Insurers Turn to Automation

By: Derek Sherman

Insurers that are heavily dependent on traditional business models have struggled over the past year with financial strain. But automation presents an opportunity to establish short-term successes to speed up recovery and long-term results that can stimulate growth by accelerating digital transformation.

Here are the ways automation can help create resiliency in insurance organizations, ensuring that operations run smoothly and effectively:

Improving Customer Service and Employee Experience

Customer expectations are at an all-time high as digital-native brands like Amazon continue to dominate and set standards that are difficult for other companies to copy. These standards don’t only appear in business-to-consumer transactions but also in business-to-business transactions that include promoting product innovation and mix. Insurers strive to deliver high-quality customer experience, but there is still a gap between what customers expect and what insurers are delivering – especially when it comes to being available at all hours and on all channels.

Typically, at an insurance enterprise, when a customer calls into the support line with a question about billing, the inquiry goes straight to a call center agent. The agent must spend time asking a myriad of repetitive follow-up questions to confirm a customer’s identity and understand the situation, then spend more time searching for a customer’s account information across multiple systems just to identify the issue. With automation, as soon as the call comes in, a software robot begins aggregating the relevant customer data for the agent. Through a combination of customer sentiment and behavior analytics, the robot then pulls actionable information into a streamlined application with quick access to next steps for the agent.

This seamless interaction means a customer has a much quicker, more personalized, positive experience, and the agent is ready with the right information to do the job efficiently and bring to the customer request to an appropriate resolution.

It is essential that insurers invest in technology that drives a seamless digital experience at every communication channel – whether it be a chatbot, a mobile app or an interaction by phone. When an insurer is available in this capacity, it can provide customers with an easier experience and provide servicing or resolve claims at a lower operational cost. Intelligent automation links the ecosystem of traditional insurance systems with technology capabilities.

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