The path to improving the insurance customer experience
The challenge for today's insurers is to keep pace, stay competitive and remain relevant in an always-on, technology-driven world.
The insurance industry has changed dramatically over the last decade. An alphabet soup of innovative ideas — from AI and IoT to RPA and UBI — have advanced an understanding of the possibilities of personal lines insurance. Combine that with a well-informed consumer base that is equipped to change course and reverse shopping decisions at a moment’s notice, and it is clear that things are moving fast.
The challenge is to keep pace, stay competitive and remain relevant.
As insurance reimagines what it means to be a consumer in an always-on, technology-driven world, a universal business truth remains: To succeed, you must understand your customer. With a renewed emphasis on delivering an exceptional experience in the context of a 24/7 shopping cycle, there are several important ways that digital marketing can enhance the customer relationship to help meet these ever-changing needs and expectations.
Take the customer journey
In today’s market, the experience is more important than the transaction, so understanding the customer perspective is paramount. Before you can delight your customers, you have to understand the journey they take with your business and brand.
By taking a consumer-centric approach and a design-thinking angle, it is possible to surface current and potential challenges within the flow. This enables the targeting of intended outcomes and informs which triggers to adjust, as well as when and how. Occasionally, you may be surprised to learn that you may not have to change a thing. Still, even when this is the case, it is dangerous to believe your business can function on autopilot. As the consumer landscape is always evolving, there will always be a need to refocus and refine customer interactions and anticipate shifting needs.
Perceive and respond to customer expectations — sometimes before they even know what they are — and you will drive engagement. Once you get inside the mind of the customer and actually interact with your brand the way they do, you understand the fine-tuning that is required to make it easier for them to conduct business with you. Light this path for them, and they will continue to do so.
Tailor your marketing
It is more important than ever to tailor the user experience and interaction with your brand. With a rich, seemingly unlimited digital toolset and advanced analytics never more than a keystroke away, it is also fairly easy to analyze individual markets, customize plans, and drive desired outcomes. Segment-specific marketing and distribution, coupled with informed product, service and claims processes, can quickly yield numerous advantages and preferred results.
In addition to providing a better brand experience and creating cross-channel touchpoint opportunities, these actions can help power the Holy Grail: sustainable growth. Displaying the right offer and message to the right person at the right time provides a personalized experience that’s unique to the user. Individualizing your marketing approach can also quickly and advantageously set you apart from competitors.
Get real with AI
Regardless of shopping activity, everyone wants a personalized experience. Many modern artificial intelligence tools offer incredible levels of sophistication and insight, yet can still be deployed with relative ease and affordability. This enables digital-channel calibrations that can quickly improve the shopping experience.
Marketing with AI can be achieved in a number of ways, including product suggestions and campaign optimization, as well as audience expansion, segmenting and targeting. With the increasing popularity of voice search, it is equally important to adapt a digital marketing strategy to this new consumer preference. We all have specific shopping expectations. Whether we realize it or not, this includes what we now expect of voice technology, which has made the search for products more personal and conversational. With an outcome of improved brand awareness and loyalty, and newly attracted and retained customers, the obvious imperative is to add AI to your channels. Leverage this new technology to create stronger consumer relationships and results.
Many insurers are fortunate to be among the most recognized and powerful brands in the world. Even for companies that are not yet a household name, personalizing the customer experience through content and delivering on customer commitment is essential. Regardless of awareness, consumer expectations are being set by others — think Amazon and Google.
Getting the customer’s attention can be difficult, but once you have it — congratulations! Now it is your responsibility to deliver on the promise they expect from your brand, products and services. It all starts and ends with the customer, so listen to them, put their needs first, and exceed their expectations. If you can do that, you have earned their business and are well on your way to keeping it.
As executive vice president of customer experience and marketing for CSAA Insurance Group, Linda Goldstein (linda.goldstein@csaa.com) leads all aspects of marketing, including digital marketing, brand management, marketing analytics, market research, customer-experience management, data strategy, and direct marketing. She was previously vice president of marketing channels and partners for CSAA Insurance Group, where she developed new marketing and analytics capabilities and led integrated marketing plans to support insurance growth for AAA club partners. Prior to joining CSAA Insurance Group, Goldstein had a 17-year career with Citigroup, where she held various senior executive marketing positions. She has a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and an MBA from Fordham University. She serves as president of the board of directors for Berkeley Humane.
These opinions are the author’s own.
See also: