By: Judy DeLaRosa and Claudia McClain
The Customer Experience Work Group was formed to help agents understand various technology-related touchpoints insurance consumers experience across the “phases” of their insurance journey – Discover, Evaluate, Purchase, Experience, Renew/Leave and Advocacy Choice. The group worked to identify all potential touchpoints within each phase and used in-person breakout sessions at ACT meetings to gain additional insight and confirm conclusions.
During the last half of 2014, a pilot group of volunteer agents used some of the recommendations, reporting on their implementation experiences as well as the impacts on their agency workflow and their customer base. Feedback from these experiences was integrated into Work Group Recommendations, which were released just prior to the February 2015 ACT meeting.
Recommendations in the “Discover” phase center around what agencies can do to serve shoppers looking for information and coverage. “Evaluate” phase recommendations focus on Web content, rating, agency brand, and advice and counsel agencies offer. For the “Buy” phase, recommendations address customer interaction, payments and tools that support various purchase-related transactions.
“Experience” phase recommendations look at the use of mobile tools, Web-based education and policy-related access, delivery of value-added services and strengthening customer-agency relationships. Recommendations for the “Renew or Leave” phase center on renewal and claims experiences. For the “Advocacy Choice” phase, recommendations address the use of various platforms for customer testimonials.
Given the rapid pace of technology advancement, the Work Group will develop a plan to revisit the document and keep it relevant and updated. Also, it’s important to understand that the document is not intended to be exhaustive or all-inclusive. Rather, it aims to identify top touch points that may provide the greatest impact for the consumer and the agency.
We encourage agencies to use these recommendations as a guide to build their technology strategy. Determine what fits within your near- and long-term strategic plans; note the impact on consumers and the ease-of-use experience they expect; and use the document resources to help get started.
Judy DeLaRosa, vice president at Chubb Insurance, and Claudia McClain, owner of Washington-based McClain Insurance Services, are co-chairs of the ACT Customer Experience Work Group.