The insurance industry has been going through continual change since its inception. The Covid pandemic is one of the events that led to unprecedented disruption to the industry. Impacting the lives of insurance users, agencies, and employees. However, the insurance industry is well-prepared to handle all kinds of challenges on multiple fronts. As an insurance agency, it’s time for you to get yourself prepared for the post-pandemic era where digital platforms will play a key role in your success.
Platforms like PathwayPort are offering great opportunities for insurance agencies to deploy smart insurance automation solutions and get everything streamlined once and for all. However, you need to come up with strategies to build a strong foundation for future growth. In this post, I will identify 4 business strategists that will help insurance companies grow exponentially in 2022 and beyond.
1. Develop a deep understanding of what your customers want
How well do you know your customers and prospects? What are their preferences and needs? Are your products and digital presence strong enough to help you stay profitable? If your insurance business revolves around your customers, then you should spend some time understanding what they really want. You can’t build perfect customer experiences or customer journeys without having a deep understanding of your audience.
One thing is for sure, today’s consumers want easy and quick solutions that fit their budget and needs. From making changes to their policies to entering a claim, they want to get things done on the channel and device of their choosing.
If you haven’t invested in digital channels to attract leads and service your customers, you’re not prepared for the challenges of 2022. So, invest in technology to better understand and interact with your audience. Most importantly, define your business objectives with clear success metrics so that you would be able to align any technology to your business needs and goals. Mckinsey & Co tells us that larger but more targeted technology investments by insurers produce better ROI.
2. Develop automated but personalized customer experience
As mentioned earlier, your insurance customers want to get everything done right from their mobile phones. While they like to interact with insurance agents and companies on mobile devices, they want personalized interactions. When they launch a query or need a service, they want the respondents to have full knowledge of their situation and policies so they don’t have to waste time explaining the context.
So, how would you enable your customers to enjoy a fully digital and automated customer journey while having empathy? Now, it’s important for you to realize that automation and AI-based insurance platforms can help you deliver a more emphatic and personal customer experience. Isn’t it amazing to have a smart tool taking care of your business processes from marketing to customer care?
When you implement a smart insurance automation tool to do repetitive jobs, you find more time focusing on things that matter the most. You’re probably already using automation in some form or shape but automating more tasks with AI-driven tech will dramatically increase your chances of having a wonderful 2022.
Related: For Sales, Personalization Is More Essential Than Ever
3. Unclog your sales pipeline
Your sales pipeline must run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. If you see something clogging your sales pipeline, engage your team and study all your customer journey. Outline all the possible ways your customers use to connect with your brand. Reexamine your lead generation process to make sure you have just enough stages in your sales workflow.
After all, you can’t afford to lose interested customers. Also, you shouldn’t let your customers down by not having enough touchpoints. In short, speed up your sales cycle without making your prospects feel like you’ve abandoned them. This is how you will be able to achieve the true potential of your business.
4. Streamline the claim process
The fourth business strategy for insurance companies in 2022 is to streamline and automate the claim process. There is nothing more annoying than waiting for the simple task to be done, or sdited. The beginning of the customer journey should be easy and intuitive, it should lead them to claim the process in a few moments.
AI can be leveraged to take your customer experience to the next level and help customers reduce processing time, settlement, and the provision of support. Automating the claim and other processes will ultimately result in lower operating costs and improved ROI.
Final thoughts
No matter what business strategy you choose to implement, be open to innovation and the latest technologies. There is no single best solution for the strategy that will work. But definitely, the more of the good practices you try – the better for you. So try using AI, telematics, claims automation, and big data to get a clear picture of your efforts and results.