The data: Eighty-three percent of US consumers would switch insurance carriers due to a poor claims experience, per Invoice Cloud’s 2025 Consumer Claims Experiences Survey. This suggests that claims interactions, while rare, are make-or-break.

Digging into the data: Speed to payout is a major factor in claims satisfaction: 82% of customers expect payouts within five days, per a Vitesse survey—but in Invoice Cloud's survey, the largest share of respondents (27%) waited more than a week, and just 10% were paid within two days. Furthermore, 40% cited time-to-payment as the top thing they'd change about the claims process.

Zoom out: Two areas of claims satisfaction are within insurers' control.

• Technology adoption. Insurers are modernising claims handling—streamlined intake, automated routing based on severity and complexity, virtual appraisals. These reduce friction for customers and workload for carriers.
• Faster payouts. Real-time payment rails (the Fed's FedNow, The Clearing House's RTP) now reach hundreds or thousands of US financial institutions, giving insurers the infrastructure to pay claims instantly rather than waiting on ACH.

Our take: Relationships between insurers and insureds are traditionally very sticky—insurance is a “get it and forget it” product, with most customers only interacting with their carrier at purchase and at claim. That makes claims one of the few moments where customer loyalty is actually tested.

Direct-to-consumer insurtechs have reset expectations around claims speed, and legacy carriers are now measured against that bar. As real-time payment infrastructure matures, carriers who don't modernize their payout processes risk losing customers to those who already have.