In an age where online access and convenience are all the rage in the insurance world, the importance of offering a human touch cannot be understated. In fact, it can even be what makes you stand out from industry peers who are hyper-focused on automating and digitizing support operations, no matter the compromise to policyholders.
This is especially true when people are dealing with serious real-world issues, loss, and despair. During times of crisis, it’s vital that insurers have an empathetic and personable support team available to serve policyholders needing to file claims.
The Importance of a Human-Centered Approach in Insurance
Leveraging technology can be of great benefit to insurers when it comes to enhancing risk management or ensuring convenient online access to coverage details and policy information.
However, there is a limit to the insurance processes and roles that technology can effectively take over. According to one recent study, 80% of consumers prefer to speak directly to a human customer service agent over interacting with an automated chatbot or call-response service. And in the wake of traumatic events, there is no replacement for the genuine human connection experienced customer support agents can offer policyholders.
Thus, insurers must strike a delicate balance between adopting advanced technologies for better efficiency and maintaining their personalized approach that can only be offered by human staff members.
How to Humanize the Insurance Claim Service Process
For many people, making a claim is one of the only touchpoints they’ll have with their insurer after initiating coverage. Therefore, it’s essential for insurers to give this interaction the care and attention it deserves to foster policyholder loyalty.
Filing a claim after experiencing a loss or damages can be a trying and emotional time for policyholders. As such, insurers need to be empathetic and knowledgeable from the first notice of loss (FNOL) until the claim is resolved. The following tips and suggestions offer some direction for insurers to ensure they’re humanizing the claims process and providing policyholders with adequate support.
Acknowledge Their Situation with Compassion
Disaster can strike at any time, often when we’re least expecting it. For example, let’s say a policyholder has just gotten home after a long day to find that a pipe has burst and left their whole main level flooded. The carpets are ruined, the electricity needs to be shut off, and their kids still need to be fed before bedtime.
In this extremely frustrating scenario, policyholders want to be able to call their insurer’s customer support line and quickly be connected with a knowledgeable and understanding agent who can begin the FNOL process. They don’t want to wait on hold for an hour, be transferred to multiple unhelpful agents, or speak with an automated recording service that fails to provide them with the information they need.
Instead, support agents who are patient and compassionate, and acknowledge the challenges that the situation poses will make the policyholder feel like their insurer cares about their situation. Policyholders will never be happy that they have to make a claim, but offering empathy and compassion can start the process off on the right note.
Use Simple Language
Another important aspect of providing humanized service during the claims filing process is to avoid using technical terms or industry jargon when unnecessary. Again, the situation that is causing the policyholder to file a claim is already stressful and complicated enough. Speaking with an agent who only uses industry-specific terms can make policyholders feel like they’re being talked down to when all they need is clarity on how to proceed and what resolutions are available to them.
Using simple and direct language can help insurers offer a good policyholder experience, even when filing a claim. This ensures that policyholders have a clear understanding of what the next steps are and what’s expected of them.
Be Transparent
Lastly, support agents should be transparent with policyholders during the claims process. This will help them feel informed and secure that their insurer is looking out for them. Being personal and empathetic with policyholders doesn’t mean overpromising or guaranteeing payouts–it requires agents to be clear with policyholders about the information they need to collect, what the next steps are in the process, and how long it might take.
Agents don’t need to overexplain details that are not relevant for the policyholder to know. However, policyholders don’t want to feel left in the dark when it comes to something as serious as filing a claim for property damage or other losses.
Personable and Empathetic Insurance Claim Services with Covenir
No matter how far tech advances in the insurance space, policyholders will always have a desire for human connection with their insurers, especially at their most critical hour when they need to file a claim.
With Covenir BPO as your partner, you can tap into our passionate team of experienced and dedicated support agents. Our team is there to deliver on your brand promise and offer policyholders the empathy and care they need while filing a claim.
If your in-house staff needs to focus on other strategic tasks like underwriting or sales, let our team handle the support and insurance claim service process so you can optimize operations at every level without compromising the policyholder experience.
To learn more about our custom insurance claim service, click here to get in touch with someone from our team–we’d love to hear from you.