Insurance is among the oldest industries, however, it feels the effects of digital transformation, too. And, as everywhere, digital transformation in insurance is not driven by the businesses, but by the customers.
It’s the customers who seek advanced technological solutions that make their interactions with businesses easier and quicker. And businesses adapt and adjust, they change their established flows to create experiences that customers would like.
Live chat has become a digital transformation feature, which customers love and expect to find with almost any business. 75% of people would choose live chat over any other communication channel. With such a demand, most businesses are integrating live chat into their customer communication networks, insurance agencies being no exception.
What is live chat?
Live chat is a form of instant messaging which allows customers to communicate with businesses in real-time. In business-to-customer communication, live chat is most frequently used by service and support teams. This is where time and speed matter a lot, and here live chat beats all other channels by a huge margin — in 80% of cases, live chat response time is 40 seconds.
Most often, customers and service agents use text in live chat. However, some solutions also support image upload, link sharing, and even voice calls. Still, the core principle is the same — instant real-time communication when you need assistance or advice urgently.
The insurance industry is extremely customer-focused, and therefore, it can also benefit from adopting a quick and convenient customer communication channel.
6 benefits of live chat service for insurance agencies
In insurance, it is critical that information is communicated as clearly and transparently as possible. Every detail matters, so insurance agencies need to have a communication channel that ensures both speed and clarity. Well, live chat fits the bill perfectly.
Let’s see what insurance companies can gain when they implement live chat.
Provide quick support
By nature, insurance deals with unpleasant and mostly unexpected situations people find themselves in — accidents, incidents, as well as various health issues. In such cases, it is often critical to provide assistance and support quickly.
If your insurance agency implements live chat (there are quite a number of affordable tools on the market), your customers will be able to reach you almost immediately. Instead of waiting on hold in a phone call, they can start a chat with your support team and get assistance within the shortest time possible.
Reduce comprehension difficulty
Insurance policies are rather complex, and customers often turn to you for explanations and clarifications, both before and after signing the contract. Here, a chat is much more effective than a voice call, for many reasons.
First, in a chat, both you and your customer can take time to think through your messages and read each other’s responses carefully.
Second, you can share links to additional resources, such as common rules and regulations, and terms and conditions, which customers can browse at their pace.
Third, live chat is much more accessible than phone calls or even personal visits. Customers with speech or hearing impediments or non-native speakers of your language may have problems with expressing their concerns or understanding your explanations. Live chat, on the other hand, has a much higher accessibility level, especially when it supports translations to other languages.
Give instant access to documentation
As mentioned before, live chat supports sharing links to various documentation resources. References to documentation may be necessary at any stage of customer communication — initial policy purchase, renewal, plan change, claim settlement.
If you provide links to documentation right during your real-time conversation with the customer, you are, on the one hand, helping them make a more informed decision and, on the other hand, increasing their trust in your business.
Besides, customers can return to the documentation later if they need to refresh their memory or look up other information.
Assist the buying process
Buying decisions are largely based on trust. Customers feel the highest trust in your insurance business when they can communicate with you directly on your own resource and get answers to their questions from your employees.
This is precisely what they find in live chat. They contact you right from your website and speak directly to your agent. No platforms, aggregators, or other intermediaries — customers connect directly to you in real-time and get their questions answered immediately.
However, if you have a solid following on Instagram, you can expect to get customer inquiries on the platform. Thus, it's also a good idea to include a link to your live chat in the bio section.
In such situations, it is much easier for customers to make a purchase decision, as they get all the information they need from the ultimate source of truth. In a direct conversation with your agency representative, they can work out the insurance plan that is the best for them and sign the agreement with confidence.
Focus on personalization and empathy
Live chat offers a level of personalization that can be compared to what you can achieve with the best email marketing platforms. In a one-on-one conversation, you are focused on the customer and provide the most personalized service.
To take personalization even further, you can use customer data that the chat software gathers, such as the customer’s location or device type. Based on these details, you can adjust the format and style of their conversation to create the best experience for the particular customer.
In a direct chat, you can also learn about the customer’s needs, expectations, concerns, and even myths about insurance. This knowledge will help you to offer a policy tailored to meet the customer’s requirements.
Increase customer satisfaction rate
This benefit sums up all of the above.
If you provide highly personalized service, offer clear and complete information supported by the relevant documentation, and assist the customer in making the right decision – their satisfaction rate is going to be high.
If, in addition, the interaction with a client was quick, efficient, and intuitive, the chances are their satisfaction is even higher.
If your insurance agency doesn't have live chat, it’s time to add it
The bottom line is that live chat gives you more pleased customers. Such customers translate into increased sales. So, don't ignore live chat — aim to integrate it into your customer communication system as soon as possible.
The information and content provided herein is for educational purposes only, and should not be considered legal, tax, investment, or financial advice, recommendation, or endorsement. Breeze does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, reliability or usefulness of any testimonials, opinions, advice, product or service offers, or other information provided here by third parties. Individuals are encouraged to seek advice from their own tax or legal counsel.
