Four Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Texting Platform for Insurance

Insurance is inconvenient. We ask policyholders to fill out forms and interact with several ecosystem partners through the entire claims process. These tasks inevitably create endless phone tag as well as piles of unread email and unheard voicemail, causing frustration and poor customer experiences. Insurers know this process needs to be improved and are tackling some of the complexities by offering texting - a more empathic, simple, and convenient communication channel that customers often prefer.

Texting is accessible, personal, and ubiquitous in the age of smartphones to the point that there are quite a few surveys that provide stats like 99% of texts are opened or 97% of adults text daily. We even found it to be true for policyholder interactions with their insurers. In our study of insureds and texting, we found that 84% of policyholders would save an insurer's texting number to their contacts and would text about service or a claim. In fact, more than 60% said they would have a group text with their insurer and a third-party to resolve their claim. Policyholders want to text to make insurance convenient, but not all texting solutions are the same.

Here are four key points to consider when choosing a texting solution for your
company.

• A texting solution that is insurance specific

Insurance is unique. We have an extensive set of regulatory requirements and nuanced workflows. The right texting platform will accommodate these necessities while simplifying the policyholder experience. SMS has high engagement because there is limited spam and chatbot usage. Your texting platform needs to have the right industry knowledge to provide workflow guidance to reduce the number of bot questions for FNOL intake or for inbound service questions. Additionally, compliant transcripts and PII filtering are a must. Texting is not built for insurance unless it can meet discovery and privacy requirements.

• A texting solution that works with the insurance ecosystem

Insurance is inherently an ecosystem of internal and external players: agents, underwriters, claims adjusters, TPAs, car rentals, repair shops, contractors, and more. Your insurance texting solution needs to accommodate this network through group texting and integrated workflows. The texting platform needs to make the most out of a powerful core system like Guidewire and help you navigate the intricacies of what it means to be text-first.

Insurers can significantly ease the stress of policyholders and claims adjusters by enabling simple, user-friendly processes like receiving a proactive text message, noting a claim payment being processed through Prelude Software, or texting a link to Plnar to take pictures of broken windows or leaky pipes. Having a four-way group text between the independent agent, an APD (automobile physical damage) adjuster, a BI-claims adjuster, and the policyholder can reduce the hassle of retelling the same story while keeping everyone informed as the claim moves forward. Texting chains also provide a quick reference if a policyholder needs to go back and check the details of a
conversation.

• A texting solution that coaches your team to get better at
  every interaction

Insurance is data driven at its core. Texting conversations are insight-rich and can provide needed advice on structuring user journeys that improve policyholder retention and growth. Insurance texting platforms must provide real-time feedback on what policyholders think through surveys and on how they feel through sentiment analysis. The text data should be accessible and portable to internal data lakes to be combined with claim and policy master data and mined for insights. But the most critical requirement is that every dashboard, metric, and insight needs to be actionable at the moment-of-truth when the rep interacts with the policyholder - coaching the rep to get to the right result through augmented intelligence.

• A true-to-life pilot experience

There's no better way to learn about the platform and gauge its effectiveness than trying it out. Hi Marley's pilot program is different than other texting platforms. We provide the same exceptional service during the pilot as we provide after you buy. Our Customer Success and Implementation and Enablement teams are in the trenches with you on Day 1. We learn about your unique processes and provide helpful recommendations based on best practices for insurance and for your company. In addition, Hi Marley offers a free, 30-day pilot for adjusters to use the solution and easily incorporate it into their day-to-day workflows.

If you're interested in learning more about Hi Marley and texting, contact us to get started and be sure to check out the Hi Marley Accelerator for Texting for ClaimCenter. Choosing the right insurance texting platform makes policyholder communication as easy as S-M-S.

This blog is the first in a series based on the Insurtech Innovators webinar 'Make Insurance Convenient,' which you can view here.

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