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The Future of Personalization in Insurance Claims

Posted on July 10, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Ruth Fisk, VP Insurance Marketing at Smart Communications

Customers today have sky-high expectations. They expect to be able to do whatever they need digitally and expect around-the-clock access to services from any device. And they expect ease, speed and personalization in every digital experience—not just when it comes to online shopping or ordering food. Now more than ever, consumers want the same simplicity and on-demand availability they’ve become accustomed to with delivery services and similar apps in all aspects of their lives.

For insurers, this means radically transforming processes that have traditionally been manual and paper-based. As new players enter the field, providers need to catch up to the latest digital capabilities or risk losing market share. That’s why insurers are prioritizing overall efficiency, faster settlements and reduced policyholder effort. As part of this effort to become more efficient and effective, insurance leaders are focusing on one of the most common pain points: claims management.

Smart Communications, in partnership with Salesforce and Insurance Innovators, recently conducted a survey of more than 150 insurance executives and found that 95% agree that the claims experience is where insurers have the greatest opportunity to win loyalty—but also the greatest risk of losing it. In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into this new research and look at how insurers can:

Use personalization to reimagine the claims process for today’s consumer needs and priorities
Build brand trust and loyalty
Get to know their customers better
Drive long-term growth

All of the information below is from the report Hyper-personalization in Claims: Streamlining Processes to Build Loyalty and Trust, produced in partnership with Salesforce and Insurance Innovators.

The Current State of Personalization in Insurance Claims

Previously, filing an insurance claim meant a lot of forms and hassle. While the insurance industry has been on a somewhat slower digital transformation trajectory compared to other industries like retail or banking, recent world events threw that arc into overdrive.

When the global pandemic struck, sweeping stay-at-home orders brought about transformative change to countless activities, from how we work to how we get food. Suddenly, people were doing everything digitally — holding virtual meetings, doing mobile banking, even ordering groceries online and having them delivered right to their door.

Meeting consumer expectations is at the forefront of every claims manager’s mind, especially while insurers seek to exceed their claimants’ expectations — while still balancing the need to effectively investigate and settle claims. To do so, the claims experience requires digital solutions to support hyper-personalization and two-way customer conversations, while also providing easy-to-use interfaces and seamlessly delivering information across customers’ preferred channels and devices.

The increased exposure to digital services in the past two years has broadly impacted consumer expectations. And insurers recognize this—85% believe that the level of live interaction customers experience with home deliveries has set a new benchmark for the insurance claims experience. Poor experiences include paper-based forms, tedious processes and having to repeatedly enter the same information. In a highly competitive market, just one bad experience can cost the loss of that customer’s business for life.

Insurers need to level up to meet these new expectations. Keep in mind, insurance interactions will be measured against the customer’s last best digital experience. That means insurers are being compared with big brands such as Amazon, Netflix and Instacart which calls for radical change. The good news is that change is definitely possible through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which can enable insurers to better align their processes and software to meet customers’ growing expectations. Even better, the data below shows that (at least some) insurers are catching on:

Insurer AI expectations by end of 2023:

88% will pre-populate FNOL forms
83% will tailor scripts
70% will adapt forms in real time
67% will allow channel shifting
43% will use AI for omnichannel orchestration

There’s a real opportunity for insurers to meet the moment and rethink outdated processes. In addition to simplifying claims, protecting valuable customer data is also critical in today’s digital world. Not only are paper forms inefficient, but they also put sensitive data at risk. Digitizing forms helps improve processes and protect customer data, which enables straight-through processing to allow for faster claims.

Hyper-personalization: The Future of Insurance

According to our survey, insurers currently have three top claim-related priorities: significantly reducing time-to-decision, building trust with claimants and improving customer loyalty.

The industry believes hyper-personalization will result in:

Increased efficiency (89%)
Faster settlement times (84%)
Deeper trust and loyalty (94%)

To deliver on all three goals, insurers will need to adopt modern technology platforms that can help them personalize customer conversations. This means pulling customer data into digital forms to save time and hassle and making the relevant forms, processes and information available around the clock.

It’s no longer enough to add digital experiences to a website. Today’s customers expect to engage across channels—from mobile apps to social media. And to switch channels when needed, without having to start over. Taking advantage of sophisticated technology solutions allows insurers to meet customers where they are.

The research found that 83% of insurers agree that their ability to shift channels with customer needs and circumstances is a key factor in deepening trust and loyalty. Insurers can exceed expectations by providing seamless cross-channel experiences, which allow policyholders to fit interactions into their day without disruption. For example, they should be able to start a claim on a mobile app and follow up via web chat without losing the thread or having to answer the same questions again.

How Automation Can Help Insurers Meet the Moment

To meet today’s customer expectations, insurers need to focus on creating the kind of digital interactions that build trust and loyalty. They need to simplify and streamline processes, reducing the hassle factor when it comes to filing and managing claims. To drive the kind of customer satisfaction and retention that leads to long-term revenue growth, it’s time to bring hyper-personalization into the picture.

Hyper-personalization is about pairing customer data with automation to tailor communications and experiences individually, and at scale. Pulling existing customer data into AI-powered smart forms reduces customer effort—a common claims pain point. And by streamlining FNOL interactions as well as status updates, decisions and settlements can be made faster.

Where claims handlers have traditionally spent significant time asking questions and collecting information, automation can now do the work instead. This saves time on both sides and frees up staff to provide personal support for the more complex, high-value cases when a human touch is really needed. Plus, customizing conversations makes the whole experience more personal, so customers feel seen and appreciated—a key component of building brand loyalty.

