Keeping customer churn to a minimum is an ongoing endeavor in the insurance industry. A single poor experience or negative interaction is enough for customers to look for a new provider. The cost of losing business goes well beyond product value. Finding new customers and securing their loyalty takes time and revenue. Word of mouth from dissatisfied customers can also hinder business prospects.
Engagement wasn’t a requirement prior to the rise of Fintech, Insurtech, and other technologically advanced startups. These companies radically changed customer expectations and disrupted standard business practices. Now, engaging with policyholders is a necessity to prevent customer attrition rates from spiraling.
The following are several creative ways insurers can improve customer engagement:
- Utilize social media. Social networking has come a long way since the early years of Myspace and Facebook. People have moved beyond liking photos and retweeting memes. They use these platforms to seek out recommendations, share their experiences, and purchase services. It’s not enough for insurance companies to post bland press releases or reminders about open enrollment. Insurers need to engage with customers where they congregate, and the overwhelming majority prefer digital interactions.
- Create content with a purpose. Expanding on the idea above, insurance providers can increase customer engagement by producing valuable content. Customers often try to find answers to their insurance questions themselves before reaching out to a representative. Insurers can meet this expectation by providing a knowledge bank with content that discusses common insurance misconceptions, answers frequently asked questions, or compares policy options with easy-to-digest infographics.
- Offer insurance products with built-in rewards. Health insurance products that reward customers for achieving wellness goals serve two purposes. Improving customers’ health reduces the likelihood of them falling ill or developing preventable diseases, and fewer claims reduce the financial burden placed on insurance providers. Built-in rewards also create an opportunity to engage with customers through check-ins, redeeming wellness points, and celebrating health goals. Cash prizes and premium reductions are the most popular options. However, insurance providers can offer wellness rewards on a smaller scale as well, such as providing a free gym membership.
- Personalize the insurance journey. Customers easily recognize and dismiss canned emails. They’re impersonal and do little to capture the customer’s interest. Understanding the customer is critical for personalization, as it allows insurance providers to recommend relevant products. Knowing how the customer prefers to communicate is also important, as insurance companies can use that information to start the personalization process. Insurance providers can also use this data to reach their target audience and market their products more effectively.
Effective customer engagement requires a multipronged approach. For example, producing valuable content is useless if customers never see it. Interacting with customers on their preferred platform improves visibility and engagement while reducing customer churn. Contact Actec to learn more about implementing new communications channels like text and chat services.
Customer expectations are constantly evolving in complexity. In the past, insurance companies only had to compete against each other. Now, customers compare providers based on all their digital service experiences. They want the personalization they experience with Amazon combined with the unparalleled customer service of Zappos. They want self-service options, rapid resolutions for their problems, and knowledgeable agents.
Technology, innovation, and convenience are constantly increasing customer expectations. Customers often leave a call center interaction dissatisfied, even if they received an answer to their question. Customers want more than a solution for their problems. Achieving customer satisfaction is a nuanced skill call centers can’t afford to mismanage.
Customers have an overwhelming number of options to choose from when considering insurance providers. Well-established organizations, innovative newcomers, and digital insurers round out an oversaturated market. Many of these insurance companies carry similar products, and insurers can no longer rely on their services as a differentiating factor. Instead, insurance companies need to provide a seamless customer journey to capitalize on the 73% of customers that favor businesses with personalized shopping experiences.
Customer service is the backbone of any successful insurance provider. Customers expect a knowledgeable representative to provide rapid resolutions to their questions and problems. However, it’s not always cost-effective to staff a customer service department in-house. As a result, some insurance companies spread their limited customer service agents too thin. When this happens, long wait times, over-worked employees, and dissatisfied customers accumulate.
Which insurance provider a customer selects depends on several factors. The value of the product and the service quality customers receive are significant factors in their overall satisfaction. However, insurance providers have a significant opportunity to secure a new customer’s loyalty immediately after establishing their account.
