7 Digital Transformation Ideas to Improve Insurance Processes and Sales
Digital Transformation will determine if your business will survive in the ever-evolving digital world. All businesses have to have digital transformation strategy or risk being obsolete. The insurance industry has not been known to be innovative. The norm is having long application forms and policy documents written in hard-to-read small print and full of jargon that is hard to understand.
Traditionally the selling process involved insurance agents doing door-to-door calls, or this strategy can’t work in these days of the covid pandemic. The option insurance agents have now is to send a million generic unsolicited cold emails and calls. How many have bought insurance from a cold call?
The most successful agents are those who have started with good networks and gotten referrals from existing clients. This may however not be enough with the fast-changing and innovative technological environment where clients can get the insurance products straight from the insurance companies. Knowing the behavior of your customers is one of the important strategies and being accessible is the other.
Ideas how digital transformation will improve insurance processes
Insurance companies have invested in systems that assist their clients to get information easily. Some of the benefits they are offering that insurance agents used to offer are:
- Quotations; Customer can give basic information and get a quote off your computer or phone.
- Aggregators: these are agents who have apps and sites that can give customer comparisons in the market based on product features and prices
- Easy registrations: Customers can apply for insurance online without having to fill paper application forms.
- Ease of claims: Customers can also submit claims online without having to go physically to the insurance company
- CRM: Insurance companies have customer relations management systems that incorporate call centers that ensure customers can get information and assistance easily
- Customer Portals: Insurance companies have customer portals that assist the customer get the information they seek, like reminders on their renewal dates, their claims report, balances in their account, and other transactions.
- Remote working: Insurance companies have to process large numbers of membership and claims. These was why the insurance companies had large office to accommodate many people as well as storage space. With technology, insurance companies have had to change this strategy and come up with systems that support remote working with freelancers for data entry and other mundane jobs.
Does this mean that the insurance sales agent will become obsolete? Far from it. The most successful businesses are those that know the importance of building good relationships with customers and their distribution channels.
Even if people can buy their insurance products online directly from the insurance company. It’s important to have an insurance agent to help you get creating a relationship with the customer and the company.
4 ways insurance agents can participate in the digital transformation
- Register with insurance companies that have agent-lead portals on their websites that can assist agents onboard the client with ease. So the agent can sell the company’s products from agent portal. Resolution now
- Agents however should also embrace tech and promote their agencies and open social medial handles for their agencies, for example Key Insurance agency.
- if the agency or brokerage has resources they can develop their own apps that will assist with the transition to digital transformation for customers and agents like Bima app allows registered agent to sell through their app.
- Agents can now advertise their services easily on social media platforms with social media ads, Google ads, written and video ads.
Conclusion
Change is the only constant. As insurance companies strive to become efficient and effective with lean processes and procedures. They strive to ensure cost is managed and revenues and profit is achieved, they have to change with the environment. If the companies change the channels of distribution will also change and therefore agents should figure out who to change too.
