IT Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Smart Communications Blogs

Digitizing the RLS Application Process: How UK Banks Can Transform and Win New Business

Posted on July 14, 2021 by SmartComm

For banks in the UK, the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) presents a great opportunity to help business clients stay solvent during difficult times. The challenge? How to make it faster and easier for clients to apply for and gain approval to access these RLS funds within regulatory guidelines– without using traditional paper and face-to-face channels of communications. By implementing a digital Recovery Loan Scheme application strategy, the reward could be signing new clients and expanding existing relationships.

The answer is similar to what we’ve found with many banks in the U.S. It starts with replacing paper and PDF application forms with rules-driven digital interviews, which enable borrowers to engage over mobile, as well as desktop channels, upload supporting documents easily and automate complex calculations to reduce errors.

Creating Unforgettable Customer Experiences Through a Digital RLS Application Strategy and Maximize Opportunity

The British government launched the Recovery Loan Scheme in April 2021 to help businesses across the nation recover from financial struggles due to the pandemic. Businesses can apply for up to £10 million in government-backed loans through a variety of banks and lenders. RLS financing can be taken as a term loan, overdraft, invoice finance or asset finance.

Like the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Recovery Loan Scheme has been incredibly popular, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Many businesses that were financially sound before the pandemic found themselves at the mercy of converging market forces that hit specific industries, like retail, hospitality and travel in unique and punishing ways.

However, like in the U.S., banks and lenders were left to figure out – in a hurry – how to manage the influx of applications and complex eligibility rules. This has resulted in a patchwork of processes that can vary wildly from lender to lender, leaving business owners in a state of confusion as to how they can take advantage of the RLS.

Commercial banking success depends on the ability to lend money quickly and make it easy for busy business banking customers to get the funds they need. While it sounds simple, this is easier said than done. To scale, lenders need to do three things well: digitize, simplify and automate as much of the RLS customer experience as possible.

Common Recovery Loan Scheme Friction Points Impacting the Customer Experience

A few common roadblocks make achieving that trifecta of customer bliss a challenge:

The need to complete, print and sign forms and physical documents create a burden on borrowers who may not be able to visit a branch
Borrowers are often confused about what sections of a form they need to complete, but using dynamic rules to guide them helps reduce abandonment rates
Handwritten forms require manual processing and often have errors that need resolution, slowing down the turnaround time
Forcing borrowers to speak to a loan officer on the phone to complete an application creates frustrations and time delays and puts lenders at a competitive disadvantage to those who offer easy digital application experiences
Basic digital forms that don’t allow a borrower to save progress mid-completion or allow switching between devices can further frustrate applicants

PPP Lessons for UK Banks: Winning Customers for Life

UK banks and lenders looking to differentiate themselves in the crowded RLS marketplace would be wise to apply some of the key lessons learned from the U.S. PPP. Smart Communications helped a number of banks accelerate their PPP Loan Forgiveness process with SmartIQ^TM, a low-code, drag-and-drop platform for forms transformation designed with speed and scale in mind.

Here’s an example of one lender’s situation before and after implementing SmartIQ:

Before:

When the PPP was introduced, the bank was inundated with requests, which was complicated by the inability to meet customers in person due to COVID-19
They had more than 650 loans to process, which would have taken half a dozen dedicated resources weeks to get through
The bank’s 11-page application was challenging for customers to navigate, causing further delays and support requests

After:

Entire loans can now be processed in a day or less
They attracted new customers away from banks who were too slow to meet the needs of PPP borrowers desperate for quick funds
Empowered applicants easily completed their forms with a guided digital interview experience that worked well across devices, resulting in increased customer loyalty (and public praise on social media)

Optimizing the Digital Recovery Loan Scheme Application Process

For time-sensitive market opportunities like the Recovery Loan Scheme, banks need to be agile and ready to deploy new forms in a hurry. Digitizing, simplifying and automating is more than just smart business, it’s an economy-saving effort. Enabling business owners to quickly and easily complete the Recovery Loan Scheme application could mean the difference between staff being made or redundant or meeting payroll. UK banks have a tremendous opportunity to build lasting relationships with customers by supporting them in these difficult times. With SMART technology in place, it’s never been easier.

