A customer’s experience is the single factor that has the biggest impact on their loyalty, highlighting the importance of customer centricity in the insurance sector. According to the State of Connected Customer survey, 84% of customers believe that a company’s customer experience is just as crucial as its goods or services. Despite this, there is an enormous gap between what customers want and what most companies actually give.
Modern insurance BPO businesses operate similarly. Many years ago, insurance customers held the belief that they had to purchase insurance as a commodity product based on what was easily accessible. A more intelligent consumer with a wide range of demands and wants has emerged because the market became saturated over the previous ten years with more insurance products and possibilities.
Customer-centricity is becoming the norm in the insurance industry
The insurance sector has transitioned to a customer-centric business strategy emphasizing Customer experience. According to the State of Connected Customer report, Ninety percent of insurers have a C-suite position specifically for the customer experience, such as a Chief Customer experience or Chief Customer Officer, and eighty-five percent of insurers deploy Customer experience efforts across the customer journey (CCO).
Many insurers recently adopted more constructive adjustments, such as:
- Introducing additional avenues for customer communication regarding claims and inquiries about policies.
- Increasing the dependence onto ensure expertise-led deliverables
- Exhibiting hybrid interactions (human and artificial intelligence, physical and virtual, direct and agent-based).
- Daily or yearly engagement with clients is opposed to only during renewal.
Different Ways To Serve Consumers Better
● Customer-shared data should be demonstrated as valuable
To enhance the insurance customer experience through technology, one must ensure accurate data is available as close to real-time as possible to address demands and obstacles. Even when the engagement is digital, insurers may build more individualized policies and experiences with access to the correct data at the right time. By trusting businesses, customers are more likely to provide more voluntary information in the future.
Insurers should specifically ask customers to share data across all interactions and make it as simple as possible for them to do so, besides articulating the advantages of sharing both consumer and insurance-related data, as well as providing openness on data use. For instance, if customers aren’t asked to repeat the information they’ve already given, they’re more willing to supply additional details. You can focus on asking for new data to understand your consumer by pre-filling information that has already been gathered.
● Enhance the end-to-end use of AI
Starting with a solid understanding of the industry and AI-based technology will benefit businesses by enhancing speed, accuracy, and efficiency. Due to the enhanced efficiency, insurers have more time to develop the individualized connections customers look for when selecting an insurance plan.
The IFFCO Tokio General Insurance Company is a prime example. After learning that up to 30% of its clients were dissatisfied with evaluating their claims, it had to enhance its claim procedures. The insurance set up an AI-based Claim Damage Assessment Tool (CDAT) that evaluates vehicle damage from photographs users upload via an app using innovative computer vision and deep neural network techniques.
● Provide intelligent workflows for agents and policyholders.
Incorporating exponential technology into every process stage, insurers see the potential to revamp their systems and processes, creating intelligent workflows that combine data with AI, straight-through processing, automation, etc. Integrating functions across organizational boundaries empowers staff, makes clients feel known, expedites service, and provides them with quick refunds, or claim settlements.
Touchless claims processing is an innovative method of handling a claim right from the First Notice Of Loss (FNOL) to a settlement with little to no human intervention. Fully automated claims are extremely important for commercial auto insurance since they have the potential to increase profits. One of the most practical ways to increase profitability and improve the customer experience is to connect businesses (repair shops, rental cars, tow trucks, etc.) from beginning to end. This is because claims and losses are so high in this sector.
● Customer interaction should be omnichannel.
Insurance businesses should prioritize integrating their systems and platforms so that agents can have conversations with customers that flow smoothly between different channels. An example would be telling a customer service agent over the phone that the person they are speaking to just sought a life insurance quote online. The agent can then easily change the quote and send it back to the customer via text message with personalized options so that they can complete it while getting the best advice from the live agent via a mobile device.
According to the IBV report, insurers should give attention to individualized digital communications, which just 17% of insurers reported using but which 50% of clients identified as a foremost priority. Currently, insurers primarily contact clients by phone (51%) and regular mail (50%). These methods are expensive and produce random interactions. Customers are looking increasingly for ways to communicate online, including through outsourcing insurance support.
Make your organization future-proof: Ahead Of COVID Crisis.
In the aftermath of the COVID crisis, carriers can adopt a comprehensive strategy to revamp operational models. This entails reducing dependence on legacy operations and enhancing resilience against unforeseen events. This strategy might involve looking into regional disaster recovery, operational risk protocols for sites, supply chain resilience (such as vendor redundancy and business process outsourcing), and workforce flexibility. Lastly, carriers may also think about launching new products that are appropriate for a downturn in the economy, like simple and more affordable insurance BPO services, small-business insurance, and higher-face-value life insurance plans without a medical assessment. Through insurance back-office outsourcing you can reach out to your customers in the right way even during times of crisis.
Conclusion
Insurance companies can go beyond a transactional relationship with their policyholders by using data to create personalized experiences, integrating AI into every step of the customer journey, implementing intelligent workflows, and connecting with customers at the right time on the right channels with personalized content. By outsourcing insurance administrative services these companies can benefit tremendously. By creating goods and services with the client experience in mind, insurers may become reliable consultants who influence customer loyalty and purchase decisions.
Related Post: How Insurers can Handle the Increasing Expectation of Customers?
