Customer Service In The Digital World

As consumers are demanding superior customer service across touchpoints during their journey with the product or service, Philip Kotler’s words of wisdom rings true more than ever before - “The best advertising is done by a satisfied customer”. 

They are expressing themselves with their fingertips, which has become synonymous with ‘word of mouth’ - the most valuable currency of advocacy for a brand or product.

The advent of the digital age has also immensely contributed to how modern day customers shop and share their experience. 

Customers are influenced by their experiences across products and services and are no longer restricted to within the same industry. As a customer gets hooked to a seamless digital experience offered by one brand, they expect the same level of convenience from other brands across industries. 

Additionally, customers today are influencing the buying process well in advance through their research across blogs, websites and other social media platforms. As a result, organisations gradually understand the importance of customer service touch-points and the crucial role they play in establishing long-term relationships. 

When it comes to the life insurance sector, the new-age customer today is not dependent on any one source of information. They research and purchase products through multiple channels. According to a study conducted by PwC in 2019 titled “Competing in a new age of insurance: How India is adopting emerging technologies”, 47 per cent of the respondents preferred to obtain their information from digital sources. In addition to this, web-aggregators and company websites have emerged as the second most trusted alternative with 20 per cent of the respondents eyeing these channels for valuable information. 

With rapid transformation underway in customer expectations across the world, companies are using state-of -art digital technologies to visualise and implement interactions, which are changing the firm-client equation. One such example is that of Alexa from Amazon, which has moved aspects of customer service outside a traditional storefront and into our homes. 

Let us look at a brief timeline to set the context. The year 1991 marked the entry of the World Wide Web. Over the next five years, Customer Relationship Management systems propelled advancements in customer data tracking.  Many companies started inducing customer loyalty through credit cards points, frequent-flier miles, and discounts. By the early 2000s, outsourcing became popular and companies moved their support functions across the globe. Post Y2K, technology has evolved rapidly to supplement, and in some cases replace customer service roles. Some of the early disruptions include remote desktop support and automated response systems. The later ones, which continue to evolve in 2020 and beyond, include Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Data Mining.

What are some of the features of this evolving function of customer service in the life insurance industry?

Convenience 

As technology opens new channels of communication, a customer expects to receive quick and accurate responses around the clock. After clearly indicating their choice to migrate to self-help channels post policy purchase in the past, customers are demanding similar experiences at the point of sale as well. Therefore, life insurance companies have to move from a one point sale model to building two-way communication platforms, where customers can interact as per their convenience. Insurance companies operating 24/7 have a clear advantage in gaining customer loyalty. Working in hybrid models to effectively leverage digital support functions has enabled firms to stay awake round the clock and be available universally. 

Integrated contact channels allow businesses to keep their services consistent and convenient. Social media channels such as Twitter can be daunting for firms across sectors as negative posts from customers can gain traction quickly. However, this is also an opportunity, as effective management can create relatable advocates for the brand. 

Customer service cannot be left to machines entirely. Insurance firms have to be deliberate about integrating technology and human-driven user experiences. More than 90% of business in life insurance companies are driven through the agent network in India. Most customers still prefer face-to-face interactions for complicated queries. As a result, insurers are arming their agents with a digital suite consisting of calculators, video pitches, need analysis tools and many other digital enablers to create an immersive experience for their customers. 

Omni-channel experience

What does a customer find most frustrating? According to an article in Harvard Business Review, it is having to repeat their problems. Firms need to solve a problem quickly, but also be proactive so the cognitive load on the customer is less. Insurance firms contain a wealth of data, analysing this to identify patterns of behaviour can allow them to estimate and fix a problem before it occurs.

Scaling up with integrated workflows across different channels allows agents to reach the customer easily and offer an omni-channel experience. Customers need not endlessly stay on hold with a call-centre employee or dread changing the service touchpoint, and the interaction offered can be seamless and professional.

Power of data and connectivity

A large part of a modern insurance firm’s success in customer service could be attributed to complicated processes being taken over by cloud-computing operations. To help these processes scale, mobile technologies have played a significant role. The widespread availability of the internet on personal devices like smart-phones and tabs has brought physically remote customers closer to firms.

Insurance companies need to increasingly leverage data in order to personalise and customise their offerings. According to Statista, 3.6 billion people are using social media worldwide. It is projected to reach 4.41 billion people in 2025. Data from sources such as social media sites on life events such marriage or birth of a child, can enable insurers to learn more about their customer’s life events, craft personalised product offerings, and use nudge engines to position them.

Use of digital technologies 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatbots are getting perfected with time. Intelligent chatbots enable organisations to offer intuitive interactions with customers and employees. Several chatbot conversations are almost indistinguishable from those with humans. What’s more, they do not make grammatical errors and are always polite. 

This technology has evolved beyond basic FAQs to a transactional and omnichannel conversation. For internal stakeholders, the use of widespread augmented reality in financial services has numerous educational benefits such as personalised training for distributors, technicians, or portfolio analysts. Insurance companies have begun investing intelligently in the virtual support ecosystem for both internal and external stakeholders. 

According to a separate PwC study, 47 per cent of respondents faced challenges at the time of settling claims, while 35 per cent faced challenges due to insurers being unresponsive at the time of claim processing. To take care of such issues, insurers have to introduce cutting edge technologies like Optical Character Recognition and Machine Learning swiftly in their claim settlement process to reduce time and provide a seamless experience to claimants, especially at the time of their grief.

The customer service function continues to face challenges across industries. Global events in 2020 have accelerated the rate of digital adoption for seamless interactions and faster service.  To adapt, the insurance industry must embrace the importance of new roles of its workforce, leverage data to keep customers engaged and incorporate agility to always learn relevant skills. The way forward is to find a perfect balance between digital and human interfaces, while keeping customer expectations at the centre of service design.

The author is Chief Customer Experience and Operations, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance