Most industries measure contact center performance across a high volume of routine, low-stakes interactions. Insurance is different. Policyholders typically contact their carrier only a handful of times a year - at purchase, at renewal, or when filing a claim - and each of those interactions carries outsized weight in whether they stay.
Why Insurance NPS Runs Lower Than Other Industries
CustomerGauge's insurance benchmarking puts the industry average Net Promoter Score around 35 - lower than many other service industries. Research on NPS drivers has found that in health insurance specifically, the strongest correlations are with a "painless claims process" and the sense that the company "acts in my best interest." In other words, NPS in insurance is largely a referendum on how the contact center handled someone's worst moment, not their best one.
The KPI That Matters Most: Claims Experience
Research from CX analytics firm Convin found that when policyholders experience smooth claims processing and responsive support, renewal likelihood increases by 35%. That single number should reframe how insurance contact centers prioritize their KPIs - claims-adjacent quality isn't a support metric, it's a retention metric.
KPIs to Track Beyond NPS
- First-contact resolution on claims calls specifically, not blended across all call types - a claim that requires three callbacks erodes trust faster than a routine billing question that does
- CSAT measured at claims resolution, not at first contact, since the emotional stakes (and the CX risk) peak at resolution
- Average hold time during high-volume claim periods (after a regional weather event, for example) - this is when abandonment and frustration spike hardest
- Customer Effort Score at renewal - a renewal that requires the customer to re-explain their policy history is a warning sign, not a formality
Where AI Fits, Carefully
AI voice agents and automation are well-suited to routine insurance contacts - coverage verification, payment status, simple policy questions - freeing live agents for claims calls, where empathy and judgment matter most and where the stakes of getting it wrong are highest. Automating around a claims call, not automating the claims call itself, is generally the safer place to start.
The Takeaway
Insurance carriers don't get many chances to prove their value to a policyholder. The contact center KPIs that matter are the ones measuring what happens during those few chances - not the volume metrics that matter more in higher-frequency industries.