In the realm of insurance claims, hyper-personalizing customer conversations significantly increases end-to-end efficiency, resulting in a higher quality and more satisfying experience for the claimant.

Change the Conversation with Cloud Technology

The best way to deliver hyper-personalization in claims is for insurers to invest in and adopt a cloud-first strategy that focuses on optimizing the end-to-end customer experience. The Conversation Cloud helps insurers move beyond paper-based processes to implement a digital-first strategy at scale, optimize the end-to-end customer experience and make every interaction SMARTER.

The right digital platform works seamlessly with core systems including claims management tools — giving insurers a way to turn one-way, transactional messages into two-way, interactive conversations. Insurers can then put existing customer data to use and enjoy frictionless experiences when collecting new data. And with an omnichannel approach, it’s easy to meet customers where they are on their preferred channels and devices — bringing the convenience they expect into the insurance experience, too.

Investing in a solution that enables insurers to provide personalized claims experiences yields measurable returns, including:

89% increased efficiency
74% reduction in settlement time
74% reduction in customer effort

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To take a deeper dive into the information shared in this blog post, check out Hyper-personalization in Claims: Streamlining Processes to Build Loyalty and Trust, an infographic produced in collaboration with Salesforce and Insurance Innovators.

How Cloud Adoption in Insurance Can Help Enterprises Remain Agile and Improve Business Outcomes

Posted on March 30, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Insurance Strategy at Smart Communications

It’s no secret that cloud functionality is, and will remain, a factor that can produce big benefits for insurers, now and in the future. Recently, Smart Communications joined many leading companies in the insurance industry at Guidewire Connections in Las Vegas . We heard about the importance of cloud adoption in insurance, the current state of the industry and what is still required of insurers in order to remain agile, improve business outcomes and deliver on customers’ ever-changing expectations.

Of the many themes discussed over this four-day event, it was interesting to hear about what’s keeping insurance leaders on their toes. Things like cyber risk, new distribution models, data and analytics potential, as well as the ability to quickly adjust to inflation and changing market conditions were all referenced as key priorities. Additionally, cloud adoption became a focal point when discussing how insurance companies can attract top talent.

In this blog, we cover how digital transformation — with a focus on cloud technology — will remain integral to the success of insurers going forward especially as leaders aim to address:

Employee turnover and skills shortages
The need for agility and scalability
Deciding on the right cloud solutions to help insurers secure a future-ready organization

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE | ‘3 Ways Insurers Can Leverage the Cloud to Close Gaps Between Customer Expectations and Their Experiences’

Attract Top Talent with Cloud Adoption in Insurance

Although the current skills shortage is a hot topic across all industries, the insurance industry is especially in need of top talent. Not only will cloud adoption help insurance organizations remain agile, but it will also give them the ability to recruit better talent. Today’s talent wants to be part of something bigger than themselves – to be seen as an innovator and a game-changer.

This means that as insurers aim to attract and hire top talent, manual processes and legacy systems should be retired. This will give digitally savvy employees the processes and solutions that keep them excited about working for a forward-thinking organization. Leveraging the power of the cloud can also make insurance professionals’ jobs easier by improving employee engagement and internal NPS scores. When employees are happy, they tend to perform better, and this has been proven to extend to the customer experience.

Finally, cloud technology allows employees to be more proactive in their day-to-day tasks. Legacy, on-premise systems can offer band aid approaches to daily issues, but they’re not helping staff work toward larger challenges and/or wider company goals. With cloud, employees can be more strategic, allowing them to get ahead of customer needs and provide a better experience all around.

Enable Cross-Functional Agility with Pure Cloud Solutions

Cloud solutions help modernize IT operations, another key initiative insurers must adopt in the face of changing market demands. Part of that modernization includes enabling teams across the business to work cross-functionally with less friction and more ease. Balancing the need to maintain stable, resilient systems and the need to innovate requires an agile platform across the complete insurance lifecycle, making cloud technology the right approach

Insurance is an industry that continues to change, and it will take strong vendor partnerships in order to transform the industry standard. This means leading by example and helping to shift mindsets across industry leadership. Undoubtedly, this will require stricter alignment between the IT function and the business, enabling them to respond to market demands much quicker and in a more agile fashion.

With solutions like the Smart Communications Conversation Cloud, insurers can connect all data, applications and history, giving them actionable data in real time. Of course, this is made possible by leveraging cloud solutions with strong APIs. With the ability to act on this data, insurers can scale as needed to deliver personalized, omnichannel conversations that help their policyholders feel seen and heard as individuals. This also helps insurance companies prepare for the future and increases their internal efficiencies—all feats made possible by pure cloud solutions and impossible by sticking with on-premise solutions or legacy systems.

KEEP READING | ‘2022 Forrester Consulting TEI:SmartIQ Enables Cost Savings, Solves Business Challenges’

Leverage the Right Cloud-Based Solutions for Insurance Companies

Legacy systems or platforms don’t have the necessary interoperability to power core operations that modern, forward-thinking insurance organizations use. These systems lack the sophisticated APIs that allow companies to integrate key elements of their technology stack. Without the necessary customer data at critical touchpoints, it’s impossible to provide a personalized, omnichannel experience—all important factors in offering value to customers.

