The insurance industry is getting “Amazoned.”
The term dates back towards the late 1990s and early 2000s, as the online retailer's friendly interface, including the ability to buy with one click, made consumers wonder why their experiences with other companies were so much more cumbersome. Retailers were the first one to suffer by comparison, but customers have become increasingly demanding of companies in most industries.
Now, the insurance coverage industry faces similar comparisons with disruptors outside the insurance industry. Consider the questions today's policyholders are raising:
- “Why can't I know the status of my claim the way Fedex tracks packages in real time?”
- “Why can't I recieve help interactively in the same way I collaborate on Facebook?”
- “Why can't I search and compare products like the way I answer questions on the internet?”
- “Why can't my experience be as speedy and personalized as hailing a limo on Uber?”
Insurance companies can't just incrementally do better compared to what they have in the past and aspire to please customers, not to mention captivate customers. Simply outdoing immediate competitors is not enough. Insurers now must find methods to satisfy – even delight – customers who've been conditioned for a long time to demand stellar service.
Customers now insist that every person and every computer system they cope with have full understanding of them as well as all previous interactions no matter channel, may it be an employee, agent, self-service portal, mobile app or contact center. Customers wish to initiate a request a quote and pick the request up anytime later, basically in mid-sentence, after doing a bit of online research, conferring with friends and family or simply grabbing coffee.
The words to keep in mind in working with today's customers are:
–Fluid and intuitive (seamlessly engage making the transition from channel to channel or any device, understand what the customer might be thinking about or needs before he gets there)
–Effortless (once and done; i.e., entering information once rather than again)
–Efficient (especially when processing claims)
–Personalized (know who I am when I get in touch with and what I've done. I called yesterday, so acknowledge my journey inside your world and help advise me)
The bar will keep being raised, as Amazon and others keep showing what's possible, but delivering on those four terms will do an awful lot to delight customers for the foreseeable future.
