14. October 2022

Enabling AI for customer service and enhanced CX in Insurance

AI for customer service is enabling businesses to digitize every touchpoint to certain degrees to make the customer journey more effective and memorable.

Words by Gaurav Athavale

AI for customer service is enabling businesses to digitize every touchpoint to certain degrees to make the customer journey more effective and memorable. In fact, a McKinsey study states that AI and automation can reduce the cost of a customer care journey for insurers by as much as 30% [1].

Businesses that handle mass inquiries, complaints, etc. are bound to respond to their customers instantly, and often face up-staffing issues. However, the uncertainty of volume upsurge, and complexity of insurance operations are one of the challenges insurance companies are keenly looking to solve.

Somehow impacted by the customer-centricity of businesses and personalization factor, insurance businesses see cost of customer care journey a critical expense and as a cost that is worth investigating. In this blog we will focus on key insights on how AI can help insurers to ramp up their customer service operations and improve CX.

Three ways AI for customer service can enable improved CX

When customers have an issue regarding a service or a product, they expect a response that is at least acknowledged on priority, followed by receiving a concrete solution. According to Forrester Research, 77% of customers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online customer service [2].

1. AI automation can improve your customer-response time from 24 hrs to minutes

The “Customer Response Time” in the customer service segment is the key parameter to measure the time taken to respond to a query made by the customer. Making client resolutions faster is one of the most effective strategies to improve the customer experience.

One of the key elements that could slow down your response time is the lack of skilled customer care representatives. Problems that might be solved in 10 minutes by a skilled employee could take hours or even days to solve if a representative is not skilled enough to handle large volumes of information.

However, even while it initially seems like humans can do it alone, things frequently become challenging when an organization has ambitious growth and expansion plans, even with the presence of skilled employees.

Due to its ability to relieve human operators of some tasks, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a way out of this obstacle. AI is already disrupting the customer service area in a most productive way. AI solutions can process large volumes of customer inquiries with desirable business outcomes. Thus, with AI-based process automation, enhanced customer service and quicker processing times can win you customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2. AI enables both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction

Businesses today can achieve exceptional customer satisfaction and enhanced employee satisfaction both at the same time. By leveraging AI-driven automation solutions, organizations can have a complete, objective-focused, and automated procedure of every customer interaction.

Coming on to the employee satisfaction, in each workday for the agents, performing the redundant and same repetitive backend tasks limits employee capabilities to focus on productive tasks that are qualitative and can benefit their performance overall.

Considering an example, an individual agent is capable of handling maximum of a hundred backend queries including claim processing, product enquiries, policy renewals, etc. The other day due to surge in volume, the same agent is burdened with 250-300 queries a day, there are high chances he/she might miss majority of those emails, leading to a backlog and reduced no. of responses to customers or none at all.

Adopting AI automation solutions can make a huge difference over here. Through Intelligent Process Automation capabilities, AI processes hundreds of queries within few minutes, giving employee more capacity to focus on other sensitive tasks and work areas that need human intervention, such as connecting with customers one-to-one to offer a personalized customer experience.

AI automation helps businesses create a less stressed, and highly productive and satisfied workforce. Employees can proactively work collaboratively with AI solutions, when most required and in a most productive way.

Let AI manage customer service in the most modest way

Learn how Claims Link scaled its business operations with 40% growth without hiring new employees.

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3. AI could be an enabler for businesses to do more business

According to Gartner, 53% of insurance organizations are actively experimenting or already implementing digital automation technologies.

Aiming for the ultimate objective of acquiring a competitive edge, an increasing number of businesses have started implementing AI initiatives with the purpose of automating or enhancing crucial business operations.

AI is referred to as the next frontier for competition and productivity, while businesses have even claimed that it is a revolution that would fundamentally alter how business is done. In uncertain times, where AI is considered to play a crucial role in achieving competitive performance gains, understanding the role of AI in operations is likewise of significant importance.

Businesses are best positioned to prosper in today’s highly competitive and tech-driven environments when they embrace the potential of purpose-built, AI-driven solutions.

From an overall perspective,

In terms of customer service, the insurance industry has a wide scope for Artificial Intelligence. Fast customer responses and round-the-clock communication, as well as the simplification of complex insurance cases, are critical aspects of customer service in this industry.

Today, we see AI being used in a variety of work areas in Insurance industry, including claims handling, document handling, underwriting, and many others, all of which contribute to better customer service. More advanced AI technologies will emerge in the coming years. These could make complex actions like claims settlement, premium adjustment, and insurance-related legal activities easier to manage.

Also, industry leaders will gain competitive advantage across the business area with AI being the key enabler for their business growth.

About Simplifai

Simplifai is an AI solutions company that provides end-to-end automation for businesses with the help of Digital Employees. These AI-powered solutions can work in any third-party system, can be configured to perform specific tasks at the front- and back-end, and provide high-grade automation. Our focus lies in the BFSI sector, and many of our Digital Employees are suitable for implementation in the Insurance Industry.

Learn about Digital Employees for Insurance