Ultimately, it’s about making insurance fit the business rather than asking insurers to adjust to a software solution. Building modern technology gives insurers the confidence to keep their attention on customer needs rather than managing systems and software. This following quote from Mobilitas, during their session at Guidewire Connections, exemplifies how Smart Communications’ pure-cloud solutions can do this:

In providing more value to policyholders, insurance companies can enhance brand loyalty and trust while increasing customer retention and satisfaction – top priorities for insurance leaders around the world. Cloud-based solutions help insurance companies reach a significant improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) and renewal retention by allowing organizations to deliver more value at a faster rate than if they were using on-premise solutions.

Existing – and succeeding – in a highly regulated industry means insurance companies need to stay abreast of the compliance requirements and regulations that are always changing and oftentimes region-specific. This is impossible to do with legacy systems and processes that are both error-prone and costly to update. For instance, something as simple as an update to the Terms and Conditions of a policyholder’s contract could go unnoticed and become an expensive oversight that damages not only the organization’s reputation but also leads to fines and fees. With cloud solutions, content can be easily updated across all instances, using the power of AI instead of leaving it up to human error or doing nothing at all.

Conclusion

Digital-first strategies are no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ for insurers, they are a necessity across an insurer’s operations. This allows insurance organizations to remain competitive and agile, helping them to take a more decisive approach to becoming a customer-centric enterprise. To effectively reduce costs and risk while also increasing customer satisfaction, retention and top talent across the business, insurers must continue to invest in cloud adoption.

Interested in hearing about how Smart Communications’ cloud solution can help insurance enterprises modernize business processes? Listen to what our customers at Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company had to say at the Guidewire Innovation Awards 2022:

3 Ways Insurers Can Leverage the Cloud to Close Gaps Between Customer Expectations and Their Experiences

Posted on October 11, 2022 by SmartComm

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Insurance Strategy at Smart Communications

Although the insurance industry has centuries-old roots, the world in which we currently live requires a modern approach to the technology, systems and processes insurers use to provide a great, end-to-end customer experience. Thankfully, there are such solutions on the market that can bridge the gap between customers’ expectations and their experiences with insurers.

While insurers have undoubtedly evolved the way they deliver products and services to customers, there’s still a fair amount of work to be done as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and customers’ behaviors – and expectations – continue to evolve. In fact, Deloitte indicated that “In setting strategic plans, investment priorities, and budgets, insurers should therefore strive to maintain the momentum of creative adaptation established over the past few years, accelerating upgrades in systems, talent, and culture while becoming increasingly proactive, innovative, and customer-centric.”

It’s clear that organizations interested in staying ahead of the game must leverage best-in-breed technology solutions to digitize and optimize key touchpoints across the end-to-end customer experience. As insurers set their priorities for 2023 and beyond, we explore three ways insurers can deliver on customer expectations and provide the experiences they expect:

1. Use Pure-Cloud Solutions to Power Core Operations

Legacy platforms lack the necessary interoperability that’s needed to power core operations used by most insurance organizations. What’s more is that outdated systems offer limited APIs, making them incapable of integrating with key elements of a sophisticated technology stack. Ultimately, a lack of integrations can negatively impact the customer experience as insurers won’t have the necessary data across multiple customer touchpoints. This inhibits the ability to provide personalized, omnichannel communications and garner deep insights into how, when or why customer expectations are not being met.

On the other hand, pure-cloud solutions help to modernize IT operations—a key initiative insurers need in order to adapt more quickly to changing market demands and deliver more value to policyholders. Equipped with a suite of API integrations, solutions like the Smart Communications Conversation Cloud offer insurers the ability to connect all data, applications and history. With actionable data at their fingertips (made possible by using cloud solutions and strong APIs), insurers can realize the scalability needed to deliver personalized interactions across all devices and channels—a feat that is impossible to achieve with a manual approach. This also helps insurance companies prepare for the future and increases their internal efficiencies..

Interested in learning more about how Smart Communications can help insurers deliver SMARTER customer conversations in the cloud? Read the white paper for more.

2. Cater to a Digitally-Savvy Customer Base

Meeting the demands of today’s (and tomorrow’s) digital-savvy customers requires insurers to adopt the technology and processes that power agility and scalability. In a recent report, Tom Super, head of property and casualty insurance intelligence at J.D. Power, stated, “The bar just continues to get higher for customer expectations around digital. And while many insurers are hitting the mark on the digital basics, few are using digital in new ways to drive growth and engagement.”

Organizations should continue investing in the delivery of two-way, interactive conversations that make possible a customer-centric experience which transcends the typical, one-way transactions most customers are accustomed to. Historically, insurers considered the print/direct mail communications they delivered very carefully—a method that was used to convey the brand and its product or service promise. Given the digital-native customers of today, insurance companies need the ability to deliver impactful, personalized and relevant conversations (two-way) in real time. This is a distinct shift from one-way, paper-based transactions (that is, no longer using the best-in-class printed piece) to digital interactions that will make or break a customer’s experience.

3. Prepare to Remain Agile

While there will always be a level of ‘unknowns’ in the business world, operating as an agile organization is a necessity. To do so, insurance companies need to focus on recruiting top talent, remaining compliant, becoming customer-centric and partnering with modern solution providers that remain on the cutting edge of technology and integrate with core systems of record in the insurance space. By bringing together best-of-breed technologies, enterprises can better respond to market demands in an expeditious and scalable manner.

