4 ways insurance organizations can improve customer engagement using multichannel messaging

This is a guest post by Tessa Curry, strategic content manager at SMS-Magic.

In today’s world it can be really easy to miss an email.

Customers are bombarded with emails and phone calls, creating a digital noise that can be hard to break through. Success for insurance companies rests upon your relationship with your customers. And multichannel messaging is one of the best ways to connect and build those relationships.

A quick snapshot of some of those ways includes:

• A follow-up message.
• An appointment reminder.
• Document received confirmation.
• Sending renewal notices straight to client’s phones.
• Automating reminders for signatures.
• Sending policy status updates.
• Responding quickly to questions so they don’t go looking elsewhere.

Insurance organizations can greatly improve customer engagement by implementing these simple messages across various channels. By meeting customers where they are, on their preferred platforms, they are more likely to read and respond to messages.

Benefits of multichannel messaging.

In today’s technology-savvy era, customer interactions are no longer just one channel or one-way communication. Every conversation a company has with its customers or potential customers has moved away from being just a transaction to an experience. Multichannel messaging allows you to easily ensure that all of your communications are personalized and relevant.

If you haven’t used messaging yet or aren’t convinced it might be useful, you should know that:

• 67% of US smartphone owners want to receive service-based messages.
• 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes.
• 50% of people read texts within 90 seconds.
• Text response rate is 209% higher than phone calls.

Multichannel messaging is particularly effective for insurance organizations because if customers aren’t happy, they’ll shop around and find another broker. So here’s how you can retain customers, create loyal fans, and improve all of your customer engagements.

1. Offer contact-free services.

The past year has made it clear that companies must focus on providing remote, contact-free services. In fact, 2/3 of Americans say they are “more inclined to try new digital offerings now than before.” Beyond that, 90% of insureds prefer digital or remote interactions with their insurance provider over face-to-face meetings.

You can build messaging campaigns that encourage customers to enroll in services like paperless billing, AutoPay, and auto-renewals.

The most impactful way to drive results for an insurance organization is to get more customers to self-serve. Increased self-service means fewer customer service calls, as well as higher customer satisfaction rates. Over time, this will help decrease policyholder churn as well.

2. Personalize your messages.

Creating a personal connection with your customers always helps in maintaining long-term relationships. As you learn what channel your customers actually use, it becomes easy to communicate with them accordingly and when you are using their preferred channel to communicate, it certainly creates a personal connection. You can also engage your clients through relevant campaigns. In order to develop personal connections with your clients you need to show them that you know them individually and you care about them. You can do this by sending them relevant information with insights and tips that are applicable to their situation and questions they’ve asked in the past.

3. Quickly respond to questions.

Your clients will likely have questions for you during odd hours. By quickly responding, you’ll gain loyal clients who will then refer you to friends and colleagues. You don’t want to be tied to a desktop or laptop in order to always be available to respond. Having the ability to respond on your phone allows you to never miss a message and respond in a timely manner.

4. Gather valuable feedback.

Your clients’ feedback and insight is incredibly valuable. You can send a quick messaging-based NPS survey or ask clients to leave reviews on your website. Because you’re doing so through messaging they are more likely to act on your request. You can then use their feedback to improve your service and offerings.

The right multichannel messaging partner can help you respond to clients wherever you are, improve client relationships, automate tedious tasks, stay compliant, and gather valuable feedback. We work together with Talkdesk to offer user-friendly messaging that will boost your productivity, accelerate revenue growth, and increase customer engagement. We would love to show you how using Talkdesk and SMS-Magic can benefit your organization today.