Covid-19’s Lasting Impact on Insurance Communications

There’s no denying that the global pandemic has irreversibly changed the world as we know it. Social distancing, self-quarantine, and canceled events have significantly impacted the way we live, work, buy, consume, and interact. And while it’s still too early to assess the long-term effects caused by the novel coronavirus, there is one thing we know for sure: digital communication has become and will remain the new normal.

So, what does this mean for insurance?

Move Past Mail

As people settle into their new routine of working from home, many insurers have found practical ways to maintain communication with their customers while keeping to safe social distancing practices. These range from keeping a skeleton staff in the office to handle inbound and outbound mail, as well as rerouting mail to home addresses.

But in a world where pandemics, stay-at-home mandates, and security vulnerabilities are an ongoing reality, these solutions are only temporary. Insurers need to find long-term solutions that enable resiliency and improve customer experience.

In response to this, top carriers have begun to digitize all or the remainder of their communications with cloud-based, modern customer communications management (CCM) software. This digital transformation is an essential step towards minimizing risk, meeting customer demands, and allowing for operational adaptability in future, unpredictable environments.

If you’re an insurance carrier looking to transition from print to digital but aren’t sure how to get started, read How to Move to Digital Insurance Communications.

Embrace Growing Digital Channels

Even before COVID-19, many customers preferred digital messages. Now more than ever, customers want instant communication on a convenient platform that suits their needs.

Snail-mail and long call wait times are no longer viable. Successful carriers are embracing traditional digital channels (e.g., email and social media), as well as emerging digital channels to meet the increasing need for instant two-way customer communications.

Chatbots

By leveraging intuitive design combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence, chatbots are quickly gaining traction as an efficient way to increase response times, improve service delivery, and achieve cost savings through labor reduction.

Chatbots not only offer immediate responses, but they can also refer customers to other channels (e.g., customer service agents) to solve more complex problems.

Using data and analytics, chatbots enable insurers to deliver timely and relevant products and services to increase engagement, revenue, and customer satisfaction.

Interactive Forms and Documents

Using web technology, insurers are building interactive digital forms and documents based on a single communication template that adapts to any device and any channel. This enables insurers to send instant and personalized messages to customers preferred digital channels at scale.

Carriers can use this new form of communication to deliver billing statements, keep customers updated on policy changes, onboard new policyholders, and manage the claims experience.

Interactive forms, graphs, and charts with live calculators and personalized video help provide clear, actionable information. This helps reduce calls to the call center, avoid customer confusion, and decrease print and postage costs, while increasing customer retention and upsell and cross-sell activities.

Automated Texting

During a crisis, policyholders want to interact with their carriers quickly. To make this possible, many insurers are implementing automated SMS capabilities.

These online tools not only empower insurance carriers to send secure batch and on-demand messages directly to customers’ phones, but they allow insureds to reach out to their carrier with questions and concerns easily and instantly.

With this technology, insurers can schedule messages, monitor conversations between customers and agents, and automate processes to offer an engaging experience, improve productivity, optimize costs, and drive retention.

Communications are Moving Forward. Are You?

In this time of crisis and change, investing in digital communication technology is the way forward to ensure ongoing business success.

We’re here for you. If you have any questions or need help designing, developing, and delivering omnichannel customer communications, don’t hesitate to get in touch.