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Who do your buyer persona trust the most? That's a fundamental question.
Customers don't trust companies as much, as executives think they do. PwC survey gave us data, that 30% of customers trust the companies they buy from, whereas 87% of executives think they are trusted. What's more, 44% of customers said they stopped buying from a certain company due to lack of trust.
Your customers trust themselves the most.
As the saying goes: "If you want a thing done well, do it yourself".
It is why customer self-service portals are becoming a thing nowadays.
Are you afraid you might lose touch with your customers? Fear not, as it comes with benefits for you too.
This article outlines how a self-service portal meets modern customer requirements, providing essential 24/7 access and bespoke user experiences - key to satisfying modern service expectations - without divulging the nuanced strategies businesses employ to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Embracing Hybrid Sales: The Evolution of Customer Preferences
The advent of the digital age has transformed the business landscape, resulting in a paradigm shift from traditional sales models to hybrid ones that merge automated processes with personal interactions. This evolution is a response to the changing preferences of customers who demand a blend of self-service options and human interaction in their customer journey.
The beauty of these hybrid models lies in their flexibility, allowing customers to choose between the convenience of self-service and the personalized attention of a direct contact with a representative based on their immediate needs.
Modern buyers’ need for speed and empowerment, coupled with their desire for personalized attention to complex needs, have fueled the shift towards hybrid sales models. Some key benefits of a hybrid sales model include:
- Personalized attention to large clients dealing with complex solutions
- Ability to effectively maintain personalized attention in a hybrid sales environment
- Transitioning to a hybrid sales model can help boost revenue when there is a plateau in revenue from solely self-serve options
Businesses are realizing the importance of transitioning to a hybrid sales model to meet the evolving needs of their customers and drive growth.
Meeting Expectations with Flexibility
2013 Zendesk's survey found out that 67% of customers prefer self-service rather than contacting a human representative. 73% of customers want to solve their problems independently. They don't want to rely on anyone but themselves.
The shifting landscape of customer expectations underscores the importance of flexibility. In the realm of insurance, the integration of digital self-service capabilities can draw in new customers while keeping current ones satisfied by offering a quick and autonomous experience. Granting customers the ability to independently buy products through self-service tools is an effective move.
Offering varied channels for access like:
- telephone
- chat
- walk-up options
Addresses different customer needs and preferences effectively.
By setting up round-the-clock customer support, insurers can develop automated sales processes that are repeatable and designed for convenience, thereby increasing sales opportunities.
The Benefits of a Good Self-Service Portal in Insurance Operations
With a plethora of advantages, self-service portals lead the way to operational cost savings by cutting down on staffing needs and managing online customer support requests more affordably.
Operational efficiency is improved through the reduction of manual tasks and administrative overhead, facilitating better resource allocation.
It is estimated, that the cost of self-service interaction is pennies, while the cost for customer service representatives in interaction in B2C is $7 and in B2B $13.
Also, maintaining a 24/7 service is tough on your customer service team, and, as we know, accidents can happen anytime.
Offering 24/7 customer support through self-service options fosters customer loyalty by providing help whenever needed, leading to increased satisfaction and retention.
The benefits of self-service portals include:
- Providing help whenever needed
- Increasing customer satisfaction and retention
- Minimizing manual updates and reducing customer inquiries through the integration of real-time data
- Offering scalable customer support that can adapt to business growth
- Facilitating automated support for both customers and businesses
These benefits ensure efficient operations and a positive customer experience.
With the many benefits they offer, it’s clear that self-service portals are a game-changer in the insurance sector, driving operational efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Customers want speed more than anything. According to SuperOffice, reaction time is important to the highest – 75% of customers.
What's more, a study by Coveo found that:
- 53% of clients had a hard time contacting with an actual human,
- 46% of them contradictory information from different customer service agents,
- 43% couldn't find information on their own with how to videos or in the knowledge base,
- 26% faced different experience across multiple touchpoints within the same company.
