Insurance Sector Trends Triggering Huge Growth

Be innovative – or risk being obliterated.

This is the message being heard loud and clear by insurance industry leaders. Traditionally averse to change, the industry is experiencing a massive shift in how firms operate and serve their customers. Legacy business models are being wiped out, while companies introducing the most streamlined systems focused on making life much easier for their customers are thriving.

The rise has heavily influenced the momentum for change in the insurance sector in technology. But, in our experience, more is needed to merely transition to a digital process operationally.

What’s most important is switching to a digital process that enhances the “customer’s experience” from the moment they interact with your company through the claims process. 

When done correctly, the results can be incredible. Just ask our insurance client LCI (Louisiana Construction and Industry Workers Comp), who’s experienced a 100% increase in revenue as we’ve helped modernize the company’s operations and customer offerings.

In this post, we’ll outline some steps taken by LCI and other insurance companies we’ve worked with to transform their businesses, offering their customers the highest quality experiences across all channels.

Steps for Insurers to Improve Customer Experiences

Today’s industry leaders are rethinking their operating models and moving quickly with hyper-targeted approaches as their customer demographics change. At the top of their list is putting systems in place to streamline customer acquisition and claims processing, as well as improving the overall customer experience through the following approaches:

1. Advanced Tech 

• Using digital technology to gain an edge over rivals by becoming more effective and efficient. This lowers costs, and the savings can be passed on to customers.
• Collecting and analyzing data is one of the most crucial things for an insurance company to do to attract and retain customers. According to Freshdeck, 58% of brands noticed a significant improvement in customer retention after implementing advanced data-tracking technology.

2. Customized Products 

• Revival of product offerings creates opportunities to serve under-served markets, expand offerings, and cultivate deeper customer relationships. This has helped insurers create a new source of revenue through a digital insurance process.

3. Forward-looking Structuring

• The world will continue to change, so it’s critical to have a modernized in-house system that streamlines daily processes and allows you to be proactive as problems arise.

4. Thoughtful Support 

• Introducing a system that uses technology to better serve customers, mitigate their risk, and provide support to enhance their physical, emotional, and financial well-being.

The Customer Experience Trends in Insurance We’re Witnessing

Here at LookFar Labs, we’ve been fortunate to work with a variety of companies in the insurance sector and fully understand their practices. The companies that have successfully transformed and adjusted their roles to meet the needs of the modern customer all share the following positive attributes:

• Accessible and appealing
  Insurance products are complicated and complex, and they usually do not provide the instant gratification seen in many other industries. Those who offer their potential customers a positive buyer experience close more deals in less time.
• Unique offerings
  As companies like Amazon raise the bar regarding customer expectations, most consumers now expect 24/7 service and the ability to activate and deactivate, as needed, in real time. We’ve seen that insurance companies that prioritize this when modernizing their products and business models have achieved outstanding results.
• Lifestyle apps
  Application programming interfaces will influence better decision-making through the ability to access more data on customers while also offering them a more enriching and tailored experience.
• Effective risk management
  According to Castsoftware, insurers are among the least secure businesses in the financial services sector. Partly because of the complexities of the US state-based regulatory system, meeting deadlines with legacy systems while maintaining good customer service can be challenging.
• Modernized claim submission
  Artificial intelligence can allow customers to submit supporting documents for claims without any human intervention. According to a joint survey by Celent and PropertyCasulty360, a touchless claims process is one of the most powerful ways to improve the claims organization materially.
• In addition, insurers implementing a UX-centric business model through the use of modern technology have experienced lower losses. This is due to the increased accuracy of claims handling, which is a result of automation. Further, they never doubted the benefits they’d receive from product, organizational, and process changes.
• When an insurer compartmentalizes the modernization of their technology as an IT project rather than a business transformation, they tend to get poor results or need help getting through it. This can lead to building outdated processes into a new system (often leading to higher costs) and missed opportunities to have their systems meet customer demands. The most successful insurers have followed an integrated transformation approach that combines a holistic business review with customer experience at the forefront. Also, they try to keep things simple, resulting in a more efficient and practical approach.

How We Helped One Company Achieve Huge Growth

LCI is a group self-insurance fund that has been in operation for over 30 years and provides workers’ comp coverage to 4,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Louisiana.

The organization came to us almost 15 years ago to help them improve one product, which evolved into a long-term partnership around digital transformation. We’ve built a web-based suite of integrated products to manage the entire business. Over the years, the system has integrated with all of their vendors’ custom software, resulting in the ability to provide various medical billing support services to their insureds in an organized and efficient manner.

About five years ago, we spearheaded a migration of their legacy systems from on-premise to the cloud, introducing new portals to serve their various departments and user types. This allowed LCI to collect a higher volume of information for future risk assessment, improve response and transaction time, and build out top-notch user experiences. It’s been an evolving process, as they need to cater to a number of non-tech-savvy clients. Finally, we’ve advised LCI leadership throughout the Louisiana Department of Insurance security compliance process.

Stay Steady and Stagnate, Or Evolve and Grow?

From our experience, an insurance company committed to providing high-quality customer service through advanced technology will continue to grow and solidify its position as a successful organization in the insurance industry.

We want to be on the growth journey with you. Get in touch today, and let’s make things happen.