There was a time when the adage ‘customer is the king’ didn’t ring true for organizations in the service sector. End users faced many hassles and needed extensive handholding to navigate the maze of procedures and regulations. There were several layers between the service providers and the ultimate beneficiaries. Let’s see how service providers like financial institutions and insurance companies steered towards being more customer-centric.
Shift of Focus to Customers
It wasn’t a smooth ride; there were a plethora of roadblocks as service providers tried moving from conventional and complex models to an approach that would focus on the three Cs – Customers, Communication, and Collaboration. The mindset needed a change to consider proactive business practices. Moreover, the technology that would connect the service providers to the end users took a few years to establish.
Slowly but steadily, India’s financial organizations made a paradigm shift. The economy witnessed liberalization and globalization, competition grew, and service providers delved deeper to understand the needs of customers. The leaps in technology also helped this move. As the economy steers towards Vision India@2047, organizations have mapped their growth plans, keeping customers and technology as the beacon lights. A recent article by Forbes states that to realize this dream of Viksit Bharat, the role of technology as an enabler is paramount. Also, with higher spending power and options to choose from, consumers in India have gained better decision-making capacity. Hence, it is essential to adopt a customer-centric strategy.
A New Direction for the Insurance Industry
The insurance sector has set in place clear guidelines to stay on track and reach the goal in the most inclusive way. IRDAI’s charter for Vision 2047 encapsulates several steps that will enhance the experience for end users. Along with a change in regulatory architecture and better grievance redressal mechanisms, the sector is prioritizing making available the right products to the right customers. Insurers will have to be more competitive and proactive to reach the customers with the precise solutions they need.
Insurance innovates with personalized coverage, using data insights to safeguard futures and enhance financial well-being, driving lasting value for policyholders. Innovative communication strategies are also being unraveled, supported by technological advancement. Enhancing the lifetime value of a customer and practicing customer value management can give insurers the desired acceleration and stability.
What is Customer Value Management and Why is it Important?
Customer value management (CVM) is a strategic approach that allows organizations to derive maximum value from each customer throughout their journey. The core elements supporting CVM are data, insights, communication, and campaigns.
It takes a lot of time, effort, and investment to nurture a customer. The organization must guide them through the stages of awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and purchase. So, once the customer is associated with a company, it is imperative that they not only stay for years to come, but also opt for more services and products that are relevant.
This brings in the aspects of customer retention, up-sell, and cross-sell, and it’s at this juncture that CVM comes into the picture.
CVM in Insurance – How can Insurers Leverage CVM?
Insurance companies have a unique opportunity at hand to maximize the value that they derive from customers, specifically those who have a high customer lifetime value (CLV). They can do so by practicing CVM as a part of their broader strategy and viewing all their products and communications through the lens of customization. Two factors work as the engines for moving the CVM vehicle faster –
The plethora of customer data that is available to insurers through a number of sources
An exponential growth in technology supporting proactive messaging with deep insights
Proactive vs Reactive Messaging
A reactive approach is the customer servicing aspect and is concerned with addressing the problems of customers in the most satisfactory way once they raise the issues. The channels through which customers raise concerns are increasing as the multichannel initiation gains prominence. While servicing is also making strides to improve the customer experience by using NLP and other technology, it steps in at a later stage.
A proactive approach, simply put, is about taking the first step and constitutes the basis for customer value management. It relies on data and technology to get a deeper understanding of the customer expectations, create specific customer persona, develop individualized offers, and create personalized communication.
While both the models are intertwined and essential to ensure contextual and empathetic engagement, it is CVM which customers perceive as a value-added feature, since they expect the best response to their complaints as a hygiene factor.
Need for a Proactive Approach
Insurers have been following the reactive approach for a long time, and they have been able to improve the way customer grievances are handled. This reflects in the elevated trust that policy holders place in the insurers and a marked improvement in customer experience.
However, every user is unique, and mapping the distinct requirements of each prospect or customer will improve the engagement level and user experience. Insurers will benefit by creating distinctive personas for each category of policyholders by analyzing their needs, behavior, and attitudes. A 2020 article by McKinsey that visualizes personalization for 2025 uses the term ‘care of one’ and emphasizes the importance of ‘Reacting to customers before they even know they need you.’ It states that the predictive nature of engagement will allow companies to complete purchase assistance, deliveries, status updates, appointments, and other tasks with precision, personalization, and minimal effort.
