Why Insurance Ecosystems will define customer experience in 2022
Insurance companies have been increasingly compelled to develop an outside-in strategy. Companies are no longer distinguished just by the strength of their products, but also by the superiority of the customer experience they offer. Customers today want to feel personally looked after — they expect the representatives they’re interacting with to know their complete history and preferences. Most importantly, they’re not willing to wait. Countless customer surveys have shown that speed is possibly the single greatest distinguishing factor when it comes to customer experience.
In a traditional insurance setup, where different departments often work in silos, this can be challenging to deliver. An insurance agent, for example, needs to contact the carrier for a quote. If the customer is facing an issue with their claims request, the representative needs to forward the request to the claims department, who might not have enough background in the customer’s interactions to adequately resolve the issue in time. When there are so many moving parts within insurance, how do you tie them all together? The answer lies in a strong API strategy to build open insurance ecosystems.
Emerging ecosystems in insurance
The digital transformation wave that has taken over insurance, demands an interconnected environment. Simply put, a big range of departments, devices, and platforms need to be able to talk to each other. Information needs to be easily pulled from various sources and transferred to required locations, but without compromising on the security of the data.
Using open insurance ecosystems, insurance carriers can automate several processes, improve intra-organizational collaboration and introduce innovative new features. These capabilities will become increasingly important in a post-COVID-19 world where consumers expect 24x7 service, instantaneous responses, and accurate solutions.
An API strategy can help build a cohesive ecosystem that brings together three vital components of the insurance journey:
Carriers: Customers today have a number of ways to discover the most suitable policies and quotes without having to depend solely upon agents. Third-party aggregator sites often get real-time quotes from a number of carriers through open APIs. This allows customers to access a range of policies faster and helps carriers improve the discoverability of their services and products.
Agents: APIs can significantly boost agent productivity and reduce average handling times. Since APIs pull data from various sources into a single view, agents now have a single window to look up information. Cloud-based technology also facilitates remote work environments, something that has become essential today. A series of open APIs can connect chatbot conversations, customer records, policy information, etc so agents can access a unified view instantly, whenever they need it and from wherever they are located.
Customers: With the rise in the demand for self-service options, insurance companies need to find secure ways of letting customers access their account information without compromising the security of the database. APIs can build a secure ecosystem to achieve this. Additionally, newer features like usage-based insurance and telematics require the use of APIs.
Why are ecosystems becoming central to the success of carriers?
The full article published my colleague at SimpleSolve Inc. is in the link below:
Originally published at https://www.simplesolve.com on December 28, 2021.
