Scaling customer communications for insurance providers

As technology has evolved, companies have had to change the way they communicate with their customers. Customers want to feel like they’re part of a two-way conversation. This has become increasingly critical as companies begin to reevaluate the importance of a loyal customer.

Related: Insurers must rethink communications to secure customer loyalty

No longer is the focus solely on keeping the customer — it’s about treating customers as brand ambassadors who have the ability to publicly speak about the service or product they receive.

Commercial insurance providers have recognized the importance of elevating their customer communications. The never-ending expansion of communication channels creates both a challenge and opportunity for businesses. With this in mind, here are a few ways insurance providers can create a more meaningful experience for both potential and current customers.

Understanding a customer’s wants and needs

When choosing an insurance provider, a potential customer is primarily focused on gathering information that allows them to make the best decision. Once a relationship is established, the way the company engages with a customer determines if he or she will remain loyal and satisfied or become displeased and potentially move to a new provider.

Research shows that only 13% of consumers are labeled as loyalists, and will remain with the same insurance provider for a long period of time. The more staggering statistic to consider is that 54% of U.S. consumers switched providers in the past year alone. This indicates that insurance providers need to create better communications with their clients.

Where the customer is in his or her journey with a business also impacts how a company communicates. Potential customers will likely see campaign-oriented communications offering just a few high-level points to pique their interest. With more tools in play to help businesses learn about customer preferences, these campaigns will become more targeted toward each specific customer segment.

For example, individuals who live in a hurricane zone would receive a targeted email campaign that highlights key safety tips to prepare for hurricane season. This information would be both unique to their needs and timely given this occurs during a certain time of year.

Once the prospect officially becomes a customer, the number of channels they can be reached through expands and the need for personalized communications becomes essential. Insurance carriers are looking to new technologies to accomplish this.

Embracing the cloud

The cloud is attracting more and more insurance providers — especially as the technology continues to improve communications and reduce wait times for customers. According to Forrester, 73% of consumers say that valuing their time is the most important thing any company can do when providing a service.

Insurance companies require an abundance of information from their customers and obtaining that information can be a daunting task. The ability to streamline the process is, therefore, an important priority for insurers.

Using cloud-based technology provides benefits in other areas as well, such as facilitating digital transformation efforts and making information gathering a much smoother process. Modern, cloud-based technology can also result in increased internal efficiency.

Related: Perfect customer experience with persona-based engagement

Changes such as reducing the number of necessary document templates, simplifying the implementation of changes to those templates and allowing insurers to more easily ensure consistent branding across each communication channel can go a long way in improving the process for the business user and the resulting customer experience as well.

Joining all of these benefits together via cloud capabilities can also save organizations as much as 14% of their annual budgets on customer communications efforts. With 70% of insurers already using the cloud, the remaining providers that haven’t yet adopted the technology will likely do so to remain competitive.

Adapt communications to embrace customer self-sufficiency

With technology bringing endless accessibility of information, customers are more likely to seek it out on their own. Half of customers find it important to be able to solve issues on their own, and 70% expect the company’s website to include some sort of self-service application. This speaks to those customers who prefer to file claims and update information via online forms. If a company’s website has issues or lacks information, 56% of customers will leave and check a competitor’s site.

Customers’ desire to be self-sufficient isn’t a new concept. However, the trend is predicted to become even more apparent in the coming years. Gartner recently predicted that, by 2020, customers will manage 85% of company relationships without any human interaction. This means new technology — such as chatbots and AI — will become the norm. Of course, certain requests can only be accomplished by speaking to a representative for the most effective result. But the amount of actual dialogue will continue to decline as plan holders seek to take advantage of new technologies and channels to interact with businesses.

Insurance companies have many options to improve the way they communicate with their customers. By taking advantage of new technologies like the cloud, and understanding what each individual customer is looking for, providers can create a more personalized experience that’s easy to understand.

As more channels of communication are created and technology continues to improve, it’ll be interesting to see what’s next for organizations aiming to improve their relationship with customers.

Related: Insurers face new challenges int he age of engagement

James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications (smart@crenshawcomm.com), has more than 25 years of software experience and has deep expertise leading high-growth SaaS organizations and ensuring success among enterprise-level customers in highly regulated industries.