As insurers explore technology options, one way to adopt a more digital-first approach in the near-term is to invest in low-code solutions. Adopting low-code, cloud technology is a competitive edge that can offer insurance organizations:

Operational efficiency
Speed to market
Cost reduction
Improved quality
Effective use of resources

But, the biggest benefit of low-code systems is that they can be implemented quickly and without added burden to internal IT departments. To be an agile organization that is positioned for the future, insurance leaders will need to continue prioritizing innovative investments.

RELATED READING | ‘2022 Forrester Consulting TEI:SmartIQEnables Cost Savings, Solves Business Challenges‘

Conclusion

Smart Communications is proud to see the growing investment in innovation across the insurance industry. As we anticipate the 2022 Guidewire Connections event in Las Vegas later this month, we’re excited to discuss the capabilities that more than 100 Guidewire customers have invested in to deliver SMARTER conversations across the complete customer lifecycle. There are several opportunities to engage with us at the show, including:

Join Smart Communications in the Ecosystem Demo Theater to watch live demonstrations of “Ready for Guidewire” offerings from PartnerConnect Solution partners. These solutions — developed by members of the world’s largest P&C insurtech ecosystem — are available in the Guidewire Marketplace.
Accelerating the Time-to-Value of Digital Platforms: Elements of Cloud-Native Success on Monday, October 24 at 1:15pm PST | Co-presented by Ruth Fisk, Vice President of Insurance Strategy at Smart Communications and Ralph Severini, Global Leader of Insurance Alliances at AWS, attendees will learn how leveraging cloud-native applications and integrations is critical to a foundation for future growth.
The Digital CIO: Taking Digital Innovation to New Heights with SmartCOMM & Guidewire on Monday, October 24 at 2:15pm PST | Ruth Fisk, Vice President of Insurance Strategy will moderate a CIO panel discussion on how providing a positive customer experience and core IT strategies can align, the role of cloud technologies and the future direction for insurance. CIO perspectives from Smart Communications customers include Amy Bingham from Pekin Insurance, Cam Loeppky from Wawanesa Insurance and Tim Hays from Mountain West Farm Bureau and 360 Insurance.

Visit the main Guidewire Connections 2022 page to learn more about the event or to get registered to join us in Las Vegas from October 23-26.

Omnichannel Insurance Solutions – the Next-Generation of Greatness

Posted on October 27, 2021 by Mary Featherstone

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Insurance Marketing at Smart Communications

We are living in an always-on world – everything from ordering dinner, to opening a new bank account or filing an insurance claim can be done from a mobile device, in real time and when it suits the customer rather than the business. This is forcing the insurance industry specifically to rethink how they interact with their customers across a variety of channels and puts pressure on them to invest in omnichannel insurance solutions to effectively orchestrate interactive, two-way conversations as opposed to transactional, one-way communications.

The insurance industry has a long history – centuries, in fact – of adapting to change like this. In this post, we dive into how an omnichannel distribution model is helping leading insurers to deliver upon their guiding principles at the same time that customer needs evolve. We also provide a real-world example of an insurer doing this today.

Omnichannel Insurance Solutions for the Future

Times have changed and so too have insurers – yet their principal purposes remain the same, including:

Payments of Losses – ensuring insured individuals are less dependent on public assistance or relatives
Anxiety Mitigation – lets people know they are covered if a loss occurs
Support for Credit – aids in obtaining loans if insured
Accident Prevention – lives and property are saved

While insurers continue to focus on delivering these same important benefits to society, today’s modern insurer depends on new technologies and strategies – including advanced omnichannel insurance solutions – to meet the changing needs and expectations of their policyholders.

It’s no secret that the industry has seen more rapid change in the last 10 to 15 years than in the combined 350 years before, with today’s most meaningful contrast tied to how insurers deliver their products and services.

Today, insurers must effectively manage – or orchestrate – customer interactions to make them part of a continuous conversation rather than isolated, disjointed transactions. An effective omnichannel distribution model enables insurers to add digital channels to their print efforts, automate common customer interactions, effectively promote two-way conversations and more. This ensures that approved, compliant communications are delivered in real time and initiated when the customer demands it.

Wawanesa Insurance and the Power of a SMART Integration with Guidewire

This rapid evolution in the last few years has prompted industry leaders to build an ecosystem that brings together the best of breed solutions with pre-built code, accelerating the delivery of this combined functionality for today’s modern insurer. Leading insurers like Wawanesa Insurance want to focus on delivering value to their customers, not on the intricacies of integrating platforms. They rely on SMART partners to make this as seamless – and effective – as possible for their teams and their policyholders.

To address this, Guidewire, a leading technology platform provider for property and casualty insurance carriers, created their Ready for Guidewire accelerators. Smart Communications has worked closely with Guidewire to develop more than a dozen of connectors available to InsuranceSuite on the Guidewire Marketplace.

Smart Communications is proud to provide the #1 Customer Conversations Platform that Guidewire customers count on to uniquely deliver personalized, omnichannel conversations – empowering them to succeed in today’s digital-focused, customer driven world.

Wawanesa leverages Smart Communications pure-cloud communications platform to deliver hyper-personalized, omnichannel experiences that reinforce the organization’s commitment to member centricity. Through this work, the organization has streamlined communications, enabled greater consistency and improved the customer experience to:

Provide a fast and simple way to share information with policyholders
Boost productivity
Reduce reliance on IT to perform all CCM related work

By investing in cloud-based solutions like the Smart Communications Conversation Cloud^TM, Wawanesa has lowered operational costs and improved the user experience, so they’re always ready to deliver leading-edge service.