Watch a short video demo of the SBA Paycheck Protection Loan Forgiveness Solution here.

For Insurers, Ad Hoc Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

Posted on June 28, 2021 by Mary Featherstone

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

Today, most of us carry more computing power in the palm of our hands than all of NASA had back in 1969 when it sent two astronauts to the moon, and yet despite this, most insurers are still saddled with labor-intensive, manual processes to create ad hoc claims correspondence experiences.

The number of smartphone users in the world today is 3.8 billion

Modernization in insurance is slow and difficult, with many systems that must be updated in order to truly deliver on the experiences that we as always-on, real-time consumers expect in every interaction. While many insurers have done their best to build digital façades in order to appear to be a digital-first organization for their claimants, behind the scenes, many of their processes – including the creation of claims correspondence – is still riddled with age-old structured and methodologies.

Years ago, to describe claims communications the industry coined the term “ad hoc correspondence.” By definition, ad hoc loosely describes the significant number of one-off pieces of correspondence that may be created in claims operations on any given day.

However, claims professionals would likely agree that the synonyms that explicitly describe ad hoc are even more fitting:

impromptu · improvised · rough and ready · makeshift · make-do · cobbled together · thrown together · jury-rigged · quick and dirty · as the need arises · when necessary · when needed

Still prevalent today are legacy communication tools that leverage manually created, word-based or other outdated word processing tool templates, stored in individual files or on network shares to accomplish their “ad hoc correspondence” needs. Claims professionals have become so accustomed to – and quite frankly don’t even think twice – about using this approach because it gives them the freedom to “roll their own” ad hoc letters. However, these outdated tools expose a claims organization to higher operational costs and increased liability exposure for noncompliance:

Content control within templates is critical as the wrong message can create significant risks to the insured.
Redundancy in template content often makes the selection of proper templates overwhelming and increases the costs of maintenance and control.
Claims correspondence is always created because of some adjudication activity that occurs in the claims administration system, yet legacy solutions have limited integration capabilities available.
Claims administration systems lack the interactive correspondence capability which most carriers require.
Coordinating communication across all interested/active parties is arduous. Adjusters must prepare correspondence with the claimant, agent, third-party service providers, investigators, witnesses, medical providers and contractors.
Legacy communication tools do not provide the customer-centric approach required in today’s insurance environments, leaving claims professionals that create impersonal experiences for their customers.

The insurance industry is focused on delivering personalized digital experiences to improve its customer-centric approach. However, archaic processes still exist in claims operations which make it difficult to manage the creation of real-time two-way conversational communications without the proper solutions. The ultimate interactive claims correspondence solutions, like our Conversation Cloud, achieve the perfect balance between a business user’s flexibility and critical organizational control and auditability. Claims professionals will be asking why they didn’t make this change years ago!

With the proper tools – ad hoc doesn’t have to be difficult.

Modern conversation platforms provide interactive, real-time, two-way conversational capabilities that enrich the customer experience, enable faster claims resolution and ensure compliance – all while increasing the claim adjuster’s productivity and improving their job satisfaction. Migration tools are accessible to reduce the time required so you can retire those antiquated tools quickly.

What are you waiting for? Start having SMARTER conversations today.

Smart Communications can help you with your digital journey. We’ve long been recognized by all major analysts (Gartner, Forrester , Aspire and IDC ) as a Leader & Innovator in enterprise-scale Workflow & Content Automation (WCA) & Customer Communications Management (CCM) – including Aspire’s 2021 assessment which rates Smart Communications the #1 leader in the industry.

Contact us to learn more!

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.

DocuSign & Smart Communications: Delivering SMARTER Conversations in 2021

Posted on May 11, 2021 by SmartComm

By Chuck Fazio, VP Global Partner Ecosystem at Smart Communications

Global business leaders face several challenges – some that have been around for a while, and others that have emerged or intensified more recently. Customers’ ever-changing expectations and increased appetite for digital-first engagements, remote work and more have forced most organizations to rethink customer engagement. Gone are the days of one-way, transactional communications. Today, enterprises must deliver meaningful, two-way customer conversations.

