The Age of the Customer: Companies Turn to Enhanced Video Communication

[ TECHBITES] By Jim Dicso, President & CRO, SundaySky

The Age of the Customer: Companies Turn to Enhanced Video Communication

In the last century, business sources of dominance have evolved from mass manufacturing to global distribution to information mastery. Today, we’ve entered the next generation of the business evolution – the age of the customer – in which the standout brands, such as Apple, USAA and Southwest Airlines, hold power by being customer-obsessed and by engaging with empowered customers where and when it matters most to both the brand and customer. As digital experiences continue to disrupt every industry, especially traditional insurance, brands need to find a way to address rising customer expectations while enhancing customer experience and satisfaction.

Enter Digital Video

From the origins of the YouTube video portal to scalable on-site e-commerce product videos to multichannel strategies, video has evolved significantly to become a digital communication that can now be personalized to the individual viewer.

Customer data and analytics from CRM and lifecycle marketing platforms can be applied to the highly engaging, visually appealing and powerful storytelling medium that is video. When personalized video is delivered to the customer at the most relevant touch point with information in real time, the experience is even more effective and appealing.

Specifically for insurance marketers, data-driven videos might include an individual’s policy information, agent interactions and claims submissions, details and status notifications. They should complement traditional quote, policy, statement and claims communications for an integrated CRM process. Insurance carriers continue to hold customer acquisition and retention as top initiatives, and personalized video is an effective tool delivered at interactions and claims submissions, details and status notifications. They should complement traditional quote, policy, statement and claims communications for an integrated CRM process. Insurance carriers continue to hold customer acquisition and retention as top initiatives, and personalized video is an effective tool delivered at touch points throughout the customer lifecycle and across devices and channels, especially via email and mobile, as well as within portals and via IPTV.

The Value of Video for Customer Acquisition

Typically, insurance marketers use online video as an awareness tool, yet personalized videos can also offer value as effective mediums to drive conversions and acquire new policyholders.

Personalized video ads can be delivered mid-funnel after a prospect abandons a website page before completing the quote estimate process. Retargeted pre-roll ads can pull in data elements such as the prospect’s zip code and age, and deliver a 15- or 30-second personalized video ad most relevant to the viewer, whether referencing the Los Angeles traffic scene and accident forgiveness plans, or safe driving rewards to teenage drivers in upstate New York. Personalized video ads should include calls to action that drive performance, such as “get a quote today.”

Once a prospective customer has returned back to the webpage to complete the quote estimate process, a personalized video follow-up communication recapping and detailing the proposed policy can further drive customer acquisition. By including the prospective policyholder’s information – such as quote explanation, monthly payments and additional coverage options – a relevant yet easily digestible and visual tool can help educate a consumer and drive him to purchase a policy.

Additionally, the use of personalized video communication at the onset of the customer relationship establishes positive customer expectations for future communications.

Personalizing Customer Onboarding

After a customer purchases a new pol icy, it is imperative he feels reassured that he made the right choice, as this is the optimal window of time in which insurers can create brand stickiness with the customer. This begins with how new policyholders are welcomed and continues with proactive, multi-touch engagement throughout the first year the policyholder is with the insurance company.

Insurers can use customer information to generate personalized videos to engage and educate individual customers about their specific policies, explain the first policy statement using the customer’s account data, set expectations for delivery of documents, and highlight value-added services for the customer. In addition, personalized video can transform the traditional insurance statement experience into one powered by sight, sound and motion to more easily understand a typically overwhelming communication piece.

Personalized onboarding videos have proven to deliver, on average, a 16 percent click-through rate on in-video calls to action promoting self-service tools such as auto-pay and paperless statements, an 80 percent positive brand impact rating and a 97 percent “found video helpful” rating from new policyholders who view their videos.

The impact on Customer Retention

There are moments throughout the customer lifecycle when personalized, individual attention is necessary to resolve issues that often spur excessive support calls to the contact center. The claims-handling process in particular is unfortunately known as a pain point for customers and, more often than not, a barrier to growing customer relationships, satisfaction and loyalty. Even more, claims are a top churn factor and represent a company’s largest operational expense. How insurers educate claimants and handle the communication process can make all the difference to customer satisfaction, retention and profitability.

Personalized videos can leverage policyholder profiles and claim-specific data to proactively support the complex claims process. Depending on where the claimant is in the process, the video might explain the claims process, set expectations based on claim type and coverage level, specify steps that can be taken to expedite the process, identify a claim adjustor and local repair shops, or explain how to check future claim status online.

Insurance companies can build consumer confidence in the claims process and control the high costs associated with these calls throughout the claims lifecycle, including reduced number of claim-related calls to the contact center and a reduction in average handle time of calls that are received. And a positive, enhanced customer experience means increased customer satisfaction, and ultimately, a higher customer retention rate.

Companies that put the customer front and center separate themselves from the pack with excellent customer experience. Insurers that move toward a smarter, more data-driven approach to customer communications can expect higher retention rates of policyholders and higher satisfaction, increased customer referrals and a reputation for staying relevant in a changing market.