Wow Your Customers with On-demand Omnichannel Communications

by Ernie Crawford, President & CEO, Crawford Technologies —

With the rise of real-time data, the relationship between insurers and their policyholders has fundamentally changed. Today’s consumers expect immediate access to information, services and support. For both P&C and life & health insurance companies, this means rethinking their communication strategies, moving from traditional print and mail to real-time, on-demand, omnichannel methods. Effective customer communication must be:

• Timely: delivered promptly, responding to customer inquiries or actions
• Relevant: tailored to each customer’s preferences, past interactions and current needs
• Engaging: providing valuable, personalized content to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction

A recent survey conducted by Computershare found that “87% of Canadian insurance customers value essential communications from their provider.” And 76% prefer to receive communications using digital channels including web portals, email and mobile apps.

Understanding On-demand Communications

On-demand communications deliver real-time, personalized messages triggered by specific customer actions or requests. Unlike traditional mail-based communications, on-demand systems respond immediately to customer behavior, ensuring timely and relevant information.

For insurers, this type of communication spans various platforms, including email, SMS, mobile app notifications, personalized web content and chatbots. Each channel allows insurers to engage with policyholders meaningfully, ensuring seamless communication tailored to their preferences.

Key attributes that set on-demand communications apart include:

• Personalization: Messages are tailored to policyholder preferences, whether sending claim status updates, renewal reminders or a Certificate of Insurance. This builds trust and strengthens relationships.
• Real-time delivery: Policyholders receive instant responses to their actions, such as claims submissions, billing inquiries or coverage adjustments.
• Omnichannel approach: Policyholders interact with insurers across multiple platforms. To maintain consistency, insurers must make certain communications are accessible and seamless across all channels, from email and HTML to traditional mail.

Even traditional methods, like billing and invoicing, can benefit from real-time automation. This ensures accurate and prompt financial communication, improving cash flow and policyholder satisfaction.

Life and health insurance companies can streamline routine processes, such as policy renewals, benefit fulfillment and explanations of benefits to increase efficiency, reduce administrative burdens and improve policyholder experiences.

In P&C insurance, real-time updates on claim status or accident reports can greatly enhance policyholder satisfaction, reducing the frustration with claims processing.

Overcoming Challenges

Transitioning to an on-demand communications system presents challenges specific to the insurance industry, including:

• Traditional processing: Insurers traditionally rely on batch processing, which sends communications on a scheduled basis. While suitable for large volumes of messages, this method lacks the immediacy today’s policyholders expect.
• Legacy content and systems: Most insurers have archived content in outdated systems and formats, making migrating data to a modern system time-consuming and costly.
• Security and compliance: With increasing data privacy and accessibility concerns, systems must comply with regulations, safeguarding policyholder data while maintaining efficient and accessible communication.
• Disparate archives: Many insurance companies store content across different systems. Migrating to a unified on-demand platform requires careful planning to ensure accessibility and usability across all communication channels.
• Document accessibility: Insurers provide communications that are accessible across diverse devices and formats, including braille displays, screen readers and text-to-speech systems, to provide an inclusive customer experience.

Enterprise Communications Processing Simplifies the Transition

Many insurance companies are adopting enterprise communications processing (ECP) systems to manage the complexity of on-demand communications. ECP acts as a centralized hub, streamlining communication workflows and integrating seamlessly with existing systems like enterprise content management (ECM) and customer communications management (CCM) platforms. This enables insurers to deliver consistent messages across all channels while efficiently processing documents from policy statements to claims notifications.

By utilizing ECP, insurers can:

• Connect legacy systems with digital channels without extensive architectural changes
• Migrate disparate archives to modern document management systems
• Convert legacy communications in real-time for omnichannel communications
• Automate manual processes, reducing errors and boosting productivity
• Enhance the customer experience by delivering timely, personalized messages
• Cut costs by reducing expenses related to printing and postage
• Improve compliance by adhering to regulations on data privacy, security and accessibility

Preparing for the Future

As technology evolves, so will policyholder expectations. The future of communication will focus on creating cohesive, interactive experiences that engage policyholders in real time. Insurers that fail to embrace on-demand omnichannel communications strategies will struggle to remain competitive.

Investing in on-demand communications capabilities today allows insurers to enhance policyholder satisfaction, streamline processes and build stronger, more personalized relationships. This meets current policyholders’ expectations and positions companies for long-term success in a future shaped by real-time, on-demand personal engagement.

About the Author

A digital document industry pioneer, Ernie Crawford is President/CEO and founder of Crawford Technologies. One of only a small number of people worldwide with M-EDP (Master Electronic Document Professional) designation, Ernie has more than 30 years of senior marketing and management experience in the high-volume digital printing market.

About Crawford Technologies

Crawford Technologies develops solutions that help enterprises optimize and improve the secure and accessible delivery, storage and presentment of their customer communications. As an award-winning, global provider of products and services with over 1,800 customers on six continents, Crawford Technologies enables some of the world’s largest banks, insurers, healthcare providers, utilities and print services companies to reduce costs, simplify processes and streamline mission-critical communications across all channels and in all formats. For more information visit www.crawfordtech.com.

Source: Crawford Technologies via Sterling Kilgore Inc.