We recently sat down with Steve Park, Technical Director, Global Partner Solutions at DocuSign to discuss what’s on the horizon for businesses this year, plus how we can all learn and grow from the lessons we learned in 2020.

How did the big changes of the past year impact the employee experience?

DocuSign: The transition to a remote environment quickly altered our culture in some significant ways. The ability to gather, collaborate and connect with our colleagues and customers had to be managed differently in order to maintain DocuSign’s standard of excellence. We’ve had to rely more heavily on the systems and services that keep us connected with each other in order to keep business moving forward.

Smart Communications: It’s interesting that while digital transformation has been a focus for many companies in recent years, it took the challenges of 2020 to really accelerate these efforts. One silver lining of this experience is that it made clear that just translating traditional processes into a digital format isn’t enough. It’s really about making the end-to-end interaction more effective and engaging.

What can business leaders do to ensure employees have the resources they need for success?

DocuSign: Increase the touch points. High levels of engagement from your employees and customers are only achievable the more you communicate with them. That’s even more important in a virtual setting.

Smart Communications: In 5 Key Trends Transforming Customer Conversations in 2021, we collected insights from leaders across industries, and without exception, the employee experience is a key focus for this year. Making the remote work experience as seamless and efficient as possible is essential. Companies that are leading the way are investing in technologies that support a digital-first approach and help employees be more successful by eliminating silos, reducing manual processes and creating more powerful connections at scale.

What kind of impact did COVID-19 have on your customers’ expectations? What changes did you see as a result of the pandemic, and how do you expect those to evolve in 2021?

DocuSign: The vast majority of our customers indicated a need for digital transformation well before the pandemic. Consequently, COVID-19 accelerated those initiatives and DocuSign was ready to assist our customers during these complex times. It’s impossible to predict how things will evolve in 2021, but the power of the DocuSign Agreement Cloud^TM portfolio of products —coupled with the power of hundreds of partner integrations—can continue to help customers on their digital transformation journey.

Smart Communications: COVID-19 definitely brought the need for e-signature software as a business continuity tool to the forefront! Interestingly, we’re seeing that it is motivating businesses to take a look at all of the steps in their customer engagement processes to ensure they are digital-first and mobile-ready. Reducing the need for re-entry of data, enabling two-way data exchange and creating more personalized experiences are high priorities this year.

What are some business processes that are ripe for transformation? Where do you see automation having the biggest impact?

DocuSign: DocuSign has built a reputation of trust unparalleled in the market which is why hundreds of thousands of customers process millions of transactions on the DocuSign platform. However, many of those agreements still require negotiation and evaluation before they are signed—and we believe that’s ripe for transformation. Technologies that use AI to analyze, automate and simplify the process of negotiating, signing and managing incoming agreements will be valuable—DocuSign Analyzer being one example.

Smart Communications: In looking at engagement holistically, we couldn’t agree more. For many, e-signature solutions are just the first step. We encourage companies to evaluate the entire customer journey and identify ways to enhance every interaction by exploring how two-way conversations can improve the customer experience and maximize results. When it comes to collecting information and dynamically generating communications, AI is becoming a powerful tool for enhancing the process. We are truly on the cusp of this promising technology becoming a scalable solution.

What are the biggest risks to businesses in 2021? What are the greatest areas of opportunity?

DocuSign: The biggest risks to any business in 2021 and every year thereafter is complacency. Business doesn’t get any slower. So companies have to evolve, fast. The same is true for innovation—that has to continue at pace, and those that innovate effectively will capitalize on the market opportunity.

Smart Communications: Neil Greathead, Smart Communications’ Chief Customer Officer, recently said that the biggest risk to businesses is doing nothing. After the challenges of this past year, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But this is not the time to slow down or stop making progress. Companies that are thoughtful both about the way they collect data and how they use that data to build stronger connections to their customers are going to quickly get ahead. Technology is important, especially as we focus on being more strategic, as well as continuous improvement and adapting to new realities.

How will technology enhance the customer experience? How can businesses make data more scalable and actionable?

DocuSign: Technology used wisely can make tasks easier to do and in less time. If not, what’s the point? And it starts with data you already have. If you can use systems that make use of that data in logical ways, the sky is the limit.