Following the proactive approach, insurers can work on customized campaigns. Based on data about the demographic, income, spending, and investment patterns of customers and their behavioral signals, insurance providers can derive insights and understand the intent. They can plan the most appropriate action steps that will provide a higher ROI. The three stages that are impacted are:
Acquisition
Engagement
Retention
The need to adopt a proactive approach to complement this strategy can be understood through a real-world scenario. Here’s an example of how CVM is put into action.
CVM In ACTION
Sam, a middle-aged customer, working in the finance sector, opts for a Health Insurance plan.
The insurer, ABC Ltd, creates a persona for Sam, describing him as being career-focused, early-saver, and health conscious, and having a high HLV. The company follows the CVM model and adopts a proactive strategy through the following steps:
Accident Detection – ABC Ltd sends personalized reminders for preventive wellness checks based on Sam’s health history and policy coverage
Telehealth Options – By providing information about available options for telehealth consultation, the insurer assists Sam to get virtual help with convenience
Claims Assistance – In case of a claim submission, the insurer helps Sam proactively by pre-filling forms and assisting with gathering necessary information
Real-time Eligibility Verification – To minimize out-of-pocket costs, ABC Ltd integrates with healthcare providers and supports real-time eligibility verification
Faster Reimbursement – With a goal to close claims faster, the company leverages AI and automation to boost straight-through processing
Proactive Communication – Sam feels assured as he receives regular communication from the insurer to update him about the claims process
Thus, CVM engages the customer at every step of the journey, improves satisfaction and ensures retention. The insurer realizes higher lifetime value and the policy holder receives personalized services. Thus, it’s a win-win scenario.
How Data and AI Support CVM
Hyper-personalization is no longer a luxury feature; it has become a necessity for keeping customers engaged and ensuring that they don’t switch their service provider. AI, machine learning and natural language processing tools will play a decisive role in enabling insurers to deliver personalization. As stated by McKinsey, ‘the ‘care of one’ will be supported by advanced analytics, AI, real-time natural language processing, and other tools that detect customer sentiment and emotion.
With the help of AI and NLP, insurers are connecting with end users in novel ways, counting on an omnichannel approach and tailored experience to win the game. The following action steps can be realized by utilizing the ‘intelligence’ offered by the technologies:
Analyze incoming messages through Emails, SMS, WhatsApp, social media, and call center by leveraging Deep AI and NLP
Extract sentiment, mood, context, product, and categorization for empathetic response
Integrate with the organizational database as CRM, core banking, ERP, core insurance, and communications database for individualized conversations
Utilize ChatGPT for building further context and delivering accurate communication
A Forbes 2023 article states that consumers still crave empathetic connections that go beyond scripted responses. Intelligent, context-aware chatbots that can understand the subtleties of customer queries can help achieve this equilibrium. Though human interactions will be essential, technology will remove obstacles and transform the experience of policy holders. Insurance providers will grow by partnering with the most capable technology-player having a profound understanding of the industry dynamics as well as innovation trends.
Newgen Excels in CVM with Dual Powers
Technology leaders like Newgen are pushing the boundaries of proactively managing the customer’s journey through a combination of enabling technologies and smart infrastructure, which can be understood as the ‘brain’ and the ‘brawn.’ These aspects make the company the preferred technology partner for insurers offering life, health, and commercial insurance.
While the brain enhances experiences by integrating AI and NLP, the brawn ensures proactive delivery of solutions. Newgen’s GenAI-powered offerings support the sensing function through context setting, sentiment analysis, personalization engines, and integration adaptors. The seamless workflows, configurable templates, communication designer, approval matrix, scheduler, and dashboard boost CVM by helping knowledge workers execute the strategies perfectly.
Conclusion
Pre-empting the specific needs of any individual customer, connecting with her through her preferred channel, and delivering the exact solution that she had wished for is no longer a fantastical scenario for insurers. Customer value management is making this dream come true with endless possibilities. As new-age technologies ingrain deeper into insurance solutions, customer journeys are set to transform forever. Are you prepared to embrace the change?
Author - Ritesh Varma, Head of Business Solutions Group, Newgen Software
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of IIA and IIA does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.