22.11.2018
Insurance sector digitizes customer service
Companies from the insurance sector invest not only in new technologies, but also in know-how, by dint of which they are capable of optimisation of operations with regard to information flow, among other things.
Insurance companies – to a larger and larger extent – have been launching solutions facilitating customer service process. Not only do the entities from this sector invest in new technologies, but also in know-how, by dint of which they are capable of optimisation of operations with regard to information flow, among other things.
In the times of fierce competition and increasing consumers’ awareness, investing in new solutions that facilitate customer service process in insurance agencies is a must. However, efficient launching of such actions requires corresponding optimisation of their internal operations. As shown in the “Digitalisation of the Insurance Sector in Poland” report developed by Accenture in liaison with PIU1, almost 50% of insurance agencies estimate that in their organisations the back office sections do not catch up with the front office ones.
The integration of front, middle and back office processes is the direction in which the whole market will follow in a few incoming years. The merger of functions previously executed by different units and teams ensures improved utilisation of resources, enhancement of communication with the insured persons and costs optimisation– says Konrad Rochalski, CEO of ArchiDoc and Voice Contact Center from OEX Group.
The efficient access to documents and data directly affects the quality of the customer service process. Insurance agencies, making efforts to meet customers’ needs, launch technological innovations and implement new contact channels. More and more popular are mobile applications, virtual assistants or launching tools that automate loss adjustment process, for example, with the use of the computer vision technology. What is key in this process, is the efficient integration of data from multiple sources, both electronic ones (smartphone, e-mail, social media, chat) and analogue ones (such as telephone, visit in a retail outlet, paper-based documentation).
Digitalisation and automation of processes let us significantly shorten the time of access to information and they optimise data processing and analysing. So, this way it is translated into more efficient sorting out of the issue by the customer and the measurable reduction of costs for the insurance agency– says Dagmara Sender, Head of Sales of Solutions for Financial and Insurance Sector Division in ArchiDoc.
Lead time is one of the key factors affecting the assessment of the service quality and loyalty of insurance agencies customers. This has been confirmed by the agencies that had been recognised as the most customer-friendly.
In our agency, the quality of the customer service is one of the key areas which is being developed and improved step-by-step. For a few years, we’ve been paying special attention to the solutions which shorten the time of claims processing which is next translated into higher level of satisfaction from our services– says Marcin Książek, Administration Manager in Gothaer, which is the winner of, i.a., “Gwiazdy Jakości Obsługi” [Service Quality Stars] award.
In order to facilitate the information flow, insurance agencies take a decision, among others, to digitalise documents and making e-Folders, launching workflow tools, robotization in the fields, such as: claims processing or optimisation of mailroom operations. Automatic verification of insurance policies-related documents has been more and more popular recently. Insurance agencies can also take advantage of the comprehensive solutions that integrate customer service with the middle and back office, in the area loss adjustment, for example.
The majority of big insurance agencies operating on the Polish market use external services supporting business processes. ArchiDoc renders services to about 40% of the entities from this sector, including to 8 out of 10 biggest players– Dagmara Sender adds.
The necessity to optimise the information flow area is supported by the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) as well as GDPR. Both these regulations had made that the number of customers’ documents has increased significantly.
IDD implementation and optimisation of back office processes linked with the customer service affects the quality and time of claims processing. At the same time, it enhances the security of data and documents processed by insurance agencies.
1 Source: piu.org.pl, 11.2018