Smart Communications: Most companies have great insights about their customers in their existing systems. The challenge is connecting the dots and putting that information to work effectively in customer interactions. By connecting core systems of record to customer engagement points, companies have the power to personalize and transform interactions into opportunities to delight. It’s about reimagining forms, communications and everyday touchpoints. Once companies do that, then using AI and advanced analytics to better understand customers and optimize the experience is more feasible. Being ready for what’s next starts with digital-first.

Learn more about how solutions like DocuSign can be a powerful starting point for elevating the digital customer experience in our eBook, Moving Beyond E-Signature: How to Elevate the Digital Customer Experience.

The Rise of SMARTER Conversations in a Post Pandemic World

Posted on April 15, 2021 by SmartComm

By: Nick Smith, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific at Smart Communications

Over the course of the past year, the way people live and work has fundamentally changed – and these are changes that will carry over into the months and years ahead. And as customer expectations continue to rise, the end-to-end customer experience will need to be better than ever.

The Smart Communications teams in EMEA and APAC have taken part in a number of events that explore how the COVID-19 health crisis is accelerating digital transformation initiatives in various industries and leading many enterprises to transform their customer communications into two-way, interactive conversations.

While most events have moved to the virtual stage, the discussions we have had were just as lively and the insights equally powerful. To ensure our readers have access to these expert panels, we have shared some of our favorite key takeaways from recent events below.

Delivering Digital Customer Communications in Times of Drastic Change

The CX Exchange BFSI Virtual Think Tank explored how smart organizations in the finance, banking and insurance sectors adapted to meet their customers’ rapidly evolving needs during the COVID crisis. By gathering the right data and personalizing communications based on individual circumstances, companies were able to remain relevant and, most importantly, customers felt heard. Neil Greathead, Chief Customer Officer at Smart Communications, moderated the event.

To learn more about the power of strong connections and efficient service at scale, read the full event summary.

Adapting to the New Era of Remote Work and Consumer Demand

Smart Communications and FST Media brought together leaders from financial services institutions across Australia and New Zealand to dig into the changing demands of employees and customers in this brave new world. The post-event report highlights examples of how COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation and identifies opportunities for business leaders willing to embrace change. One key takeaway: for forward-thinking businesses, a cloud-first, secure and easy-to-scale platform that links front- and back-end systems is essential.

Remote Work, Contactless Interactions and Transformational Change

Australian health insurers faced unique challenges in adapting to the many changes ushered in by the pandemic. This event, co-hosted by FST Media and Smart Communications, featured senior technology leaders discussing key business drivers this past year. In an industry that has long relied on paper-based interactions, customer demands for more seamless interactions are making the move to the cloud for a 360-degree customer view critical. While compliance concerns and regulatory hurdles require a more considered approach, the drive for digital transformation will continue to accelerate. Read more in the complete post-event report.

A More Personalized Approach in Personal Lines

Leaders from Aviva, Guidewire Software, and Smart Communications’ Chris Childs debated how customer interactions evolved over the course of the pandemic to answer the question: what do customers really want and expect from their insurers? According to customer survey data, six key considerations determine how satisfied customers are with their insurer. With soaring expectations and increasing dependence on the convenience of digital interactions, many organizations are struggling to keep up. Explore the event recap to find the proactive steps insurers can take to transform existing customer data into meaningful interactions that feel less transactional and keep customers happy.

Interested in more of the best insights from thought leaders who are transforming customer interactions? Check out INNOVATE 2021 on-demand, where Smart Communications’ customers, partners and industry experts reveal tips and strategies for post-pandemic success.

Smart Communications and Assentis Deliver the Future of Customer Conversations Management for Financial Services

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Ayla

By: James Brown, CEO at Smart Communications

We are kicking off 2021 in an exciting fashion! On Jan. 7, we announced our intent to acquire Assentis and today this news became official as the deal has closed. This is a significant moment for us as a company and for our industry as we work towards a SMARTER future, enabling enterprises around the world to deliver two-way, interactive customer conversations.

