Make It Your Policy: Digital Transformation in Insurance
In today’s ever-changing landscape, small and medium-sized insurance agencies face a tough challenge — how to keep up with the digital transformation initiatives that large firms have already put in place to service their clients. The answer can be found in adopting cloud-based communications and collaboration from a single provider, designed to help smaller agencies improve the customer experience, while streamlining their front- and back-office processes and boosting agent performance.
How Digital Transformation Changes the Game for the Insurance Industry
Digital transformation carries many benefits for consumers, especially when it comes to choice, transparency, and convenience. But small and mid-sized insurance agencies also stand to reap rewards from digitalization, particularly if they capitalize on insurance solutions to transform their existing business processes. That can include everything from rolling out a state-of-the-art app to re-inventing their day-to-day workflow — all with an intent to create a top-quality client experience.
A cloud-based communications system can allow agents and clients to stay connected from virtually anywhere — connections that can be accomplished through calling, messaging, and video, on desktop and mobile apps or IP-supported devices.
Insurance agencies can also seamlessly integrate with a range of business applications that allow them to engage with clients in meaningful ways and create personalized conversations.
In addition, digital transformation enables agencies to capture, share, and re-use recorded calls between employees and clients for training and record keeping, and to have a central repository for verbal agreements around insurance policies.
Why Insurance Agencies Need to Adopt Initiatives in Digital Transformation
By adopting powerful digital solutions, insurance agencies can deliver a higher level of client service. That’s especially important for smaller firms that are trying to survive and grow in a competitive market. Those that don’t modernize their communications to more efficiently engage with customers and prospects could lose out to the competition.
According to research and advisory firm Forrester, “Insurers are looking to streamline front-, middle-, and back-office processes; better manage their multi-clouds; fend off customer defections with customized offerings; and optimize the use of app developers, as well as expanding their numbers.”
Customers have grown accustomed to technology-enabled convenience in almost every aspect of their lives. And they expect insurance firms to provide these same types of products and services, in addition to greater pricing transparency and faster responses, anywhere and anytime.
GLOBAL RESEARCH STUDY
Why Customer Experience Should Be a Priority for Insurance Companies
Customers across the board are less willing than in the past to settle for poor service or bad experiences. In fact, Vonages’s 2022 Global Customer Engagement Report reveals that three out of four people say they’ll abandon a company due to bad customer experiences, and for nearly half of those people, just one or two negative incidents is all it will take.
Insurance buyers are no different. It’s easy for a prospective client to shop around for better rates, broader coverages, different types of policies, and other factors that fit their needs.
Establishing proven digital communications can help smaller insurance agencies:
Conveniently deliver quotes and policies
Add personalization to their customer conversations and transactions
Interact with customers in multiple channels
Become more proactive in how they connect with customers
If needed, integrate with CRMs and agency management systems to give both in-office and mobile agents the ability to better serve customers
The Role of Personalization in Customer Satisfaction
Today, personalization has become table stakes. Especially for smaller insurance agencies — where clients often know their agent, maybe even are friends with them — a personal touch is essential.
People expect a personalized insurance experience. They want to be able to call or video call or text their agent when they need a question answered, or to get a quick cost-effective quote, file or track a claim, receive renewal reminders, resolve issues, and other actions. What’s more, the majority of consumers demand seamless mulitchannel experiences that really can only be delivered via an omnichannel platform like you’ll find with Vonage Business Communications.
In short, a consistent, proactive, meaningful level of personalization can establish trust and build long-term loyalty.
The Benefits of Digital Transformation for Insurance Agencies and Clients
By adopting digital transformation — and with the help of a proven business communications provider — insurance agencies and their customers can enjoy a wealth of benefits, including:
Better agent performance — You can capture call recordings and monitor calls to ensure accurate delivery of quotes and insurance policies and timely claim adjustments during employee and customer engagements from anywhere.
Manage call volumes — Professionally manage high volumes of incoming calls with call queues that provide prompts to navigate to appropriate departments, options to receive a call-back or wait for the next available agent.
Connect in preferred channels — The power of omnichannel unified communications connects employees to clients in their preferred channels. By offering rapid service, real-time price quotes, and more in the communication channel of choice, you can build customer loyalty and brand empowerment.
Integrations — Agents can have a customer's policy details at their fingertips right as a call is coming in thanks to integrations with a CRM, AMS, Salesforce, and other tools. The result: faster and more accurate customer support and service.
Next Steps
Are you ready to up your business communications game? Discover how Vonage Business Communications unifies calling, messaging, video, and an ecosystem of third-party integrations, including CRM and Agency Management Systems (AMS), to optimize customer service for small to mid-sized insurance agencies.