“The Smart Communications claims release is a game changer by automating a time-consuming process and rationalizing an inventory of more than a thousand documents to ensure that we provide consistent, professional and accurate customer communications. Wawanesa is committed to continuing to invest, listen, and more importantly, focus on being a trusted partner.” – Wawanesa Insurance

At Smart Communications, we are proud of the innovation we’re seeing across the insurance industry, both with leaders at insurance companies around the world and with our technology partners like Guidewire. Together, we’ll continue to chart a path toward excellence, driven by efficiency inside the organization and a top-notch experience for the policyholders that together, we support.

As we look forward to next month’s Guidewire Connections event in Las Vegas, we are ready to convince you to add more power to your Guidewire investments – and improve your customer communications strategy. More than 100 Guidewire customers across the globe trust Smart Communications to deliver SMARTER conversations across the complete customer lifecycle. We’re ready to tell you why live! See you at the Smart Communications booth (P2) at #GuidewireConnections!

Lessons Through a Lens: Pandemics Changing Communication in Insurance

Posted on July 20, 2021 by SmartComm

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Industry Marketing, Insurance at Smart Communications

More than 17 pandemics have plagued the world dating back as early as 430 B.C. Some are more well-known than others, but there is no doubt COVID-19 will be well remembered as a pandemic that changed the world. The 1918 Spanish Flu, the deadliest pandemic on record, and COVID-19 have a striking number of similarities. Just more than 100 years apart, each forced business to restrict operations, schools to close, stay at home orders to be enacted, masking and social distancing to become a must. The economic and social impact of each was devasting, forcing a shift in thinking about how we deliver products and services and – as importantly, how we communicate in new meaningful ways with the customers we serve.

Insurers too have been impacted by the outcomes of the pandemic, forcing them to readjust their business strategies so that they can better cater to the expectations of today’s consumers — especially during claims interactions where their customer retention and satisfaction rates are at the highest risk. There may be lessons insurers can glean from the pandemics to help them adjust to the next new normal. Let’s take a closer look.

Evolving the Way Products and Services are Delivered

Today’s “Hollywood” was born out of the 1918 pandemic, when 90% of movie theaters were shuttered. Adolph Zukor, co-founder of Paramount Pictures, had the vision to deliver full feature films through new channels, focused on the customer experience. Adolph purchased the closed theaters, built the movie empire, and transformed the movie industry. Similarly, insurance too will need to adapt to a new way of thinking by reevaluating the customer journey – every interaction can be a make-or-break moment in the retention strategy for that customer. It will not be enough to simply set up a digital front end, while still forcing your customer to engage in antiquated processes, e.g., filling out and returning a claim paper form.

EY reports “The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the transformational trends impacting the insurance sector and highlighting the need to take bolder actions in areas such as digital capability and effective engagement to address the customer’s needs post-pandemic.”

The insurance industry must rethink its business models to meet the expectations of policyholders. Consumers expect insurers to have the ability to have meaningful, two-way conversations whenever they need them to happen, across their preferred channels (mobile, web, human). Insurers must pivot in the way they deliver products and services; to do this, they should retool their communications platforms to have SMARTER conversations with their customers.

Technology Adoption Increases During Pandemics

Communications were difficult in 1918. Individuals relied solely on printed newspapers to receive updates on the pandemic. Businesses sought new and creative ways to reach customers. The 1918 pandemic dramatically changed the way we live and communicate today. One example – in-home telephones became a staple, helping individuals and households to feel less isolated and more connected.

Insurance companies can also learn from this lesson. The policyholder typically has little to no interaction with the insurer until a claim occurs and even then they often feel like communication is scarce, which makes them feel isolated during their greatest time of need. Best practices are now showing significant opportunities to improve customer satisfaction in claims if communications are approached as personalized, two-way conversations rather than broadcasting one-way messages that leave the insured feeling disconnected.

New Communications Methods Become Mainstream

As a result of the pandemics, we can now see the rapid adoption of essential technologies that offer new ways of doing things, driven by consumers’ demands for a more digital, personalized two-way interaction. As these technology imperatives become mainstream, insurers must take the necessary steps to implement a digital-first strategy to orchestrate conversations more effectively across all parties related to the policy.

Most significant will be the continued adoption of modern communications tools and platforms whose growth was fast-tracked because of the pandemic – think on-demand movies streamed via mobile or advanced video communications platforms like Zoom, where daily downloads have increased 30x to provide opportunities for online interactions. That alone is not enough. The digital age is accelerating at an even faster pace for the insurance industry, which now faces more urgency than ever to transform operations to be more nimble and agile. This requires an insurer to act with determination and speed in their adoption of a digital-first platform.

Insurance Industry Responding to New Demands

Insurance organizations have aspired to build truly digital-first businesses over the last several years, however most had not achieved this pre-COVID. Today, the “nice-to-have” imperative is no more, with a true ultimatum in place to shift priorities and focus aggressively on this new paradigm. The pandemic has brought a seismic shift in the way consumers expect insurers to be digitally available and to respond to their preferences or jeopardize their relationship.

Nearly 40% of consumers in the U.S. indicated they changed their preference from direct mail to digital communications due to factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To survive, insurers must accelerate their digital-first approach, which includes modernizing communication platforms. A large percentage of existing insurers are still running legacy Customer Communications Management (CCM) platforms, which impedes their ability to respond to the real-time expectations of policyholders and claimants.

