Deploying technology within the insurance sector involves solid long-term strategy regarding investments, time-to-value, optimising operational costs and ensuring sustainable and scalable IT infrastructure adequate to the new market requirements. To transform, technology must be integrated into all areas of an enterprise so the focus rests on the customer. With few exceptions, insurance has become a commodity, and the price is key.
About 70% of consumers do research online before buying insurance. They may look at comparison sites or ask for recommendations through social media. There is an increased shift in customer loyalty driven by improved offerings and new innovative players on the market. If insurance companies want to strengthen customer loyalty, they must add value to the customer experience. Incorporating insureTech can improve customer experience and increase customer loyalty; however, technology can only accomplish that if it is used to meet customer expectations. If not, technology fails the fundamental test for digital transformation -- focusing on the customer.
What Are Customer Expectations?
Recent surveys found that customers are looking for:
Seamless Experiences
Self-Service Options
Personalized Experiences
It’s good to know that 67% of customers are willing to pay extra for these experiences.
So, how can insureTech help deliver an exceptional customer experience?
Seamless Experience
A seamless experience is a chain of interactions that follows a natural and efficient process that generally avoids repetitive actions for the client.
Insurers need technology that can store all customer interaction in one place. Customer relationship management or CRM solutions are designed to collect and store customer interactions from initial contact through ongoing support. With CRM technology, a customer service representative can say "I see you had this problem last week" instead of "Can you explain your problem again?" Meeting customers where they are is part of delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Customers expect a seamless hand-off between technology and humans. About 85% of respondents believe that a sales or service agent should be aware of what transpired through a chatbot. Consumers are looking for self-service before human service, so companies need to know what the customer has tried on their own before talking to a human.
Self-Service Options
A recent study by McKinsey found that during 2020 consumers developed different online shopping behaviours. About 65% of respondents indicated that they planned to incorporate these changes into their shopping routine. McKinsey also found that consumers preferred self-service features over live customer support.
Consumers may be using more digital channels to interact with insurers, but they are dissatisfied with the quality of service. In fact, the insurance industry ranked last in customer satisfaction across all sectors. Hard-to-use tools were the primary friction point. Many tools were not designed for an omnichannel delivery, making solutions difficult to use on mobile devices.
Applications can deliver a uniform digital experience regardless of the device. Consumers know they can use Facebook and news sites on a laptop or phone without struggling to read the displays. If insurers do not adopt similar technologies, it will be difficult to develop customer loyalty.
Personalized Experiences
Customers want personalized service. They don't want to be categorized as millennials or seniors and treated as a group. No one wants to feel like a number. Instead, people want insurers to understand where they are in life and what they need without having to tell them.
For example, knowing the overall lifestyle, social activity and economic footprint of the consumer can assist insurers in offering a custom product that reduces the overall cost for the client and brings added value.
Analytics and predictive modelling are two technologies that can highlight past behaviour and identify future trends. Finding innovative ways to address future needs is another way to personalise experiences. Delivering innovative solutions to the right market segment lets them know you understand their willingness to try new things.
What About Employee Experience?
Digital transformation is customer-focused, but it cannot ignore the employee experience. According to the Harvard Business Review, a one-star uptick in Glassdoor employer ratings corresponded to a 7.8% to 18.9% increase in long-term valuation.
Improving Employee Experience
InsurTech isn't only for customers. Deploying better technology makes it easier for employees to succeed in their jobs. Automation can replace routine tasks. Keying the same data into multiple systems not only introduces errors but takes up valuable time that employees could be devoting to customers.
An end-to-end solution that centralizes data ensures a single source of truth throughout the enterprise. When information is inconsistent, employees do not use it. With a trusted source for data, employees have the confidence to perform to their highest level.
Technology to Meet Customer Expectations
Insurers need to understand what is the right infrastructure for their organization that fits the company’s’ strategy for digitalization. Part of that is the ability to share data across the enterprise. Cloud-based solutions can help deliver information to any device at any time.
Integrated solutions that allow data to be accessible in direct support of the customers can also provide information to big data for analysis and predictive modelling. Insurers can use data to make decisions quickly instead of waiting days for reports to be generated. That data means being able to pivot faster to meet market needs.
At ScaleFocus, our mission is to empower the digital transformation in the insurance sector. We focus on delivering omnichannel customer-centricity. End-to-end value creation by implementing coherent digital insurance cycles, based on a modular, scalable, and future-proof platform. Conveying for our clients easy to launch digital products and adopt innovative technologies (IoT, Al). Be a champion in the connected digital ecosystem. Tap into our expertise and transform your enterprise into a digital success.
Comments