Optimizing the insurance customer journey

As consumers, we no longer think about a desktop experience or a mobile experience. We expect an integrated experience across all channels. It's the same with your customers.

The new insurance customer

The new insurance customer looks much like customers in any other competitive, service industry. They are self-directed and prepared to shop around through various channels to get what they want. According to the EFMA World Insurance Report 2019, almost 60% of customers are showing high interest in new insurance models. They're also looking for unique experiences tailored to their needs. In fact, providing 'add-on' services, such as risk control and prevention, could help insurers boost retention rates for at least half of their customer base. Many of these (37%) are also willing to share additional data and pay more (35%) to receive personalized services.  

Putting customers at the heart of the insurance business

Such competitive pressure is driving insurers to enhance their customer-centricity. This involves a significant cultural and technological shift from product oriented selling to needs-based tailored offers. That means attracting and retaining customers through highly personalized communications. In this new customer centric world, the ability to truly understand customer needs and preferences is essential to loyalty-building customer engagement.

CRM + Omni-Channel = True Customer Engagement

Whether they're using their smartwatch or their contact center agent or broker, insurance customers expect a seamless journey with consistent messaging. A CRM system on its own won't achieve this. You'll have the customer data, but you won't have the ability to leverage that data effectively across all your delivery channels.

Insurance companies need to deliver a frictionless end-to-end customer journey. This is only achievable by integrating a 360-degree view of customer CRM strategy with real-time predictive analytics. It also requires an omni-channel delivery platform that covers all customer touchpoints. This gives sales and marketing teams, customer service agents and brokers all the tools they need to work together and optimize the customer experience across all interactions.

An end-to-end customer journey

By blending different channels into a single experience, insurers can take control of any number of customer journeys throughout the customer lifecycle, across all channels. The key here is to focus on the customers' end-to-end experience instead of individual touchpoints. It's not about implementing a sales system or a claims system; it's about unifying a CRM platform, such as VeriPark's VeriTouch Customer Engagement solution, with Omni-Channel servicing capabilities.

VeriTouch is a vertical Customer Engagement (CRM) solution built o n top of Dynamics 365 which provides extensive customer engagement capabilities while ensuring superior employee experience. It is optimized with industry best practices that enables insurance companies to place CRM at the core of their dig ital transformation journey. It consolidates data from the organization's back-end systems and digital channels and provides a unified front-end with standardized processes to serve customers efficiently.

A single view of the customer allows everyone – from sales agents and marketing teams to contact center advisors and brokers – to see all the customer's policies and activities in a single screen. That data enables contact center teams to provide more efficient and sensitive handling of, often emotionally charged, customer interactions. They can also deal with any customer concerns quickly and professionally; frequently turning a caller with a complaint into a satisfied customer.

Marketing teams, sales agents and brokers can analyze customer's needs and preferences with single view of the customer data. They can then create streamlined, tailored solutions to meet those needs. VeriPark's omni-channel servicing solution, VeriChannel, also ensures this personalized approach is delivered consistently across all customer touch-points.

Even with the proliferation of legacy departmental solutions that often exist in insurance companies, VeriChannel offers a unified transaction front-end to customers and intermediaries. This combination of a VeriTouch Customer Engagement (CRM)solution with omni-channel servicing capability, enhances customer experience. At the same time, it boosts efficiency and productivity and reduces development and maintenance costs.

Data is a hugely valuable business asset

It's no longer a question of 'if' latest technology will transform insurers' business models, but 'how'. The challenge – and opportunity – for the industry is how best to integrate this technology to maximize the profitability of each customer. In an increasingly competitive market, good products alone do not guarantee customer trust and loyalty. That is built by data-driven personalization to offer meaningful experiences that enrich customer-insurer relationships.