In today’s highly competitive insurance marketplace and the era of heightened customer expectations, insurers must find ways to optimize the customer experience (CX). PwC noted that as the pandemic reshaped customer expectations, “insurers must become more customer-centric and focus on relationships that can spell the difference between loyalty and lost business.”
Branded communication technology, such as branded calling, is emerging as a strategic enabler of best-in-class CX that can help insurers improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and profitability.
Because nearly 87% of Americans don’t answer calls from unidentified numbers, branded communication gives insurers a leg up. It allows insurance providers to identify themselves on mobile devices as a legitimate caller by displaying logos, images and a reason for the call on the recipient’s device at the time of the call and in the native call log afterward. Branded calling helps insurers deliver a positive CX by injecting transparency into the phone call, which gives consumers the confidence to answer their phones.
That’s critical today as robocalls flood the phone channel, making consumers wary of answering calls from unknown numbers. Recent scam data estimates U.S. mobile subscribers received over 100 billion scam calls during the first six months of 2022. This projects to over 80 million successful scam attempts, resulting in cumulative financial losses as high as $40 billion.
However, the phone channel remains a preferred method of communication. In a 2022 Insurance Survey Report that explored the insurance calling experiences of 5,000 U.S. mobile subscribers, 42% of policyholders prefer communicating with insurance providers over the phone.
See also: 8 Key Changes for Customer Experience
The survey also found that more than three in four respondents (76%) reported missing a call from their insurance provider because they didn’t recognize the number calling or it was not properly identified as a call from their insurance provider. These missed calls directly affect the customer experience, particularly when missed connections with insurers involve time-sensitive policy and payment decisions. The survey results revealed that missing these calls had a “moderate to big impact” on nearly 60% of respondents, and almost 20% reported that missing the call cost them valuable time or had a direct financial impact. Even when survey respondents requested a call back instead of waiting on hold, a significant number of these people (59%) still missed the call back because they did not recognize who was calling.
Missed calls add up to lost time and money for insurers and a bad experience for clients who either start the call process all over again, hoping to make a connection with the insurance provider or take their business elsewhere. Bad CX can put brand loyalty and revenue gains at risk. A survey by CX platform Emplifi revealed that 63% of U.S. consumers said a poor customer experience is enough of a reason to leave a brand they were previously loyal to.
Increasing loyalty and reducing customer churn has a bottom-line impact on any business but is especially high stakes in the insurance industry which has the highest customer acquisition costs of any industry. In fact, it’s been reported that it costs seven to nine times more for an insurance agency to attract a new customer than to retain one.
Branded communication can help insurers reach the right customer at the right time, which is critical to increasing customer loyalty. Customer retention is increased as a result of the transparency provided by the technology, which elevates consumer trust and allows insurers to deliver the relevant and timely communication consumers want.
The phone call remains an important touchpoint in an industry that is based on personal relationships and protects the things that consumers value most. This touchpoint elevates the customer experience by providing useful information that gives clients and potential clients a better understanding of insurance products and recommendations.
See also: Improving Customer Experience In 2022
Branded calling increases answer rates and improves customer perception of the insurer’s brand. This helps shape the customer experience and helps insurers build stronger relationships with policyholders and deliver human interactions that are particularly important to policyholders when it comes to policy questions, purchasing and the claims process.
Optimizing communication with this technology powers exceptional customer interactions that boost productivity and revenue by increasing call duration, conversion rates and engagement rates.
A key differentiator and competitive advantage for insurers, branded communication is a strategic CX enabler that allows these companies to better serve policyholders and potential customers, which translates to improved customer satisfaction, increased loyalty and higher profitability.
