In 2018, the property and casualty industry was paid $1.6 trillion dollars in premiums. In 2020, during the heart of the pandemic accompanied by multiple environmental disasters like wildfires and flooding, insurance carriers were slammed with thousands of claims. And each progressive year promises more P&C insurance claims as environmental conditions worsen and newer risks grow, like cybersecurity. And yet, when customers are going through the trauma of these disasters, working on rebuilding their lives, the one thing that keeps them with their carrier is their satisfaction with the service.
Unlike other industries where innovation and technology have significantly transformed the way they do business, P&C has remained the same, much to their disadvantage, especially when it comes to the growing expectations of their customer base. Customers want easy-to-use, instant information and access to their carrier on platforms that are as mobile as they are. And during times of crisis, their expectations increase incrementally.
Thankfully, advances in Customer Experience Automation™ have helped ease the pressure on insurance carriers by enabling them to avoid delays in assisting customers in crisis; despite the increase in volume. P&C carriers are now switching to Ushur’s AI-powered automation platform to transform the entire customer journey and to give consumers the modern digital experience they crave to reach resolutions more quickly.
Prioritizing Customer Experience
Customer insurance loyalty is no longer guaranteed, particularly in a digital age when marketing and information is at every business owner’s and consumer’s fingertips. The insurance landscape is incredibly competitive. With so many options vying for a customer’s attention, consumers can find it difficult to decide. And while price is likely the reason for some to switch insurance companies, there is one key factor that is even more influential: customer service.
The rapid technological advances brought on by intelligent automation are increasing consumers' digital expectations. Generation C - the Connected Generation - is growing. Customers of all ages expect insurance carriers to provide them with guidance about their insurance products and services through digital channels. Millennial consumers were born into a world with a digital foundation, this expanding consumer segment wants to feel they have a personal and direct relationship with their insurance carrier. According to AARP, smartphone adoption by more mature customers exceeds 80%. After all, seniors also had to pivot overnight with the lockdown to getting their groceries delivered and prescriptions filled online. The insurance customer of today expects digital self-service and will look elsewhere if it isn’t readily available.
The immediate implications are clear for insurance carriers. By identifying and integrating Customer Experience Automation™ you can dramatically elevate the experience for policyholders, agents, brokers, claimants, and even providers. Ushur’s Intelligent automation has proven key for carriers to drive customer engagement rates up to 85%, cut processing times from weeks to hours, deliver 5x return on investment, power up NPS scores by 20%, raise operational efficiency, increase transparency into quote, policy, billing, and claims processing. All improvements that influence your customer’s satisfaction and in turn, retention.
Five Key Essentials in Customer Experience Automation™
By embracing Customer Experience Automation™, insurance carriers can personalize the customer journey across all P&C lines of business. The evolution of AI and computational automation is now overturning the traditional assumptions made about AI capabilities, to redefine the “routine” and “non-routine” in exciting new ways.
Here’s how:
- Simplicity. Prior to AI-powered automation, filing a claim was viewed as a frustrating experience from the consumer’s point-of-view. However, with Customer Experience Automation™ this process is simple and accessible as soon as the claim begins. Quote submissions received via email do not get stalled in a manual validation process and data entry cycle. Billing and payments are improved through reminders and easy EFT enrollment.
- Security. In respect to compliance, Ushur’s automated workflow is GDPR and CCPA compliant while seamlessly moving customer information forward. Ushur’s intelligent automation engine does this without involving people for manual processing, thereby giving your customers the benefit of faster resolution times and the advantage of using their preferred digital channels.
- White label “Invisible App™.” Ushur’s one-of-a-kind Invisible App™ provides a secure and easy app-like user experience without the carrier cost of creating and maintaining mobile apps. It eliminates the customer overhead of installing an app before they can engage their carrier, such as to report a new claim. Invisible App™ can be seamlessly customized to your company’s preferences to deliver a consistent brand experience for all your customer needs. Invisible App™ can update customers instantly, elicit higher completion rates for missing information, and keep claims and other interactions moving forward in real-time. Build it once and deliver the same intuitive customer experience across any channel.
- Conversational AI. Unlike standard FAQ chatbots, Ushur uses Conversation AI technology to understand your customer’s situation and provide real-time advice and resolution. The net result is the reduction in time for customers to get their thoughts articulated and have the process continue without delay or frustration. This unique technology can suggest next steps, and accurately guide the customer in stressful situations.
Accuracy and speed by understanding images. Ushur’s unique optical character recognition (OCR) technology coupled with computer vision and deep learning can recognize and extract key details from photographs and documents. Ushur can reduce customer effort by reading, extracting and interfacing data, making sure the information is quickly transferred and not stuck in bottlenecks of manual processes.
Speed and Capability on the Ushur platform
The distinctive characteristics of Ushur’s AI-engine makes it easy to empower the full P&C lifecycle with speed and capability, spanning marketing, quote, policy, billing, and claims.
Carriers can enrich:
- Customer service delivery
- Grow their ROI
- Integrate essential security
- Speed up marketing outreach, processing quote submissions, policy transactions, billing activities and claims handling in real-time
Key Areas AI Technology Relates to Customer Inquiries
It’s time to debunk the myths of transforming P&C insurance. To fully understand what Ushur can do is to understand how Ushur’s AI technology can relate to customer inquiries in key areas.
Carriers can now:
- Outpace customer expectations by revolutionizing the customer, agent, broker, claimant and provider journey though Micro-Engagements™
- Anticipate high-volume customer inquiries with automated proactive outreach
- Reduce inefficiency in quotes, policies, billing, and claims through digital self-service enhanced with machine learning
- Provide customers, prospects, brokers and agents access to new products along with pricing awareness
- Offer a consistent customer experience by meeting the needs of customers through their preferred channel (online, voice, email, text, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.), while future-proofing your investments in communications technology
Advancing the Post-Pandemic Customer Experience
The recent global pandemic has inspired business leaders in P&C insurance to reinvent the way they work with customers in crisis in order to retain their loyalty, highlighting the need to adopt innovation and automation for all areas of customer engagement in the post-pandemic world. And in a world where customers demand the utmost from their insurance carriers, Ushur prepares P&C for any conditions.
At Ushur, we know the importance of customer service, data, speed, and bias-free decisions. Enable and inspire your people to do more for their customers with intelligent automation designed for the next generation of customers’ digital experiences.
[2] Ibid
[3] https://www.iii.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/insurance_factbook_2020.pdf
