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October 19, 2005 at 08:00 PM
Insurers are drowning in customer information, but coordination can be tricky
It is no secret that customers are an insurance company’s most valuable asset and that smart insurers know the rewards of developing a strategy to personalize the communications they send to customers through both print and electronic channels.
When organizations use what they know about a customer to communicate one on one, the customer experience will be a positive one, with retention and loyalty the happy result.
It is not difficult to find content about customers in an insurance enterprise. In fact, insurers are drowning in it. The difficulty is creating a centralized system that keeps track of customer data, policies, riders, transactions and other critical information.
Having access to such information, however, allows carriers the opportunity to create an effective communications and messaging strategy that supports the cross-selling and up-selling of product lines, and a true understanding of the long-term value of each customer.
Such information also provides support to brokers and customer service representatives who must carry the message forward when conversing with policyholders. Successfully connecting with customers using everything you possibly can know about them delivers a specialized view that will engage any policyholder, and the benefits to the company can be found in the bottom line.
But for many companies, this initiative can present a variety of technical challenges.
Linking the different silos of information a company has about its customers often requires a reexamination of business processes and the purchasing of technology to make it possible.
If you are ready to implement an enterprisewide messaging strategy, before you invest, it pays to know what to look for in a solution to manage the information effectively. The following are four major questions your company should take into consideration as you evaluate the technology that is right for your organization.
o Does the technology feature robust content and trigger capabilities?
Content represents the information that will be presented in the printed or electronic document, while triggers are what allow you to add “intelligence” to your one-on-one communications process.
In most insurance organizations, content can be drawn from multiple systems. The technology must provide a means to access this content, as well as to create content.
For personalization to occur, a robust trigger solution will provide a framework so users can add conditions that can be applied selectively to include only relevant content for the recipient. An effective combination of content and triggers can be used to create a wide variety of personalized and customized document solutions.
o Does it offer workflow abilities?
To improve efficiencies and improve time to market with critical customer communications, several stakeholders (including front-line personnel such as brokers and agents) should be a part of the content management process of your messaging strategy.
Look for technology that allows for collaborative authoring. This means that different users with different skills can easily add personalized content from a desktop or through a Web browser to create customize documents on demand.
