and large companies. The results are released on a monthly basis, with all measures reported using a scale of 0 to 100, and this month it was the insurance industry’s turn.

While the insurance industry was an early adopter of mobile technology for basic communication functions, it has lagged in developing and implementing internal and customer-facing applications.

Humana Inc. has acquired Anvita Health, a health care analytics company. Humana uses Anvita's Insight engine currently; Anvita Health will continue to operate independently as a subsidiary of Humana.

The industry constantly hears about the problem of retiring knowledge workers and that young people aren’t drawn to insurance careers. The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY) is doing something about it. On December 7 the association hosted more than 50 high school students who participated in InVEST, an insurance industry classroom-to-career education program.

Fledgling social network offers unique potential if search engine personalization comes to fruition.