Insurers can build the foundational components of a digital-first strategy by changing their approach to communications including:

STEP 1: Customer Conversations Roadmaps

Create customer roadmaps that define all the communications intersection points and opportunities, as well as customer preferences throughout the claims process.

STEP 2: Modern Customer Conversations Platform

Embrace a modern, cloud-based SaaS Customer Conversations Platform to provide digital-first, automated solutions like chatbots, self-service portals and mobile apps – providing new communications channels to engage customers in meaningful two-way conversations.

STEP 3: Cloud-First Adoption

Future-proof your strategy. Provide the scale, agility, multichannel communications, seamless integration, responsiveness and speed to market by embracing a modern conversations platform purposefully built for the cloud.

STEP 4: Enjoy the Benefits

Achieve long-lasting benefits of modernizing your communications platform as a top priority within your digital-first strategy, maximizing your ability to exceed customer expectations today and into the future, while also reducing costs.

The outcome of the pandemics presents insurance organizations the opportunity to learn from the past, by adopting the newer technologies that have proven their worth in the marketplace. Doing so will enable insurers to build a solid foundation for their digital transformation strategy, making it easier to meet consumer expectations, provide long-term value and carve out new competitive advantages.

Ready to apply these lessons learned to insurance? Contact us today to learn more about how your peers used the experiences from the pandemic to provide SMARTER conversations.

Smart Communications has long been recognized by all major analysts (Gartner, Forrester, Novarica and IDC ) as a Leader & Innovator in enterprise-scale Workflow & Content Automation (WCA) & Customer Communications Management (CCM) – and most recently by Aspire in its 2021 Leaderboard Assessment, based on our proven cloud approach, our strategy for enabling meaningful two-way customer conversations and our platform that’s purpose-built for a post-pandemic customer experience.

Survey Recap: How Leading Insurers Can Build Trust

Posted on May 19, 2021 by SmartComm

By: Neil Greathead, Chief Customer Officer at Smart Communications

The year 2020 was a difficult one for nearly all industries, and the insurance industry was no exception. Customers are now more accustomed than ever to digital-first interactions, and their expectations are at an all-time high. As we enter a post-pandemic world, insurers can build trust by rethinking customer engagement and how they can better meet customer needs.

Data gathered by Insurance Innovators, in partnership with Smart Communications and Salesforce Industries, provides valuable insights into how to improve trust and customer satisfaction. The main takeaway? It’s time to invest in SMARTER digital conversation capabilities that enable insurance companies to deliver targeted advice when and where it’s needed, ultimately recasting themselves as trusted advisors.

In this post, we recap key findings from the research. Read more below or check out the full research report and infographic.

Getting Clear on Better Customer Conversations

The research found that 84% of insurance executives are already bought in on the idea that better customer communications can reverse the trend of eroding trust. They also seem clear on where the challenge lies: 90% believe that when customers find descriptions of product features and add-on products confusing at the point of sale, it makes them more distrustful of insurers. Webpages with too many coverage options overwhelm customers, especially when what they see isn’t relevant to their situation. Respondents agree that personalizing plan options and documents using data and analytics would have a massive impact in minimizing loss of trust.

According to the survey, greater clarity and personalization helps build trust both at the point of sale and when claims are filed. 78% of respondents believe that poor customer understanding of coverage greatly undermined trust when claims proved contentious during the pandemic. Yet insurance leaders also recognized the opportunity this represents: 69% believe trust can be protected by using data analysis to anticipate confusing policy terms and tailor messaging accordingly.

Improving Digital Experiences to Meet Rising Expectations

Insurers build trust by managing customer expectations during the claims process. 89% of those surveyed cited delays as the biggest factor that dented trust during the pandemic. Customers experiencing upheaval in their personal or business finances did not have patience for opaque, slow turnaround times. Again, this challenge points the way to an opportunity: 81% believe that real-time digital updates would safeguard trust.

Ultimately, insurance leaders agree that without a seamless digital experience, the ability of insurers to build trust will continue to suffer. Consumers know what better looks like when it comes to digital experiences, and companies who don’t invest in improving customer communications will be left behind.

The New Recipe for Success: Personalization, Seamless Omnichannel Experiences, and Self-Service Automation

Despite all the challenges the survey touched on, it’s not all doom and gloom. We also uncovered practical tips for how smart insurers can reverse the tide of declining trust to win customers for life. The three-part recipe for success? Personalization, a seamless omnichannel experience, and easy and fulfilling self-service automation.

Personalization

Insurance executives believe it’s time to get personal. An overwhelming 98% said optimizing personalized customer contact in all digital interactions would increase trust. Personalization conveys both relevance and empathy. Customers want to be known and understood by the companies they work with. They’ve been trained by Amazon’s algorithms to receive highly relevant product recommendations and want that same kind of insightfulness across all their digital interactions. This doesn’t simply result in higher sales. Understanding implies caring. When customers feel heard and understood, it quickly translates to positive brand associations.

Omnichannel Experiences

Second, respondents unanimously recognize that customers want an incredible experience no matter what device or platform they happen to be on at the time. 95% agree that frictionless experiences are crucial to insurance building trust, while frustrating digital interactions have a negative impact. In a world where customers rapidly cycle through their devices, and data automatically syncs between them, they expect their insurers to follow suit.

