For years, insurance companies have talked about consumer centricity being a priority but have had difficulty following through. This needs to be reimagined in a big way. In fact, according to LIMRA, a not-for-profit trade association, more than 58% of insurers for health, property, life and disability failed to reach out to their policyholders or potential consumers.6
Take a more measured approach to CX by being multichannel and integrating channels that can provide consumers with a seamless, low-effort experience. Consumers must be able to navigate the channel network easily and use the channel combination depending on their needs while enjoying information consistency during the entire journey.
Insurers’ opportunity to enhance seamless omnichannel strategy7
of insurance consumers state insurers have only “moderate” sophistication (some integration exists but consumers cannot seamlessly switch between channels)
Only 6% of insurance consumers state insurers have “high” sophistication (channels are fully integrated and provide seamless CX)
The key to omnichannel success is to focus on three factors: engagement, empowerment and emotional connection.
Engagement
Time is of the essence when it comes to interacting with consumers and the number of touchpoints needs to increase in the right channels. Brands should be proactive and reach out before their policyholders need help, such as sharing available resources when it comes to travel or life insurance when major or life-altering events arise. Choosing a channel such as WhatsApp, for example, can be a creative and productive way to reach out to consumers in a familiar and easy-to-use platform.
Digital channels: Ease of use is key to success
Special attention should be given to digital channels that can improve consumer experience levels, but only if brands make them easy to use so they’re adopted by policyholders. For instance, auto insurance brands have seen stellar results in their CX levels due to strong implementation of their digital channels. “Overall satisfaction with the auto insurance claims process increases to a record-high 880 (on a 1,000-point scale), up eight points from 2020.”8
These brands have been investing heavily in streamlining the claims process using straight-through processing via digital channels, from first notice of loss to repair shop, leading to faster cycle times and record-high levels of satisfaction for auto policyholders.
But not all insurance sectors have experienced the same success. P&C insurers have an opportunity to enhance their digital connections with policyholders. “Slower cycle times and growing pains associated with transitioning to digital servicing channels caused overall satisfaction scores to decline to a five-year low.”9
Consumers used digital tools to upload photos via digital channels to assist the estimate process and status updates. But because these digital tools were not always meeting expectations, support staff needed to get involved. This break between digital tools and functionality hindered the customer experience instead of improving it.
Empowerment
Providing self-service channels, content and resources in a simple, easy-to-understand manner will increase the trust factor between you and your consumers. As most insurance products are complicated, offering good pricing and no hidden exclusions can go a long way to building trust and lifetime consumer value. Some ways you can share your wealth of knowledge more efficiently can include easy-to-navigate web pages with strong FAQs, apps with push notifications and chatbots for instant responses.
Emotional connection
Use data to provide agents with specific details about consumers so that empathy and emotion can be used in a productive way to best communicate and offer different products and services. For instance, in the case of auto insurance, agents can lean on technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to use proposed responses and specific language to convey empathy to policyholders who have been in automobile accidents. This offers additional support and guidance to foster trust and care in conversations with this specific consumer set.
6 - Swiss Re, “Why insurers need to care more about customers and how to do it in a digital age,” swissre.com.
7 - Gartner, “Top 3 customer experience trends for digital insurance 2022,” gartner.com.
8 - J.D. Power, “Auto insurance claim satisfaction rises on combination of soaring vehicle values and growth of straight-through-processing claims management, J.D. Power finds,” jdpower.com.
9 - J.D. Power, “P&C insurers encounter digital growing pains amid large scale disruption,” jdpower.com.