A better customer experience should be the top priority for P&C insurance companies that are ready to push new digital capabilities forward. (Photo: Funtap/Adobe Stock)Property and casualty (P&C) insurers are bracing for impact for a coming wave of new customer enrollments and policy changes as the pandemic recedes. We don’t know for sure when it will hit, but changes in property owner needs are already here. Property owners now have to take into account that there’s a housing boom, that businesses are reassessing liability, and that cars once used for long commutes may now only be used for leisure.
As restaurants and retail outlets reopen and companies determine their hybrid workplace formula, P&C customer needs will change again. Are you ready for this potential influx of new policies and change requests for existing policies? The best time to get ready is now, and the most effective strategy for streamlining processes while ensuring a personalized customer experience is to go digital.
Beyond aiding with an influx of paperwork, going digital will also help you meet your policyholders where and when they prefer. Many people who previously shied away from digital interactions with brands learned to do so out of necessity in the last year and now prefer to communicate with companies this way. Insurance aggregators are also out there making price comparisons simple for customers who are thinking of changing P&C carriers. You can avoid losing customers by using automation to provide personalized communication and streamlined results.
Automated claims communication is a proof point
Forward-thinking P&C companies have already automated many communication workflows around claims, improving the customer experience with prompt responses based on accurate data. While some P&C customer care people worried that digital communication would make customers feel like a number, the exact opposite happened: People appreciated the prompt, personalized communication.
P&C companies’ initial focus on implementing automation in claims communications made sense because this is when customers need their carriers the most. The pandemic intervened to ramp up consumer adoption of digital channels to minimize contact, and this will continue to be a gamechanger in how business is done. Touchless claims processing is expected now, but as customer expectations evolve, your company will have to keep up.
A recent PwC report on insurance industry service models noted that “customers now expect to transact normal-course business digitally.” This includes customer communication related to signing up for new policies or making changes to existing coverage. With automated claims communication as a proof point, it’s time for P&C companies to look at ways to digitize communication beyond claims.
Expand digital communication to drive a better customer experience
If you’re ready to push digital communication capabilities up the service funnel to support conversations around new policies and policy changes, driving a better customer experience overall should be the top priority. You’ll want to match the high standards of speed, accuracy and personalization you achieved with automated claims communication.
One of the first steps will be to make sure you have workflows in place to ask new and existing policyholders for their permission to have a conversation and find out which digital channels they prefer, e.g., text, SMS, social media channels, email, etc. Effectively managing consent and respecting customer preferences is essential to establishing a relationship built on trust.
You’ll also want to make sure you’re consistent across all channels and deliver value every time you communicate with customers. You can keep things simple with a digital communication add-on that shares data across applications. This will also allow you to drive timely, consistent, data-driven messaging that meets customers where they are.
With the right approach, you can automate conversations around quotes, policyholder call and meeting scheduling, new policy issuance and customer onboarding tasks by using data to deliver a personalized experience to each customer. It doesn’t have to be complicated — in fact, the simpler, the better. A digital add-on that uses APIs can provide the personalization and consistency you’re looking for to streamline communication around new policy onboarding and policy change management.
Remember — it’s all about the customer experience. New and existing policyholders are emerging from the pandemic with different expectations, and P&C carriers need to be ready. You know it can be done because automated communication has already been deployed successfully in the claims process. Now it’s time to take the next step with new policy and policy change communication. You can do this!
Tara Kelly is the president, CEO and founder of SPLICE Software, with offices in Calgary, Alberta and Chicago, Illinois. SPLICE Software serves insurance carriers, retailers and other enterprise companies through intuitive software platforms that enhance customer experience and enable better operations delivery. The opinions expressed here are the author’s own.
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Going digital: You did it for claims – you can do it for enrollment, too - PropertyCasualty360
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