(Image credit: Dollar Photo Club.)
Insurance companies are currently navigating an unstable environment, fraught with macroeconomic risks, increasing claims costs and rates that haven’t kept up, making it challenging to remain profitable. Coupled with rising operating costs and skyrocketing customer expectations amid substantial rate hikes, insurance companies are increasingly looking for digital tools that can improve loyalty while simultaneously making the business more efficient.
This is often where AI comes into consideration. New AI capabilities, powered by large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI, can not only automate routine, repetitive tasks but serve as a co-pilot for customer service reps (CSRs), helping them conduct their jobs with more confidence, productivity and ease. These AI capabilities have the potential to radically transform how insurance companies interact with their policyholders and agents, including lowering operating costs and raising CSAT scores.
However, with many AI solutions on the market today being little more than vaporware, it’s challenging to distinguish practical, legitimate AI solutions from the hype. Plus, many solutions are extremely complex to implement and then take an inordinate amount of time to realize tangible ROI, wasting time and resources most insurers simply don’t have. Then there’s also the risk and compliance factor to consider; deploying chatbots or virtual assistants for policyholder interactions without significant guardrails and human oversight in place is likely to end in irreversible reputational damage and compliance errors.
One potential entry point for insurers looking to get started with AI within customer service is leveraging the capabilities to drive internal efficiencies, rather than jumping into chatbots and virtual assistants right away.
There are a number of ways AI can be used as tools to help both CSRs and managers increase productivity, satisfaction and performance. Consider the power of real-time speech-to-text transcriptions for phone interactions. This can enable AI to automate call dispositioning, wrap-up surveys and transfer summaries, saving significant employee time and effort. By automating these tasks, CSRs can begin helping the next customer quicker, while also standardizing data capture and automating the upload process to systems of record, saving time and reducing the potential for human error.
In addition to automating these aspects of CSRs work, AI can also help reps provide more efficient, personalized service by seamlessly surfacing suggested responses during interactions. This supercharges productivity and reduces average handle times by providing assistance to CSRs without any disruption to existing workflows while also ensuring proper human oversight is in place.
AI can provide significant value to managers as well. Imagine being able to build custom, sophisticated reports across all of the organization’s interactions by simply asking questions in natural language. This would deliver instant insights and efficient call analysis while also strengthening overall team performance.
Of course, when most people think of AI within customer service, they think of deploying chatbots to reduce the number of interactions that require human intervention. This can drive substantial efficiency gains when leveraged responsibly and effectively, but insurers must be strategic about how and where they use AI for customer-facing interactions.
Identifying customer tasks that are routine or repetitive are a great place to introduce virtual assistants. Consider tasks like paying a bill or checking the status of a claim. Unlike customer needs like updating their coverage limits or filing a claim, where the expertise and empathy of a CSR is important and valued, these tasks are instances where policyholders are seeking a quick resolution. They’re not concerned with how their issue is resolved, just simply that it is resolved quickly and painlessly.
By starting with specific use cases, insurance companies can closely monitor the effectiveness and containment rate of the virtual assistant. When deployed correctly, it can free up time for CSRs to handle more important interactions while the AI automates the routine needs of customers. It’s a win-win for the business.
Given the challenging environment for insurers today, researching and investing in AI is a must. Ultimately, AI within customer service offers the opportunity to significantly boost operational efficiency while also elevating customer satisfaction and unlocking new insights for the business. However, implementing AI requires a thoughtful approach, one that is responsible, compliant and keeps a human in the loop. Those that embrace AI effectively will be poised to streamline processes and transform both CSR and policyholder interactions.
Enhancing P&C Agent-Carrier Relationships with Digital-First Experiences
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{Author}Anthony O’Donnell{/Author}
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