'Micro Engagements' Key to Claims Process

Many insurance companies suffer from slow and inefficient claims processes, which are notoriously lengthy and cumbersome for both the insurance companies and their customers. From long and difficult back and forth to messy, complicated paperwork, claim cycles can be a real pain for all involved. Long claim cycle times increase administrative costs, reduce claims department employee productivity and hurt relationships with providers and policyholders. For the claimants, long wait times for time-sensitive financial decisions lead to poor net promoter scores (NPS) for the brands. The delays in the adjudication of a claim are due to the laborious process of collecting and coordinating a variety of information. Insurance companies typically deploy claims personnel to interact with claimants through the traditional modes of email and phone calls. When customers have to speak to agents in person or through email, it takes an average of six attempts to converse and collect all of the claims data needed, eating up the claims department’s time as well as that of the claimants. Insurance companies are urgently looking for a novel approach to reduce the costly back and forth of processing a claim, into simple, automated engagements. What if there was a better way? Leading insurance companies are now beginning to use new technologies to drastically reduce claim cycle times – chatbots. These chatbots support customers through the life of their claim, just as a customer support specialist would. But now, insurance agent chatbots are available 24/7—and instantly—to answer any question for the claimant or to collect information from the claimant using automated, two-way, texting conversations. See also: How to Innovate With Microservices (Part 1)   Also known as “operator texting” or “agent texting,” these bots are being used for all sorts of use cases, including:

• Confirmation of claim information received
• Confirmation of claim adjudication
• Payroll requests
• Reminders to send pay stubs
• Collection of information
• Gathering information on last day worked

One effective solution for automating the often arduous and costly engagements between businesses and consumers is the concept of “micro-engagements,” which combines robotic process automation with a conversational automation platform. Bolstered by emerging technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), micro-engagements eliminate the friction that exists in interactions with customers, employees and partners. More importantly, micro-engagements, coupled with an AI system, accelerates workflow and fixes the endless wait times and frustration experienced when calling an insurance company. It’s chatbots 2.0! Insurance companies that have implemented micro-engagements have saved significant time and resources, enabling such provisions as keeping the customer better-informed, improving customer engagement and adjudicating claims as quickly as possible. These companies have also seen significantly improved efficiency when it comes to claims processing, with a greater than 30% reduction in call volume and over 30% improvement in NPS scores while reducing costs over 60%. See also: How Agencies Must Embrace Tech in 2019   Finally, insurance companies are finding relief with effective new technology solutions that greatly improve time, efficiency and afford for seamless customer engagements.