Setting up for success in an unpredictable world
While insurers need to do what they can to hold onto their valued customers, they don't need to put their own organizations at risk.
We are living in a world of constant, disruptive change. Unemployment rates have skyrocketed, and valued customers are struggling to pay their premiums, especially since most policies do not cover loss from pandemics. New regulations have emerged around COVID-19 that mandate compliance. And insurance companies are being flooded with customer inquiries.
While insurers need to do what they can to hold onto their valued customers, they don’t need to put their own organizations at risk. Here are a few thoughts on how companies can continue delivering for their policyholders while also ensuring that their businesses thrive.
Expedite customer queries
Given the time-sensitive nature of most customer queries and the rising number of claims, expediting responses has never been more important. Customers want to know if they can postpone payments due to job loss. They want to know if they can indemnify any recent losses. They want to know the extent of their liability coverage and what concessions can be made if they are facing financial hardships.
Meanwhile, remote work is no longer a trend, but a way of life. A recent Gartner CFO survey revealed that 74% of companies intend to keep at least 5% of their previously on-site employees at home post-pandemic due to the financial benefits. Because customer service agents tend to work collaboratively, solving customer issues remotely can make that more challenging. Manual, disjointed processes and distributed information only make an agent’s job harder, especially since that individual can’t ask for advice from the person in the next cube. Even at home, however, agents don’t have to feel disconnected.
Remote service reps need digital collaboration tools to communicate with subject-matter experts and triaging tools to help them manage the surge of queries and redirect them to other channels. For example, email bots with natural language processing can instantly read, classify, and assign emails to cases to ease the burden on front-line service reps so they can resolve customer issues more quickly.
Boost policyholder retention
It can cost up to five times more to recruit a new customer than to retain one, so holding onto current policyholders is critical right now. But that doesn’t mean companies have to sacrifice business continuity. Insurers can strengthen their customer relationships by treating their policyholders with empathy. Rather than waiting for policyholders to contact them with a problem, forward-thinking insurers can reach out using real-time centralized data and intelligent automation to recommend the best course of action, both for the policyholder and the provider. For instance, if a valued customer missed their last premium payment, an agent could proactively offer temporary deferments, alternative payment options, or provide retention incentives. This is not the time to upsell customers. It’s a time to empathize with their situation.
Think about tomorrow
Not all customer queries are created equal. Some can be triaged with technology. Others are urgent, complex requests that require a personal touch. COVID-19 has introduced new challenges that staff have never dealt with before. As a result, the time required to resolve issues has increased. To handle the surge, agents need a way to determine each policyholder’s unique situation in the moment and make recommendations on-the-spot. By prioritizing queries regardless of channel and providing a complete audit trail to ensure regulatory compliance, agents will be able to focus on servicing their customers as individuals.
While COVID-19 has exacerbated customer service issues over the past few months, these issues aren’t new. By tackling these challenges now, organizations can be better prepared for whatever the future may bring.
Tom Harrington (Thomas.Harrington@pega.com) leads global strategy for the insurance market at Pegasystems and has more than 20 years of insurance industry and software experience. He works with leading carriers on innovation, profitable growth, digital transformation and policyholder engagement initiatives. Prior to joining Pegasystems, Tom led product development, distribution strategy and technology initiatives at Liberty Mutual, and was a commercial lines insurance broker at Aon.
These opinions are the author’s own.
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