Modernizing Insurance Customer Care

Abstract

Customers’ expectations for convenience and personalization increase every day. Mobile technology and digital solutions have changed the average customer’s experience—not just in retail—but also in the insurance industry, where customers expect a tailored experience that acknowledges their unique situations. To stay viable in this competitive industry, insurance providers must deliver on their customers’ expectations. That means adopting a customer-centric focus and omni-channel technology to implement it.

Why the Current Approach No Longer Works

Unfortunately, customer service has not always been a priority for insurance companies. Efforts to improve efficiencies and reduce costs were historically for the benefit of the company, not the customer. For example, most systems are based on specific functional processing needs—not the customer’s needs.

In order to adopt a customer-centric focus, insurance companies need to understand who their customers are. However, ERP systems are often siloed. Many companies have multiple policy, billing, claims, and CRM systems where customer data exists. Without integration between these systems, building an adequate customer profile is not just difficult—it is often impossible.

This leads to several problems, including:

• Low customer retention rates: Customers place a high priority on digital access. Without access to their information and the services they rely on, customers often grow frustrated and switch to the insurance companies that can best provide these services.
• Inability to attract new customers: Millennials represent a growing segment of the market, and they place a high priority on mobile-centric solutions. Insurance companies that can’t meet these expectations are perceived as old and out of touch.
• Low data accuracy: Data that is stored and archived in legacy systems is difficult and costly to retrieve, let alone merge with other data for a complete view of the customer. If a company cannot find accurate data on the same customer across different systems, then the data itself can become misleading and even worthless, frustrating customers and customer service representatives.
• Lack of innovation: Without accurate data, companies are unable to create custom products tailored to individual customers.

Insurance Companies Can Become More Customer-Centric

Insurance companies can overcome these challenges and implement a customer-centric service approach. An omni-channel solution integrates and merges customer data sources across the enterprise, enabling insurance companies to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience across every device and communication channel. Insurance companies can build a real and accurate customer profile with real-time visibility into customer behavior. Thus, an omni-channel solution provides insurance companies with the foundation they need to develop improved support use cases, create self-service options, and enable agents to better serve customers.

Making the Digital Transformation with Clearpath

ClearpathSM by Coforge is a cloud-based solution that profiles each customer based on their history and buying behavior to better understand preferences. By allowing each customer to both request and receive information from the insurance company digitally, Clearpath offers the customer-centric services that insurance companies need.

As insurance companies gain a better understanding of their customer’s needs, they can then design new services tailored to these customers, offering specific products and solutions that suit each customer’s profile. When customers can receive quotes, update their policies, file claims, and request information in a consistent and personalized manner across communication channels, the interactions become more efficient, delivering positive customer experience.

Clearpath normalizes customer’s data and presents it digitally through USAN’s Metaphor Engage platform. Metaphor Engage serves as the decisioning and workflow engine of Clearpath, integrating channel (web, mobile, SMS, social, phone) and back-end systems to offer customers a seamless experience. By leveraging and integrating existing technologies and communication channels, it unifies data across all channels to consistently deliver personal and relevant customer interactions and improve service and satisfaction levels. Additionally, by merging information for customers, agents, and even online payment systems linked with company accounts receivable systems, the entire process is streamlined, creating a better experience for both customers and the company.

The Coforge Approach to Delivering Omni-Channel Solutions

Powered by USAN’s Metaphor Engage Platform, Clearpath can deliver omni-channel solutions through the following services:

• USAN unified platform, communications, and modules
• Professional services and consulting throughout the process
• Coforge Application Development Maintenance (ADM):
  • System Integration
  • Mobility
  • Data Management and Analytics
  • QA Testing
  • Data Migration
• Hosted Inbound/Outbound Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) functionality
• Cloud-based contact center infrastructure and applications
  • Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) with intelligent call routing
  • Predictive outbound dialing
  • Recording and quality management
  • Intelligent agent desktop
  • Reporting and analytics
• USAN SecurePay for a PCI-compliant payment solution

Because each service is provided by having a strong customer use case in place, omni-channel solutions give customers the ability to connect online with the insurance company, handling everything from product information and pricing to purchasing and claims management. This can all happen by integration with an insurance company’s systems, reducing the need for insurance company employees to handle each customer request.

Clearpath Offers Specific Solutions to Insurance Companies

The omni-channel approach is a clear solution for insurance companies that struggle with inaccurate data and siloed infrastructure.

Use Case: New Customer Onboarding

Insurance companies can attract new customers and qualify these leads with specifically tailored solutions, thereby reducing sunk costs of leads who find out that a solution isn’t quite for them.

Clearpath attracts new customers through web, mobile, and social media channels, tailoring solutions to meet customer needs as analyzed via these channels. The insurance company can also connect with customers through Live Chat and an enhanced self-service IVR solution, remembering and using all of their activity from the digital channel, to give customers the confidence that they’re receiving an offering tailored to their specific requirements.

Clearpath attracts new customers through web, mobile, and social media channels, tailoring solutions to meet customer needs as analyzed via these channels. The insurance company can also connect with customers through Live Chat and an enhanced self-service IVR solution, remembering and using all of their activity from the digital channel, to give customers the confidence that they’re receiving an offering tailored to their specific requirements. Clearpath enables insurance companies to build a customer’s “enterprise profile” based on available data. This allows them to create campaigns through Clearpath that are targeted to specific customers. Companies can even draw existing customers into live conversations with their agent or Customer Service Representative (CSR).

Use Case: Improved Claims and Loss Reporting

The process to file a claim or report a loss must be quick and easy. Clearpath allows customers to easily report claims through a mobile device. This creates an experience like there is a field adjuster at the scene, and follow-ups still occur. Clearpath also allows customers to check on the progress of their claims online. With better communication, the customer never feels left out of the process.

Making the Switch to an Omni-Channel Solution

With all the transactions that occur on a daily basis within an insurance company, there is a lot of data that needs to be collected and analyzed across customer channels. Providing a customer-centric service approach requires a solution that can aggregate customers’ data across these channels. Mobile and omni-channel technologies are critical for every insurance company that wants to compete. With Clearpath, insurance companies can have the solutions in place to accurately measure their data and better craft tailored solutions for new and existing customers. The result is better claims processing, better customer engagement, and stronger customer loyalty.