This acquisition allows us to expand our geographic reach and provide our industry-leading cloud solution to enterprises in Continental Europe in addition to the UK, United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. In addition, by welcoming the talented Assentis team into our organization, we deepen our expertise in financial services, giving us an opportunity to deepen our strategic support of financial services accounts around the world.

Enabling smarter conversations between financial services institutions and their customers has never been more critical as customers increasingly seek digital-first interactions, while new fintech entrants simultaneously create an ever-more competitive landscape for traditional providers. In fact, many of the up-and-coming challengers are mobile-only banking providers and, according to IDC, 40 percent of in-branch appointments will be initiated on digital platforms and then fulfilled by specialists. All of this is leading many banking and financial services organizations to quickly invest in technology that improves or enables the customer experience through digital and mobile channels.

As customers’ expectations for a digital-first approach will only continue to increase, the best way for companies to succeed in both the near- and long-term is to invest in cloud-based solutions that optimize the end-to-end customer experience – and adapt and scale as these needs continue to evolve over time.

Bringing Assentis into the Smart Communications family strengthens our expertise and deepens the solutions we provide to financial services organizations around the world. More than 100 enterprises – including the largest banks and financial services providers in Germany and Switzerland – rely on the Assentis CCM solution to generate a wide variety of critical documents including client reports, fund fact sheets, product presentations, contracts and marketing collateral. We will build on these strengths and continue delivering top-notch support for Assentis CCM solutions while also making it easy for current Assentis customers to quickly take advantage of Smart Communications’ proven leadership and expertise in multi-tenant SaaS.

Our acquisition of Assentis follows our acquisition of Intelledox (now SmartIQ^TM) in July 2019. SmartIQ is a key component of our Customer Conversations Management (CCM) platform that transforms traditional forms-based processes into intelligent, conversational user experiences.

We are thrilled to take this next important step for our company and our industry and look forward to continuing to empower enterprises with customer conversation programs that meet today’s evolving needs.

Redefining the Utility Customer Experience

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Ayla

By: Nick Umney, Technical Director at Salesforce

We are in a fascinating time in which customer expectations are continually rising. In a recent survey from Salesforce Research, we learned that 62% of customers expect companies to adapt based on their actions and behaviour, and 54% of customers think that companies need to fundamentally transform how they engage*. Customers assume digital ease of use, expect great service, information on demand, and on any channel. The challenge for Utility companies is how to truly understand their customers, and their expectations.

As a result of COVID-19 customer demands, unsurprisingly, continue to evolve. Customers are increasingly gravitating towards companies and products that are purpose and values driven. They are no longer satisfied with disconnected and inefficient experiences and are expecting integrated processes that bring together the entire journey – from awareness to engagement and advocacy.

As customer demands increase, the market is responding as companies compete in this race for relevance. Traditionally, large companies beat out the smaller ones by controlling messaging and the supply chain. In the UK, we saw the rise of the ‘Big 6 energy suppliers.’ Today there’s been an explosion of fast moving, market entrants who are figuring out new ways to grab market share quickly, attracting customers with a combination of price, sustainability credentials and customer service. The larger companies are reacting though, creating start-up businesses of their own in an effort to leverage the benefits of scale and agility needed to quickly meet the demands of today’s digital-savvy customer.

Digital tools can certainly power a new level of customer experience, and help organisations connect with their customers in a whole new way, across each stage of the customer lifecycle. Understanding customer behaviours has been a core tenet for organisations for some time, now a true 360° customer view is a reality. With technological advances, we are now able to understand customers with more detail, more clarity, and more granularity. We are able to collate and understand customers product holdings, consumption and usage, even micro-signals from web browsing and app usage into this single customer view. Based on this understanding and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), we’re able to provide both intelligent recommendations to our customers (and service agents) and predictions that help us make better decisions.

As we understand more about our customers, the context that they’re operating in, and what they’re trying to achieve, we’re able to use technology to create differentiated experiences that feel incredibly relevant. In addition to customer acquisition, AI is now playing a huge part in the full customer lifecycle. For example, through machine learning organisations can predict causes of customer attrition, take proactive steps, and communicate with the customer in a timely manner with relevant information to help resolve their issue.

