How to create a customer-centric ecosystem in insurance with omnichannel CX

All-around online services and the variety of new digital means require service providers to rethink their technology landscape. Insurance providers experience this need more vividly than others. Because of legacy systems and a lack of IT expertise, the sector lags behind innovative insurtech businesses that can offer their clients instant access to services and products from anywhere and provide them with features of online payments, appointments with medical facilities, and fast claim management. Thus, to stay competitive, insurers should enrich their systems with similar possibilities and upgrade their IT infrastructures. 

One of the critical challenges of digital transformation is customer experience, which is often neglected and underestimated. In this article, you will learn how to treat CX appropriately and what the omnichannel approach is. 

Why is omnichannel CX so important for insurers? 

The omnichannel model to the customer experience is not only about putting your customers at the center of your business operations but doing it everywhere. It means that all the interactions with your clients should be unified and aligned with operations across all your digital channels (mobile application, website, chatbot, etc.). The latter should constitute a standardized system with a similar design, tone of voice, content, policies, procedures, etc. 

Is the omnichannel model different from the multichannel CX? 

These two approaches to customer experience are often confused. We can say that most insurance providers have already followed the multichannel approach: they have web portals, custom apps, and AI-powered bots. But what differs the latter from the omnichannel is the fact that every single channel functions independently. They are simply not connected. And it may often happen that a user has no idea that there are some other ways of interacting with the company different from that they use.   

On the other hand, a multichannel model ensures a seamless and consistent customer experience across all the channels the company offers.  

Multichannel experience: What are the key challenges here? 

The multichannel experience is not bad, but it provides a scattered service. Every channel lives its own life and doesn't interact with other channels. Thus, both carriers and clients face the following challenges: 

• Unorganized user experience 
• The increased cost of operations 
• Inconvenient customer journey 
• Inconsistent data across the channels 
• The complicated process of adding new products or services 
• Analytics from disparate sources 
• High cost of IT maintenance and support 

The shift to the omnichannel model can help insurers overcome these hurdles and provide clients with a more centralized experience. Don't know where to start? Keep reading and learn the steps of building an excellent CX.  

What mutual features should a website and a mobile app have? 

If you want to achieve a consistent CX, you should consider the following characteristics of a mobile app and a website to be quite the same: 

• Purchasing processes 
• Customer journey 
• Analytics 
• Branding, design, and customer experience 
• Tools to add or modify products  
• APIs 

Along with common things, it is critical to take into account some minor differences. 

• Slight visual differences in design 
• Content amount (websites have more text as compared to mobile apps) 

How to implement an omnichannel CX 

Your omnichannel strategy will depend on the number of channels you want to implement as a unified system. All these channels will have to provide quite similar functionalities for users. DICEUS, an insurance CX vendor, recommends choosing one channel as a central one. The perfect option is a mobile application that offers the biggest set of valuable features, including instant notifications. 

Mobile application as a key channel 

Mobile apps have proven to be the most convenient communication channel that helps insurance companies gain the following results: 

• Users can access products, services, and their medical docs anytime 
• Instant notifications inform users of important appointments, due dates, etc. 
• Your company becomes paperless 

The company should motivate users to use the mobile app while interacting with users on other channels.  

Business workflows and user journey 

As mentioned above, all processes across your channels should be pretty similar. Websites, as well as mobile apps, should ensure the same payment, delivery, and purchase procedures. Here are some best practices to make CX more consistent: 

1. Users buy policies on the website 
2. They are offered to download a mobile app 
3. Once done, they can get personalized offerings, track their buying history, and inquire about support 
4. Users can buy other insurance products or some for their family members in the app. 

Various flows can be designed, but all should lead to the main channel.  

Design, CX, and branding 

A dedicated user experience specialist designing a centralized ecosystem for your company is critical. The following elements should be consolidated: 

• Microcopy, including titles, wording, UX copy, etc. 
• General text, including all the product descriptions, policies, blogs, news, newsletters, SMM, etc. 
• The tone of Voice (ToV) contains all the rules according to which you communicate with customers, with each other, style, etc. 

Tools to add and modify products 

To implement a unified system of product adding and modifications, you can follow two ways: 

1. Develop a metadata registry for business flows and products accessible for your teams in various departments.  
2. Create a centralized system where every channel automatically renews data and synchronizes with all other channels.  

Analytics 

To set up data-driven analytics coming from all the channels you have, you will need to implement the following things: 

• Metrics in a unified format for all channels 
• Business dashboards 
• Financial analytics 

The data for reporting should be collected across all channels and provide valuable insights such as traffic, leads, conversions, etc. 

APIs 

Ultimately, it's crucial to manage your APIs. To ensure optimal outcomes, maintain consistency by employing consistent APIs. Introducing alterations could distinguish experts and lead to complications. The precise count of required APIs depends on the number of vendors integrated into your system. Once more, this responsibility falls under the purview of a skilled professional. 

Conclusion 

In a landscape redefined by digital innovation, the insurance sector faces a must: to reshape its technological foundation in the wake of comprehensive online services and the relentless evolution of digital platforms. The need for this transformation is starkly evident, particularly for insurance organizations that find themselves at the crossroads of legacy systems and a scarcity of IT expertise. While the embrace of insurtech disruptors has heralded instant accessibility and streamlined processes, traditional insurers stand poised to bridge this gap by infusing their systems with similar capabilities and ushering in a new era of customer-centricity through omnichannel customer experience (CX). 

The shift from a multichannel model to an omnichannel one bridges critical gaps that have long plagued insurers and policyholders. From fragmented UX and elevated operational costs to intricate customer journeys and data disparities, the shift has the potential to reshape the very essence of insurance engagement.