While insurers might feel the pinch of managing communications across so many different digital platforms simultaneously, customers don’t have such a nuanced view. If a customer first engages with online chat, they expect all that information to carry through on any device or platform – regardless of where their next interaction is. Insurers have a major opportunity to invest in technology platforms, such as Smart’s Conversation Cloud that enable this seamless omnichannel experience for every customer, every time.

Self-service automation

Third, customers are clamoring for more and better self-service tools. Consumers don’t mind helping themselves. In fact, some even prefer digital over human interactions. There are several proactive self-service automation strategies insurers can employ to increase trust, according to respondents:

Pre-populate forms with as much of the data as you already have
Introduce advanced virtual agents that can actually help a customer resolve an issue from start to finish
Use AI chatbots to provide proactive guidance where needed

A New Relationship Norm: Insurers Build Trust as Advisors to Customers

For insurers, the end goal of digital transformation is to redefine the relationship they have with their customers. Instead of being viewed as a business you only communicate with when there’s a problem, insurers have a significant opportunity to flip the script and upgrade the value they provide customers. The research indicated that 94% of insurance executives believe that offering personalized advice to reduce risk will eventually become the core insurance company value proposition. Instead of waiting until disaster strikes and helping to pick up the pieces, insurers can instead become known for helping customers avoid disaster in the first place.

How can insurers make this shift? By avoiding cookie-cutter communications. Among those surveyed, 90% warn that unless a touchpoint is personalized, frictionless, and adds value, it will only irritate customers. Conversely, by leveraging SMART technology that provides customized, convenient, and value-added conversations, insurers can win the hearts and minds of their customers.

Ultimately, COVID-19 exposed the gap between what insurance customers expect and their actual experience. With the pain points now clearly revealed, they can be solved. Adding value to a customer’s daily life through enhanced digital communications is the path forward.

Want to learn more about how insurers can increase trust more than ever? Download the full Rebuilding Trust in Insurance infographic or read the full results.

The Human Element in Digital Transformation and More Insights from Our Virtual Roundtable

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Ayla

By: Phil Ostberg, Senior Product Manager at Vlocity, A Salesforce Company

Developing an omnichannel claims strategy, where policyholders can engage with you in their channel of choice and seamlessly switch between channels, is an important component of digital transformation in the claims space. As one participant pointed out at our recent virtual roundtable discussion “A New Paradigm in Claims,” a good claims experience involves listening to a customer’s story so they feel heard. Technology should streamline the claims management process so that customer service reps can take the time to listen to the cases with a sympathetic ear. It was also discussed how, surprisingly, it is often the younger policyholders that seek the reassurance of a human voice after their first basement flood or car accident, while older, more seasoned customers may be more inclined to turn to digital channels for filing a claim.

And when policyholders do choose to go online, whether for the First Notice of Loss (FNOL) or to check the status of their claim submission, intelligent, guided, mobile-friendly experiences with limited typing are the requirements for the modern claims experience according to our panel. The more you can prefill data about the customer, policy, property and peril, the less painful the process will be. And customers always want access to real-time updates on when they will get paid for their loss.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of claims process transformations and unleashed innovation, especially for insurers that have been slow adopters on retiring legacy systems and moving to cloud based platforms. All panellists in our roundtable agreed that there is no turning back, especially when the move towards digital results in both operational efficiency and significant improvements in customer satisfaction. The claims experience is, after all, the most important touchpoint a carrier can have with a customer, with 87% of policyholders believing that their claims experience impacts their decision to remain with insurers, according to an Ernst & Young global insurance survey.

Vlocity, now part of Salesforce Industries, is working with carriers globally to leverage the Salesforce platform as a single source of customer data, along with its omnichannel capabilities, to make the end-to-end claims process both efficient and customer-centric. As discussed in our roundtable, we believe it’s important to look across industries to understand what types of experiences customers today expect. Together with our valued partners including Smart Communications, we aim to deliver the next generation of the insurance claims experience.

To read more about our virtual roundtable discussion, visit: https://marketforcelive.com/insurance-innovators/post/a-new-paradigm-in-claims-summary/

About the Author

Phil Ostberg has 20 years of experience in building insurance claims software, working in a wide range of capacities from managing systems integration projects at Fortune 100 carriers to leading product development efforts at industry-leading software companies. Phil is particularly passionate about using software to enable organizations to optimize efficiency by creating elegant user experiences and fostering a test and learn culture. At Vlocity, A Salesforce Company, Phil is a product manager leading the Vlocity Claims product strategy, including product development, roadmap, and customer success initiatives.

How to Accelerate Policy Onboarding and Renewals in Auto Insurance

Posted on February 14, 2020 by SmartComm

Changing U.S. state regulations around Personal Injury Protection (PIP) add-ons for auto insurance offer a great example where digital forms transformation can have a big impact. Insurers often need to adapt to regulatory changes quickly, and that means updating often a huge library of forms, processes and policy documents to stay in compliance.

As you shift your business to digital, that should mean more than simply moving paper forms online. Customers and agents still detest the tedious nature of searching and downloading the right form, printing it, completing information you already know about them, then going back and forth to complete and approve the new policy or renewal.

In contrast, next-gen forms technology enables insurers to respond to changing regulations quickly while delivering a better, faster customer experience. This post discusses how next-gen forms can help car insurance carriers gain operational efficiency, improve top-line revenue and provide a frictionless customer experience around new policy underwriting, renewals, and service.