By leveraging this data, we can attract, engage, and retain customers through personalised journeys that include both targeted outreach, and contextual interactions when they’re interacting with our brand across numerous communication touch points.

Finally, from an employee perspective being able to continue to serve customers from wherever, in a seamless way is key. Customer experience is directly linked to employee experience, and according to Forbes Insights Research, it’s an intricate relationship in which one depends on the other to gain maximum results. All employees need a clear line of sight as to how their roles play a part in enhancing customer experiences. We need customer service technology to almost be invisible – to enable the agent to connect with the customer, understand their issues and queries without the technology getting in the way. Gone is the need for customer service agents to alt-tab between multiple systems to resolve a customer issue.

So yes, customer expectations are rising but the latest technical innovations, such as SmartCOMM^TM and the Energy and Utilities Cloud, (along with people and processes) enable Utility companies to meet and hopefully exceed them.

Discover how Salesforce is Powering a digital Utility future and how the Energy and Utilities Cloud can help transform your customer experience.

—–

Nick Umney, is a Technical Director at Salesforce who brings a depth knowledge of Cloud technologies and broad industry insight. Nick has a demonstrable record of innovative solution delivery across enterprise scale customers – delivering business value with strategic vision. To hear more from Nick, watch this webinar, Redefining the Utilities Customer Experience, or download the full event recap here.

How Digital Onboarding Boosts Member Engagement for Health Insurers

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Ayla

By: Neal Keene, Field CTO at Smart Communications

With customer expectations growing at a rapid pace, organizations across all industries are moving toward customer-driven, digital-first experiences. This year in particular has forced health insurers to reevaluate their current enrollment and onboarding processes in an effort to improve member engagement. Did you know the most critical time to establish a relationship with your members is within the first 90 days? This is the period of time when health insurers have the opportunity to ensure new members understand their plans, find them easy to navigate, and are satisfied with their level of coverage.

Think about it from a member’s perspective – signing up for a new healthcare plan often occurs at the start of new employment. During this time, the volume of forms and paperwork required is high and the process can be time-consuming, and insurance enrollment is only one set of forms among many. Sadly, too many business processes still require customers to complete and sign paper forms and either scan and fax or even worse, mail them back. No one enjoys this tedious and time-consuming effort, either externally or internally.

The cumbersome process of filling out a form isn’t a good first impression. One way to boost member engagement is through smart, guided, interactive interviews that make onboarding frictionless.

Here are five ways a smarter onboarding process can help differentiate your member journey and keep members engaged from day one.

Replace Paper Forms with Guided, Adaptive Interviews

It’s time to re-imagine the form as your onboarding mechanism. Instead of serving up static paper forms or online PDFs shift toward delivering adaptive interviews through an interactive and mobile-friendly process. This allows you to tailor questions and responses to each individual and guides them through the process efficiently keeps them more engaged throughout the entire process.

Personalize the Experience by Reusing Information

It’s likely you have already collected plenty of information from your new member or employee. Asking members to enter or re-enter information you should already know, or posing irrelevant questions creates a frustrating, time-consuming onboarding experience. A new employee’s name, address and other data should available in a company’s HR system to establish payroll and other administrative requirements. Make the process easier and speed up onboarding by prepopulating information from your core systems and then have employees simply verify it.

Ensure Your Onboarding Process is Consistent and “Device Agnostic”

Members today have multiple devices, but they still expect consistent experiences—and the onboarding process is no exception. Whether interacting with your company via phone, desktop, or mobile app the experience should be equally rewarding and, better yet, seamless. This means that information collected via one interaction should be used to inform subsequent interactions. And, ideally, a process could start a process on one device and finish on another—picking up right where they left off.

Integrate Digital Signatures to Save Time

If you still require members to print and sign an onboarding document to move forward, you’re creating bottlenecks that put the onboarding process and overall member experience at risk. By starting with interview-style conversations and finishing with simple e-signature solutions, like DocuSign, forms are completed in a timelier manner.

