Automate and implement self-service, offer multi-channel contact center interactions, be there when customers need you, align with social issues, and remove friction by simplifying the experience are five examples of best practices of customer experience (CX) in the insurance industry. Below are discussions of each best practice, including examples of companies following the practices.
Automate and Implement Self-service
- Research findings show that automating processes promote accuracy and visibility for critical operations like claims and underwriting. Consequently, automation creates more efficiency, facilitates higher productivity, and fosters faster decision-making.
- Implementing self-service reduces customer service costs, expedites processes, increases agent productivity, delivers more personalized customer services, and reduces call volumes in call centers.
- Automate and Implement self-service model qualifies as a best practice of CX in the insurance industry because, numerous reports like US Hitachi Solutions, Forbes, and Canon Business Process Services, Inc. cover it.
- Next Insurance, a small business insurer, automated its process to eliminate the need for middlemen in the claims and policy process.
Offer Multi-channel Contact Center Interactions
- According to Genbin, offering multi-channel contact center interactions featuring email, fax, phone, SMS text messaging, and web chat options ensure an exceptional customer experience. These solutions allow business prospects to interact with your business when and how they prefer.
- Providing superior channel interaction solutions encourage the target audience to use the company’s websites, as opposed to insurance aggregator sites. Such a move would enable insurance companies to differentiate their offerings, offer more customized solutions, lower costs, and scale up sell rates.
- Importantly, different industry reports and experts review this best practice. Moreover, it is applicable in the insurance sector as it promotes the building of lasting relationships with customers and enhances the physical and interpersonal benefits of the process.
- State Farm is an example of an insurance company utilizing an omnichannel approach to its advantage.
Be There When Customers Need You
- Insurance service quality is a key performance indicator consumers use to rank the best performing insurance companies. Insurance companies that score high understand the importance of pleasing customers and being there with them in cases of emergency or accidents.
- Customers judge insurance providers over many episodes; however, they delight when their companies respond to them during the “moments of truth,” i.e., when consumers need help the most.
- Research shows that multi-channel customers score their insurance companies higher, versus digital-only channel customers.
- Liberty Mutual is an example of an insurance company that uses Amazon Alexa to extend its services to customers regardless of their location.
Align With Social Issues
- Insurance companies need to align their brands with causes their audiences, specifically millennials, and Gen Z can get behind. These generations show more interest in patronizing companies that share social concerns. Moreover, 73% of consumers believe companies should offer more than just products and services.
- Additionally, companies can as well go green by converting all paperwork to electronic format to ensure they are universally available and accessible to all individuals. In return, the streamlining increases efficiency and reduces the costs of storing and managing paper records.
- Aligning with social issues qualifies as a best practice of CX in the insurance industry because the idea is reiterated in more than one report, i.e., Canon Business Process Services, Inc. and Jacobs & Clevenger.
- Geico is an example of an insurance company applying the go green initiative.
Remove Friction by Simplifying the Experience
- Insurance companies need to make it easier for customers to perform various insurance functions, such as contacting an agent, filing a claim, etc., to help consumers get help without difficulties. Systematically removing friction is among the key customer experience tenets.
- In this regard, insurance companies need to build websites that better understands and serves the consumers’ needs. Simplifying the experience to deliver a customer-first efficient experience will ensure customers do not leave your site for information or answers they could not get.
- Removing friction by simplifying the customer experience qualifies as a best practice for customer experience (CX) in the insurance industry because it is mentioned by industry experts and covered by three different reports, i.e., Jacobs & Clevenger — a full-service agency, S. Hitachi Solutions — a service management company, and Providentins — a volunteer firefighter & emergency services company.
- Manulife, a Canadian insurance company, created a simple website that could better understand and serve the needs of its consumers.