Why be helpful
In this digital age, being helpful is crucial. You may think you’re a real company with people, desks, and house plants; to your potential customers you’re nothing but a link in Google. And as Google knows many more insurance agencies just like you, chances are little people will choose you to be their guardian angel in times of damage, sickness, and broken-down cars. Insurance policies do differ per insurer, but learning about those differences is perceived as hard work and a waste of time. Nowadays, most choices people make depend on convenience and user friendliness. And that’s exactly why you should focus on being helpful.
Don’t get in the way
Drivers that crashed their car against the guard rail are not the happiest of people. You don’t help them by making them call you, having them waiting in line, and then telling them they should go online and file an insurance claim in the maze that you call a website. Instead, you can be helpful by offering an app that files the claim for them. There are quite a few insurance companies that use self-service dashboards where clients can file a claim by taking a photo and pressing a few buttons. It probably won’t make their day, which was already ruined when they texted while driving, but they’ll be very thankful you limited the number of actions to a minimum.
Be comparable
Like we said, people no longer choose insurance agencies based on their policies. Instead, they’ll go with the one that sounds most convenient to them, and that isn’t too pricy. Being an insurance man of honor, we can imagine you worked hard on your policies, and you want people to know about them. You can only do so by being helpful. Install a tool on your website that people can use to compare other insurance agencies with yours, and make it as easy as possible. People that don’t know which agency to choose will be very happy with your tool, and they’ll appreciate your honesty too. Moreover, by asking people about their insurance preferences in your tool, you can gather information on what people find important.
Give people back their money
Clients are often asked to front the money they spent on healthcare, car damage and other insurance related matters. And very often, it takes time for the insurance agency to pay them back. As you might have guessed, this system is far from helpful. But you can be, by paying your clients faster and by keeping them informed. We’re big fans of the insurance digital strategy of start-up Slice, that’s all about user friendliness and making things simple. Their website states:
“It’s your money. You deserve to get it, fast.”
This statement is followed by a brief explanation on the way their financial department handles claims. As they’re backed by a reputable insurance firm, they can pay out most claims immediately, and if that’s not possible, they keep the client up to date on the payment status in real time. So even if you don’t get paid right away, you know exactly where your money is and when it will be sent your way.
How to get it done
In my opinion, the insurance digital strategy is a great example of digital transformation done right. The insurance sector really needed an upgrade, and innovators cleverly used IT to make the switch. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. I imagine you wonder what exactly the insurance innovators did. We’ll tell you about the technical details of digital transformations in the white paper below. It’s free and simple- yet essential.