PIP Insurance Regulations: Keeping Up with Change

What is PIP? The PIP component of auto insurance covers medical expenses, regardless of who’s at fault, and often includes lost wages. It’s mandatory or optional in 22 U.S. states. Depending on that state, PIP may be an available option or a required policy add-on, and rules continuously evolve based on state budgets and the ongoing discourse between the legal community, insurers, healthcare providers and state legislators.

Michigan is a prime example of where insurers need to respond rapidly to regulatory change, with new PIP rules set to take effect in 2020. Currently, Michigan’s seven million drivers must purchase unlimited PIP coverage as part of their auto policy, guaranteeing that insurance companies will cover all medical costs associated with car accident injuries – no matter who is at fault.

Yet starting after July 1, 2020, Michigan auto insurers will need to give customers the option to select from five different coverage tiers, many of which would lower customers’ rates, but also limit their coverage. There’s even a tier for 100 percent opt-out, with Medicaid picking up the coverage.

So that means if you operate in Michigan, you need to change and update all of your forms for PIP sales and renewals. You will also need to re-engineer processes around policy renewals. That can become a mountain of work if you’re reliant on paper, PDFs or hard-coded Java-based electronic forms.

Your Competitors Are Honing Their Digital Customer Experience

According to the insurance research firm Novarica, “Carriers are pushing the envelope in digital self-service, designing products for digital processes and targeting digitally oriented consumers. Generational cohorts like Millennials and Gen Z expect digital experiences.”

The point is: to keep pace and remain relevant, you need to be able to capture customer information digitally and then create quotes on-demand, tailored to individual state requirements – with or without PIP. Then, as regulations change, you need renewal communications to accurately and seamlessly update across your online venues.

Fix Your Forms Library with Adaptive Forms

Many insurers still publish a huge library of static, blank PDF forms online and try to call that “digital.” This forces the customer or agent to deal with identifying and downloading the right PDF, filling it out by hand, and then scanning or faxing it back to the company. That’s a terrible experience! It also creates operations problems, like how to do the following:

Make rapid forms and rules changes
Ensure customers/agents have the most updated form
Update and check every form for every state
Eliminate issues caused by NIGO (not in good order) forms
Resolve typical data errors inherent with OCR tools

Here’s how to solve the problem:

Rather than applying costly resources to continuously modify forms, you need to engage consumers in an online discussion, leading them to select the ideal coverage for their needs. With Intelledox, you can engage modern consumers and communicate about your PIP offerings the way they like best.

Next-gen forms take the concept of “smart” online forms to a new level. These discussions are essentially digital self-service interactions. Customers and agents input what they want and engage with a responsive form that drives them to the right offer based on their expressed needs, including PIP coverage.

These interviews are accurate and engaging because they are holistic by doing these things:

Establish rules for how each form field/question appears
Automate workflows to support exception handling
Pre-populate form fields with customer-specific data already located in your system of record
Interact with users via Q&A that is state-specific and situation-specific

As part of the adaptive interview, many of our insurance clients incorporate a workflow to automatically flag urgent issues or exceptions. This enables them (or their agents) to alert a customer in real-time when additional information or action is needed, such as a live, personal phone call.

The Digital PIP Policy Renewal Process Using Intelledox & DocuSign

When you use Intelledox alongside DocuSign, you can dynamically generate and deliver policies and documentation that correspond to an individual’s locations and circumstances, for an end-to-end personalized and paperless experience.

Harking back to the Michigan example, here’s how that process would look for an existing customer of an insurer:

Customer logs in to the insurer’s web portal, and Guided Forms are automatically set up and branded, awaiting the customer conversation.
The auto-interview asks what coverage they desire and presents Michigan’s 5 mandated options
The user’s selection triggers document creation (I.e. proof of medical insurance).
System auto-populates the required Michigan ACORD form as the document artifact.
Appropriate disclosures and notices are attached to the resulting forms.
Confirmation requests auto-send to the customer via DocuSign.
Insurer’s backend archive receives digitally signed documents automatically.

The insurer and customer can always opt to output this data to the standard ACORD form, just like producing a tax form for recordkeeping after e-filing taxes.

Conclusion

As an insurer, you need to ask yourself the hard questions if you want to stay top-of-mind with the modern consumer. Are you ready to adapt all your forms as rules and regulations change? Do customers interact with you in digital and mobile-friendly ways for a new policy and renewal processes?

Gone are the days of presenting PIP consumers with a blank form. Instead, greet visitors with a simple question – “What do you want to do?”

The rest happens automatically with your next-gen, guided forms. For more detail about streamlining your auto policy underwriting, onboarding and renewal processes, download our recent whitepaper.

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The Current State of Personalization in Insurance Claims

Hyper-personalization: The Future of Insurance

How Automation Can Help Insurers Meet the Moment

Change the Conversation with Cloud Technology

Attract Top Talent with Cloud Adoption in Insurance

Enable Cross-Functional Agility with Pure Cloud Solutions

Leverage the Right Cloud-Based Solutions for Insurance Companies

Conclusion

Interested in hearing about how Smart Communications’ cloud solution can help insurance enterprises modernize business processes? Listen to what our customers at Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company had to say at the Guidewire Innovation Awards 2022:

1. Use Pure-Cloud Solutions to Power Core Operations

2. Cater to a Digitally-Savvy Customer Base

3. Prepare to Remain Agile

Conclusion

Visit the main Guidewire Connections 2022 page to learn more about the event or to get registered to join us in Las Vegas from October 23-26.

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