The importance of policyholder experience in call centers

Almost 60% of customers will hang up if made to wait for more than one minute. 32.3% think that when they call a customer service department, their call should be immediately answered. 

The reality is that consumers are getting more impatient and expecting faster, better service from call centers, and they’ll move to insurance companies that will provide it. 

But it goes further than that. When it comes to making important purchases, 87% of people prefer to talk to someone on the phone, rather than purchasing directly online. 

These statistics simply prove what most insurance companies already know:
A customer’s experience with an insurance call center can make or break their opinion of a company. A positive experience can lead to repeat business, positive word-of-mouth recommendations, increased loyalty, and reduced call volume, while a negative experience can result in complaints, negative reviews, and customers choosing to take their business elsewhere.

Digital data intake systems for call centers help ensure positive experiences for policyholders, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

How manual data intake in call centers affects the policyholder experience

Manual data intake in call centers involves collecting routine customer information into the system during the customer service call. This process is both frustrating not only for the call center agent, but for the customer as well. 

• The process is often time-consuming and prone to errors
• Difficulty retrieving information from disconnected and siloed systems and applications.
• Difficulty tracking and updating policy information 
• Inefficient communication and collaboration between call center staff and other departments. Manual data intake has a tendency to result in mismatched and often incomplete customer data, resulting in confusion and misunderstandings between the different departments. 
• Delays and bad customer experience. Manual data intake slows everything down - data often needs to be verified, completed, and corrected. Customers will often become frustrated and impatient when their call center agent is forced to collect data manually during their conversation. This results in major delays, frustrating customers and resulting in higher churn rates, negative reviews, and lost revenue.

Deflect to self-service with digital data intake

Digital data intake is a great way to give policyholders more control over their customer experience. By deploying digital data intake systems in call centers, policyholders can easily and quickly provide the necessary information themselves instead of waiting for an agent to enter it manually.

This reduces wait times, eliminates errors, and allows companies to provide customers with a seamless, omnichannel experience. Digital data intake systems also give customers real-time access to their policy information, making it easier for them to manage and update their account details.

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The impact of digital solutions on policyholder experience

By reducing the time and effort needed to collect and verify customer information, data intake helps customer service reps to quickly and accurately address customer needs. In addition, instead of wasting time on routine data collection, reps can focus on customer service. 

As as result, insurance companies tend to see significant, positive effects on several call center KPIs, including: 

1. FCR (First Call Resolution)
   Digital data intake ensures that all relevant information is captured and easily accessible, enabling agents to quickly resolve customer inquiries on the first call.
2. Average Handle Time (AHT)
   Since agents don’t have to type the information while they’re on a call, AHT is lowered, which also enables agents to handle more calls in the same amount of time.
3. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
   With accurate, up-to-date information at their fingertips, agents can provide faster and more accurate responses, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.
4. Abandonment Rate
   By reducing hold times and improving the speed and accuracy of responses, digital data intake can lower the abandonment rate and increase customer satisfaction.
5. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
   By improving FCR, AHT, CSAT, and other KPIs, digital information collection can positively impact NPS, a key measure of customer loyalty and advocacy.

How to implement digital data intake solutions in your organization

The right technology is crucial to providing a good policyholder experience in call centers. The good news is that implementing a digital data intake solution doesn’t have to be a difficult, expensive, complicated process. 

1. Identify low hanging fruit
   We recommend starting with the areas where digital data intake can have the most impact, for example, where are the major pain points and inefficiencies occuring? 
2. Find the right solution
   When looking for a solution, it’s important to consider several factors, such as ease of use, cost, experience in the insurance industry, compliance with regulations, and ability to integrate with existing solutions.
3. Create a plan
   Once you’ve found the right solution, work together with the vendor to outline the steps needed to implement it, including a timeline, budget, and goals. 
4. Run a pilot
   By testing the digital solution in a limited environment, you’ll be able to evaluate its efficiency and accuracy, ensuring it works smoothly without negatively affecting other connected systems. 
5. Track and analyze results
   Monitor the performance of the digital solution, measuring the impact on your relevant KPIs in order to adjust and improve as needed.
6. Rollout and improve
   Once you’re happy with the overall performance and results of the pilot, roll out the solution to all other relevant areas in your call center, making continuous improvements where required.