Chatbots

How to Get an Improved Customer Experience (CX) Using Insurance Chatbots

Ultimately, the reason why insurance carriers should invest in natural language interfaces is to improve customer retention. A regular customer may only interact with the insurance carrier three to five times per year, and if each time they have a smooth interaction, they will have a greater customer experience.

Many industries have faced challenges by adapting to the current landscape and expectations of customers. Customers are no longer answering unknown numbers on their phones, making it problematic for insurance companies to connect with people through the traditional communication medium. Moreover, millennial customers prefer text messaging over phone calls.

For this article, we will be talking specifically about the insurance industry. With the world becoming more digital by the day, policyholder and consumer expectations change.

In order for insurance companies to increase the lifecycle of a customer, they must convert customer engagement into a conversation. Today, digital marketing gives the insurance industry several channels to reach its potential customers. With chatbots and multichannel integrations coupled together, insurance providers can genuinely have a solution in place to bridge the expectations of their consumers and switch from the traditional transaction into a two-way interaction.

This is essentially where automated insurance agents, or insurance chatbots, come into play. A chatbot invites insurance customers to communicate using natural language throughout the entire lifecycle process (such as receiving a new quote, billing, customer service, etc.) rather than navigating a menu or filling in application forms by themselves. This allows the customer to develop a more intimate and personalized interaction with the company.

Moreover, an increased number of decision-makers are leaning towards natural language interfaces when it comes to AI technology. This has been seen most recently with voice assistants, like Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri, which have revolutionized the type of conversations consumers are having with natural language processing (NLP) products.

To understand how NLP products fit into improving the customer experience of insurance chatbots, let’s review how customers interact with companies as a whole.

Uh-oh, you got into an accident!

An accident can sometimes become personal (such as a fire at your small business—the business that you’ve sunk all your retirement funds into—or your first car accident) and most people just want to talk to someone to get their emotions off their chest. Chatbots that will succeed in the insurance sector will have contextual understanding. For example, a chatbot will allow you to simply say, “I’d like to talk to someone,” and then it will transfer to you a real agent.

The First Notice of Loss (FNOL)—the first notification to an insurance provider after an insured asset's loss, theft, or injury—is actually best handled by a chatbot for claims. A chatbot can expeditiously gather initial information of an accident, such as what is the extent of the damage, who was involved, and the ability to send images of the loss, locate the individual’s location via the GPS on their phone and alert 911 if there’s someone hurt.

Congratulations on your new baby!

If a customer needs to change their policy because of life events, they typically don’t want to talk to anyone. Let’s be honest with ourselves, who wants to be placed on hold to add a child (or partner) to their policy? Chatbots make the modification of a customer’s policy much more streamlined and pleasant.

Ultimately, the reason why insurance carriers should invest in natural language interfaces is to improve customer retention. A regular customer may only interact with the insurance carrier three to five times per year, and if each time they have a smooth interaction, they will have a greater customer experience. If you make it easier for the customer to solve their problems, they will stay with you longer.

5 use cases for insurance chatbots

1. Engaging customer education and conversion
Customers can be educated on how the insurance policy works and how each plan compares with other carriers to get the optimal plan that suits their needs from chatbots. A chatbot can scale infinitely, which can increase interaction and engagement with every visitor on any channel, resulting in increased customer conversion.

2. Improved claims processing and payment
Chatbots can be trained to address the customers’ insurance claims and automatically follow up on those claims after a certain amount of time. Bots can also simplify the payment process through a customer’s preferred communication channel, resulting in improved customer retention.

3. Changed customer behaviors
Three out of four customers prefer to respond over live chat versus email, and over half of all customers prefer to contact the company through a messaging medium rather than calling. This change in customer behavior is attributed to the fact that customers perceive websites as a static medium, and companies should understand that engaging customers in any type of interaction through this medium will result in an improvement in the customer experience.

4. Increased sales
More than half of customers will purchase online if they can message the company directly. A chatbot can help convert a potential customer by bridging the gap between them and the company through an interactive relationship. Bots can help segment the customer by identifying their specific needs and presenting a solution that’s suited for them.

5. Reduced workload
The main advantage of using chatbot technologies—or automation as a whole—is to increase the scalability of the company and reduce the manpower. Chatbots can streamline a large number of back-office processes and reduce the whole work process. The workload of the marketing and sales team can be significantly decreased through an insurance chatbot, leading to increased conversions from leads to sales.