Easy to find, easy to reach

Why do customers still call?

In short

• Friction costs customers. After a "poor" or "just OK" digital claims experience, 52% of customers were likely to leave or not renew, against 4% after an "excellent" or "perfect" one (J.D. Power, US, 2025).
• You can start small. A few clear UX fixes, and a visible way to a person for the questions that matter.

You forget the PIN of your bank card, and the only way to get it back is a phone call, or even an appointment at the office during working hours. Most people know that situation. When digital self-service could solve it online in a few minutes, why should either side lose that time?

Yet many companies have invested in self-service, and their customers still call, frustrated. And how many don't call at all? When the same friction happens again and again, some customers simply switch to another provider.

Why it matters for the business

A contact handled online costs a fraction of a call. Gartner found about $0.10 per self-service contact, against $8.01 on average for a call, chat or email (2019 figures).

It also affects whether customers stay. In a 2025 J.D. Power study of US insurance claims, 52% of customers with a "poor" or "just OK" digital experience were likely to leave or not renew. With an "excellent" or "perfect" experience, only 4% were.

Where self-service breaks today

The Belgian insurance ombudsman received 9,429 requests in 2025, 13% more than the year before. Insurers got slightly easier to reach, but 1 complaint in 4 is still about response times and reachability: long waits, phone menus, being passed from one person to the next.

Self-service often stops halfway. In a 2024 Gartner survey of 5,728 customers, only 14% of service issues were fully resolved in self-service, and only 36% of the "very simple" ones. In 43% of failures, people couldn't find content that matched their issue.

Banking shows where people draw the line. In a March 2026 Febelfin survey, 89% of Belgians use a banking app, and 93% of app users find it easy. They use it for routine tasks: payments (76%) and checking balances and transactions (69%). Those who still visit a branch go mainly for advice: investments (37%), their personal financial situation (36%) and loans (22%). Routine moved online. Decisions with consequences did not.

Small fixes, fewer calls

Put the answer on the screen where the question comes up. Baymard Institute's 2026 research on self-service areas shows where this goes wrong. Baymard studies online shops, so the translation to insurance and banking is ours.

• Show the status where the request lives. An expected date, who is handling it and the steps in between, on the claim or loan application itself. Order tracking is the self-service feature people rate most important (Baymard).
• Send updates before people ask. Good digital status updates are a top driver of claims satisfaction, yet insurers deliver them only 22% of the time (J.D. Power).
• Confirm that something is happening. Clear next steps and a confirmation that the request is underway give people the confidence to stay in self-service (Gartner).
• Show the full contract. An app or online file should show all the conditions the customer signed, or say clearly that it shows only part, with a link to the rest (Belgian insurance ombudsman).
• Make payouts and refunds clear. Show the amount, how it will be paid, when it will arrive, and a confirmation. One participant, caught out by a refund screen before, called it "a bit sneaky" (Baymard).
• Let people edit, not delete. An address, a bank account or a beneficiary should be changeable in place. One participant could only delete a saved card to update its expiry date (Baymard).
• Explain what's no longer possible. When a deadline passes, or a button disappears, say why and what to do instead, "in brief but understandable terms" (Nielsen Norman Group).
• Make getting back in easy. Let customers view or reset a forgotten card PIN in the app, after a quick security check. The same goes for online logins: show the password rules up front and let people see what they type (Baymard).

Why bother with small fixes? Because, as Nielsen Norman Group puts it, a predictable interaction "creates trust not only in the mechanics of the site or the app, but also in the brand itself".

For the IT team: what sits behind these fixes

Most of these fixes are screen and content work, but a few need data from the systems behind the app. A status on the claim page only helps if it comes from the claims system, so it updates without anyone typing it in and can send a notification when it changes. Showing a card PIN in the app needs a strong security check and a short display time.

Keep the door open for anyone

Some questions need a person, such as a refused claim. And even customers who never call want to know they could. A visible way to reach someone tells them real people will help.

This is where good self-service pays off twice. When your app answers the simple questions, the people who still call are mostly the ones who really need you. So you don't have to guard the door with long phone menus, or a chatbot that decides who gets to talk to a person. Keep the door open and let people help themselves, so those who need a hand know they can come to you.

The Belgian insurance ombudsman sees the same thing. Long waits, phone menus and being passed around frustrate people, and chatbots sometimes give standard answers that don't fit their case. Its advice is simple: digitalisation must never come at the cost of personal contact when it is needed.

Where to start: sort your top ten contact reasons

All you need is last month's contact reasons and an afternoon.

1. List the ten most common reasons customers phoned or wrote last month. Mark each one "just to know" or "has consequences" (money, cover or a decision).
2. For each "just to know" question, put the answer on the screen where the question comes up. Then try it yourself on a phone.
3. For each question with consequences, make sure a way to a person is visible on that same screen.
4. Look at the list again next month. Did the "just to know" reasons shrink?

Where we can help

Most of this doesn't need a new system. It needs the right information on the right screen, and a visible way to a person. That's design work on the website or app you already have. At devatwork, UX design, security and AI sit in one team, and you talk to the people who build it. Read more about our UI/UX Design service.

Sources: Ombudsman van de Verzekeringen, Jaarverslag 2025 (June 2026); Febelfin, "Belgian banking: more digital, still physical" (March 2026); Gartner, self-service survey of 5,728 customers (August 2024); Gartner, "Only 9% of customers report solving their issues completely via self-service" (September 2019); J.D. Power, 2025 U.S. Claims Digital Experience Study (December 2025); Baymard Institute, "Accounts & Self-Service UX Research Update and Expansion" (September 2026); Nielsen Norman Group, "Visibility of System Status" (2018).