Improve Operational Efficiency

Digitizing the onboarding process matters to your staff as well. Traditional forms can lead to data integrity issues as they open the door to errors due to ineligible handwriting or typos. Inaccurate data can cause operational inefficiencies, especially if your back-office staff is still relying on manual processing of form data. A digital, interactive onboarding process reduces the need for manual work, ensures data is captured accurately, and ultimately enhances member and employee satisfaction.

—-

Looking for more ways to create meaningful connections with your members across every touchpoint? Download our whitepaper, From Onboarding to Lifelong Relationships and get inspired!

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.

Next-Generation CCM Powers the Future of Utilities

Posted on August 19, 2020 by SmartComm

By: Nick Kelly, Account Director at Smart Communications

It’s no secret that customer expectations continue to evolve at a rapid pace. One-click, mobile shopping experiences, ridesharing services and online banking, among others, have revolutionized the way customers interact with their favorite brands – and companies across industries and verticals are navigating how to adapt their businesses to meet customers’ changing needs.

Utility companies in particular face new challenges when it comes to delivering customer value. Many of the changes shaping the industry’s future center around evolving service delivery models and emerging technologies, which could significantly impact how customers interact with utility suppliers in the long run. But there’s one thing utility providers can do right now to build better relationships with their customers, and that’s re-thinking how they communicate.

Typically, utility companies rely on traditional methods of communication, such as email, phone calls and direct mail. But today’s digital-savvy population expects more. They want the same level of personalization and convenience they get with other industries, from entertainment to banking. This means shifting customer communications management strategies and engaging in real two-way conversations.

Legacy interactions are no longer enough

Today, most traditional utility customer communications involve the simple distribution of information— mailing or emailing bills and notices about things like upcoming scheduled maintenance or equipment upgrades and automated phone calls or website updates when there’s been an outage. Even if this information is sent out electronically, it’s still a one-way street — leaving customers unable to engage in conversations with their utility providers.

For the most part, utility companies only interact with and collect information from customers when they open a new account or when there’s an issue that needs to be resolved. This kind of static communication leaves little room for engagement. And without a two-way conversation where customers feel heard and utility providers can ensure an optimal customer experience, it’s virtually impossible to learn customer preferences or sell new services and solutions.

Building on a key advantage: customer trust

When it comes to customer relationships, utility companies have a head start. As an essential service that consumers rely on to literally power their lives and livelihoods, utility services have already been invited inside. The connection to people’s homes is key and can be built upon to strengthen customer relationships, while also making life smarter, simpler and safer for them.

Sophisticated technology platforms can provide dynamic, two-way conversations as the next generation of customer communications management. Smart Communications allows companies to move beyond just sending communications and, instead, engage in SMARTER conversations that are personalized throughout the entire customer lifecycle, and at massive scale.

The power of SMARTER conversations

Beginning with the onboarding process, companies can better understand customer preferences and behaviors and continue the conversation throughout the customer’s tenure with them. Beyond collecting information and checking boxes, they can understand customers on an individual level to uncover new ways to meet their needs and provide additional value. This could mean having conversations about things like energy efficiency, smart homes and solar power. Or, it could be about lowering their bill, maintaining equipment or upgrading services. In addition to letting the company identify relevant solutions, involving customers helps them become more engaged in managing their account and energy use, which increases customer loyalty and makes them less likely to switch providers.

Personalizing everything from bills to legal notices helps strengthen the customer relationship and build trust. And by staying connected, companies can gauge the market for new service models and emerging technologies that may add real value to their customers’ lives.

The future of utility CX starts now

Digital transformation has changed the way consumers do everything from getting a ride and booking a holiday to paying bills and managing their money. It’s time for utility suppliers to catch up – and the time to act is now. Adopting the best processes and technologies to really drive change will set utility companies up for future success. Smart Communications is ready to help.

—-

To learn more about where the utility industry is headed, check out the recent Future of Utilities Roundtable 2020 recap from Nick Kelly, account director at Smart Communications, and Gavin Geekie, regional vice president of energy & utilities EMEA at Salesforce Industries.

Insurance

Financial Services

Healthcare Payers

Healthcare Providers

Government

Utility

Resource Center

Customer Resources

Events

News

About us

Partners

Analysts

SmartCOMM

SmartIQ

SmartHUB

SmartPath

SmartDX