While e-Engagement models are not new to the insurance industry, adoption has been slow, and many have fought it for years.
The COVID pandemic has challenged traditional business models and forced Carriers, Vendors & Distribution to adopt new methodologies, revisiting the complete life of an application. Whether we wanted to or not; e-Applications, Data Based Decisioning, AI/ML and e-Delivery have become a necessity to assist the ultimate customers, the insured and their beneficiaries, in obtaining a policy. These forced e-engagement processes have reshaped how we do business today and will continue to do so in the future.
The global pandemic and lockdowns of 2020 served as the perfect push for innovation and forced our industry to engage new novel methods, creating a new normal. Those who embraced the new normal of insurance e-engagement have seen increased productivity. So how did they make the transition of educating themselves, their team members and customers; as well as defining internal processes to support all different platforms?
The answer, many collaborated with e-Process experts to assist with the change to a digital environment by utilizing their human capital and expertise. Managing the office cultural change to remote is hard enough, let alone learning a completely different set of rules of engagement. Partnering with those who are already e-Engaged, allowed them to focus on supporting their advisors to bring in the sale.
Another contributor to success was positive marketing around e-engagement as an enhancement to customer service. It is not a cold process if you properly connect with the customer. Educating and setting expectations with advisors is key. It naturally trickles down to the ultimate customer creating a positive experience.
