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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.

Digital Acceleration in Insurance

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Thomas Harrington, Global Industry Markets Leader for Insurance at Pega

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wax and wane across the globe, now is the time for insurers to use the digital acceleration triggered by the crisis to reinvent themselves as digital-first businesses fit for the 21st century.

In the U.S., the unemployment rate reached 14.7% in April, a level not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The U.K. saw its highest rate of welfare support claims in six years; and a 3% rise in unemployment is forecast for Asia Pacific. Many insurance regulators have implemented guidance for payment grace periods or temporary protections to prevent policy cancellations. But as mandated forms of help expire, a significant number of consumers will reach out with questions and concerns about their insurance portfolios.

Tackle customer service volumes with digital channels

Industry leaders are asking, “How do we weather immediate customer service challenges and prepare for the new normal?” Requests related to premium holidays, policy options, hardship withdrawals, and rebates are increasing, yet closed offices and distributed workforces slow the ability to respond. As the volumes of inquiries increase, the ability to scale capabilities to distributed workforces, capture a policyholder’s questions or concerns, connect the data from all of these channels and mobile apps, and provide an accurate response is exposing major operational gaps.

The insurance business over the last few decades was built around an inbound model where you wait for something to happen and then react. By contrast, a digital-first experience creates opportunities for customers to engage how they want, and when they want. Increasingly, this means self-service through digital interfaces. This frees time and capacity to deliver more personal and empathetic service to customers who have more complex queries. It’s not just taking some volume off the plate; it’s a fundamentally different thought process.

Digital servicing options help address these pressures now and prepare for the increasingly digital-first preferences of future consumers. In many cases, you can stand up a digital service capability that connects with your systems of record and other apps within days. Examples of the most cost-efficient ways to do this are:

Reduce manual work by automating email – Email bots can process thousands of incoming emails and email attachments fast. Natural language processing capabilities can read, triage, and route incoming mail. You can even automate responses to simple inquiries and personalize the messaging.
Intake and track requests to provide responsive and accurate customer service – Integrate your current systems and apps to capture, triage, and route customer inquiries to the right person or team. Systems should be designed to adapt to changing business processes and regulatory requirements, to help you streamline operations and provide an auditable trail of actions for all customer inquiries.
Unify messaging in a single desktop – Seamlessly connect digital channels and enable agents to smoothly navigate among conversations to deliver efficient user experience. Virtual assistants work alongside agents to help contain service volumes and deliver immediate answers to common inquiries.

Examples of success with this digital servicing approach include an insurer with an at-home workforce that used both chat and email bots to help improve customer service response times; and a government agency that was able to design and implement a case management-based economic assistance app in just five days.

Start engaging proactively with your policy holders

Another way to mitigate customer service volumes is to get ahead of them. Don’t wait for that phone call. If your data shows a customer is experiencing a financial hardship or their needs have changed, proactively reach out. Provide something as simple as the initial steps to submit a claim or arrange a payment to mitigate policy cancellation. An empathetic approach goes a long way in letting customers know you understand their situation and value their relationship.

Think big, start small, scale fast

Companies trying to navigate their way through an uncertain world can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed. So, start with something small and grow. Do not think about the end point in five years’ time, but about what you can achieve in the next two weeks, the next 60 days, or the next 90 days to deliver value that will make a tangible difference to your customers.

It’s important to think pragmatically as you start any project in the digital space; recognize that you are making initial forays and it’s highly likely that what you do will be changed at some point. This mindset of build and grow puts you in a different stance to build long-term success. More importantly, immediate improvements should be foundational elements of a digital experience that enables insurance carriers to change, expand, and automate servicing today and in the future.

Luckily, implementing new digital tools and leveraging a case-based approach to eliminate operational complexity and deliver customer outcomes does not require ripping and replacing existing systems. It just requires focusing on one customer outcome at a time and building from there. For example, think about the steps needed to respond to and complete a claim status request. Pega calls this a microjourney – an interaction that is part of a customer’s overall journey with your business. By focusing on the steps needed to complete that one microjourney, you define the data you need to access and define the rules for the channels you’ll use to connect with your customers. When you build those processes and rules into the operational layer of your architecture, you can easily reuse and modify them for other microjourneys. Pega calls this building from the center out – an approach that helps businesses transform across all channels and systems. A center-out approach not only frees staff to spend more time helping customers with complex inquiries now, but also enables them to deliver the customer experiences of the future.

About the Author

In his role as Global Industry Markets Leader for Insurance at Pega, Thomas Harrington works with leading organizations to drive performance, customer experience, and revenue growth through digital transformation.

To hear more from Thomas and Neal Keene, Field Chief Technology Officer at Smart Communications, watch the on-demand webinar: Digital Acceleration in Insurance: Meeting New Demands at Speed or read the webinar recap.

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!

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.

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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

Tackle customer service volumes with digital channels

Start engaging proactively with your policy holders

Think big, start small, scale fast

About the Author

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.

About the Author