The need for speed
The insurance industry is not known for its speed and agility. Quite the opposite, it is most often characterized as slow, methodical and cautious.
Fortunately, over the last few years, insurance companies have been taking measures to improve and enhance engagement with their customers, agents and distributors. These efforts have been fueled by the Insurtech market disruption and consumer demographic growth toward Gen Xers and millennials who expect flexible, digital engagement with their insurance provider or agent beyond the initial buying experience and billing.
Those organizations most active in this respect have led the way in terms of transformative innovation, but most insurers have opted to spend their time on other things, hoping they can be “fast followers.”
COVID-19 has shifted the need for transformation into high gear. As stringent physical distancing policies have been adopted at state and local levels, insurance businesses have closed offices, shifted employees into work-from-home programs, and are stretching to conduct all of their business through digital and/or virtual channels.
Those organizations hoping to be “fast followers” are going to be faced with having to make more urgent decisions about how to transform their businesses and avoid being left behind.
Just a moment, first things first…
Focusing on a wholly new digital operating model can sometimes distract from core concerns.
The most important first step in improving customer engagement during the crisis is to reach out, not in marketing or overt attempts to gain a competitive edge, but to offer genuine support. Supporting policyholders, listening to their needs and challenges, and maintaining trust is the basis for growth. Don’t wait until you have the perfect medium. Some solutions are better than others (and most suitable for future use), but any will do: email, phone, in-app messaging, text.
Beyond the obvious benefit to policyholders, this open dialogue and collaboration, regardless of the suitability of the method for the long-term, will help educate the organization and inform engagement and experience design around which future digital models will be constructed.
Digitally enabled engagement models
In order to survive and continue to thrive post-crisis, carriers will need to transition their sales and customer engagement processes to an online and contactless sale through digital engagement models at every step of the customer journey.
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