Addressing these issues with self-service solutions should improve customer satisfaction, all the more considering the fact that a good self-service portal tracks and analyzes customer behavior.
Higher Customer Retention
Your clients leave because of what you did or did not. With self-service portal the ball is on their side.
Increased Efficiency and Reduced Costs
The self-service portal is at the forefront of enhancing operational efficiency through automation. By automating mundane tasks, the service portal significantly boosts operational productivity by optimizing workflows, thereby increasing employee output and speeding up communication channels.
Also, it is easier to implement changes, as one change affects all customer interactions. Alternatively, you'd need to train all of your employees.
The adoption of digital self-service options diminishes reliance on manual processing and paperwork, resulting in notable reductions in labor costs and overheads for insurance companies.
By streamlining the claims submission process via these service portals, not only do they curtail expenses but also improve precision in claims handling. This is achieved by enabling automated capture of thorough data and documentation during claim submissions.
Accuracy and Up-to-Date Information
By facilitating access to real-time data via customer portals, the integrity and dependability of services provided to customers are enhanced as errors and inconsistencies in policy details diminish. These self-service interfaces deliver a secure cloud-based repository for insurance information, allowing policyholders continuous entry to up-to-date records and paperwork.
Enabling customers through self-service options to autonomously modify their own details and complete specific activities leads insurers to obtain more precise information. This empowerment can result in decreased operational costs within the insurance sector.
Unveiling the Customer Self-Service Portal for Insurers by Decerto
Decerto has introduced the Self-Service Customer Portal, aimed at enriching the customer experience in the insurance domain. This specially crafted portal simplifies numerous aspects of an insurer’s operations, including acquiring policies, lodging claims, and navigating other available services.
It encompasses various modules like Information Source, Communication Channel, as well as applications for Sales, Claims Handling and Other Services – each integral to augmenting efficiency and managing high-volume data transactions characteristic of today’s insurance industry.
By leveraging automation within this self-service platform increases agent productivity while simultaneously stimulating sales expansion. Committed to honesty in its offerings via the customer portal ensures that all insurance solutions are provided transparently without concealed fees or ambiguous commitments.
Boasting state-of-the-art design alongside a breadth of features positions Decerto’s portal as an advanced solution adept at fulfilling evolving demands from contemporary customers seeking efficient services in insurance.
Portal Modules at a Glance
The Decerto Self-Service Customer Portal features a quintet of essential modules, each meticulously tailored to support distinct facets of the insurance process. The modules encompass:
- A resource for information,
- A conduit for communication,
- Sales transactions,
- Claims filing and management,
- Applications for various other services.
Collectively, these components constitute an integrated platform that simplifies and expedites the acquisition of insurance, submission and handling of claims, as well as administration of additional insurance-related services—thereby delivering a smooth and productive experience to the customer.
Key Business Advantages
A Self-Service Customer Portal delivers a multitude of benefits for businesses. It empowers customers by giving them the ability to manage their own purchasing process, promoting the autonomous selection of insurance products. The portal is designed with user-friendly guidance that streamlines completing self-service tasks within the insurance domain.
Key advantages of this portal include:
- Enhanced interaction efficiency via a comprehensive 360-degree perspective that merges current information about agents and relevant customer data
- Reduced expenses in acquiring new customers
- Expedited processing of claims
These advantageous features offer businesses a robust competitive edge when it comes to their offerings in products and services.
Self-Service Portals Summary
- Hybrid sales models, combining self-service and human interaction, adapt to modern buyer preferences and can lead to increased revenue, demonstrating the importance of flexibility in sales strategies and customer service.
- Decerto’s Self-Service Customer Portal offers a suite of modules that streamline insurance processes, driving operational efficiency and growth by providing a flexible, efficient, and transparent customer experience tailored to various insurance-related needs.
- Self-service portals provide around-the-clock availability, empowering customers to manage their insurance needs autonomously, and enabling companies to realize cost savings through improved operational efficiency.
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