Digital service can be more impactful than ad spending
The customer acquisition journey no longer ends when prospects click the 'Request a Quote' button.
In 2020, the top three insurance advertisers spent more than $3 billion combined on advertising, according to Statista.
The focus of that spending has long been on brand recognition to ultimately drive leads to the start of the sales funnel — whether it be the carrier’s website, a mobile app or a conversation with an agent.
Despite the billions of dollars spent to acquire new policyholders, the insurance industry’s abandonment rate is still between 70% and 90%.
In today’s digital world, the customer acquisition journey no longer ends when prospective policyholders click the “Request a Quote” button. Failing to engage with a lead during the quoting process risks abandonment. Carriers that see this as the beginning of the customer acquisition process, with the ability to engage, answer more questions, and leverage the digital experience to build a deeper relationship can lower abandonments and drive toward more conversions.
By failing to invest in and ultimately provide a seamless digital experience during the quoting process, carriers are missing out on a substantial amount of new business and many millions of advertising dollars are going to waste.
Digital Customer Service (DCS) solutions present an opportunity to change that for the better.
Proactively customer engagement reduces abandonment rates
When a prospective customer engages with an insurance company for a quote, they’re demonstrating a high degree of buying interest. It’s critical that during this process, carriers are delivering a seamless digital experience on-screen. Leaving the completion of an application solely in the hands of the customer results in the high abandonment rates we see today.
What happens if the shopper is a first-time home buyer and they’re asked for their desired coverage limits and deductible? These are important decisions and data points that they may need assistance in answering. Imagine a scenario where the prospective customer hits a friction point and has no means to have their question resolved OnScreen.
Forcing the customer to disengage from the website or mobile experience to make a clunky phone call, only to reauthenticate and explain the situation at hand all over, will spark frustration and lead to abandonment. Instead, by leveraging Digital Customer Service, insurers can create ways for applicants to seamlessly connect at the moment of need with the insurer, receiving instant answers and guidance. This creates much more value than any ad could.
To truly deliver service that meets customer needs, the traditional phone-centric approach must be replaced by a truly digital-first strategy that never requires a departure from the digital ecosystem to dial into a generic and inconvenient phone experience. Digital Customer Service empowers insurers to meet prospective customers where they are in the digital domain and engage with them how they prefer—whether that’s chat, video, or voice.
And, through leveraging capabilities like CoBrowsing, insurers can securely see what’s on customers’ screens in real time, providing instant context and details around the issue at hand. They can quite literally get on the same page as their customers.
Today’s digital world has provided great online options for purchasing insurance, but neglecting the customer experience during the buying process is resulting in many missed conversions. Insurance companies have an opportunity to transform their Digital Customer Service experience and ensure their advertising dollars aren’t wasted on sky-high abandonment rates. Just think, a 10% improvement in your current abandonment rate, which can easily be achieved by deploying leading Digital Customer Service solutions, can potentially deliver millions of dollars in increased premium.
Phil Brown (phil.brown@glia.com) is head of Insurance GTM for Glia, a provider of Digital Customer Service (DCS).
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