As service operations settle in the wake of pandemic disruption, mass shifts to hybrid set-ups and upcoming regulation from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are setting higher expectations for the standard of care that firms provide to retail consumers. Greater use of data and technology will be critical to help insurance providers better understand – and serve – policyholders and prospective customers.
Pass on hybrid working benefits to boost customer service
The pandemic has certainly accelerated digital projects, with McKinsey estimating an average of seven years of digital transformation was achieved in mere months. At BGL Insurance for example, this laser focus on technology saw the introduction of a new cloud-based communications platform, offering colleagues the freedom to work remotely while equipping them with the digital tools to maintain excellent service levels.
Now, easing lockdowns have dialed the remote working strategy back to more of a mixed, hybrid working set-up for many and organizations of all shapes and sizes are working to strike the perfect balance. For employees, this means in the contact center we’re looking to embrace weekly rotations to ensure colleagues have a suitable mix of home and in-office working, while still providing excellent CX – with co-ordination across multi-site offices.
This is providing a springboard for new opportunities to serve the customer better. For instance, this has provided a prime opportunity to improve and enhance service levels and capabilities, such as offering email as a trial service channel to provide short-term customer value. This experimentation is crucial to ensuring we can both maintain and make incremental improvements to service levels.
New technology provides a further CX boost – when applied correctly
Technology is not simply a ‘silver bullet’ for all service challenges. In some cases, especially throughout the pandemic, online adoption or ‘digital by default’ has almost been forced on some customers.
To keep customers satisfied, insurers will need to strike a perfect balance between digital capabilities and customer preferences to provide each customer with the channel and journey they’re most comfortable with at any given time. For example, while simple customer journeys can be self-serve, certain aspects of the insurance cycle such as claims, are still ripe for greater digital deployments.
With rising digitalization creating new service opportunities, this is an excellent time to test the appetite among customers for increased automation or self-serve features. This could include greater adoption of assisted self-service channels or virtual assistants, enhanced by speech analysis, to give willing customers the ‘service autonomy’ many may prefer.
Matching customer demands means harnessing data to analyze customer intent
Much is made of the opportunities available to harness data to enhance service offerings, or any customer journey – with most of this conversation focusing on personalization. While this is of course highly valuable, insurance providers can also look to use data to really get to grips with customer intent – anticipating needs, emotion and the true purpose behind the customer journey.
This extends to the online sales journey and marketing, where we can identify a customer’s propensity to use or enquire about certain services. By establishing data-driven journeys, we can create more appealing service channels to delight customers no matter the pathway they choose. Methods such as multi-variate testing can be used here to determine the smoothest, or most customer-friendly, journey based on responsiveness and engagement.
Plan ahead to get in front of rising regulation and customer expectations…
We must remember that as part of such a highly regulated industry, we must also plan for shifting rules and regulations, especially consumer-facing ones.
The most recent major change for our industry is of course the FCA price-walking restrictions, which made it more vital than ever to display the right information at the right time to attract new customers. In 2023, we can expect the latest addition with the implementation of a new Consumer Duty.
…and bake technology into CX processes now and for the future
Customer service expectations will continually shift and refine, while essential regulations will also be continually added or tightened – and meeting these is non-negotiable. By baking in technology to establish a strong digital foundation, the insurance industry will not just be able to understand and meet such customer needs and requirements, but to anticipate them and create a personalized journey in turn.