The insurance industry, just like many others, is faced with digital and mobile innovation challenges as companies hustle to keep up with their digital-minded consumers. Forrester reports 85% of global insurers said creating digital strategies were important, versus 68% in other industries. However, insurance providers are challenged with low adoption rates of mobile sites and apps. A report from Forrester analysts Oliwia Berdak and Ellen Carney, “Follow Best Practices to Encourage Mobile Insurance Use,” addresses several ways to design, build and promote mobile initiatives for better adoption, including a few near and dear to our hearts. The report cites the effectiveness of personalized communication and engaging policyholders with video – particularly during the onboarding period – and highlights Liberty Mutual’s onboarding new customers with personalized smart videos as a good practice.
The insurance industry is a competitive one, so digital innovation and customer experience are key differentiators for insurers. This desire to differentiate was an impetus for Liberty Mutual to launch its strategic initiative using smarter video during the company’s onboarding process. The personalized SmartVideo experiences enhance new customer engagement by proactively explaining each individual’s policy, billing details and promoting value-added services.
Video is an engaging medium by nature, capturing customers’ attention to educate and explain policies and statements, and point customers toward value-added services or self-serve tools (like a mobile app, autopay or paperless billing). Brian Piccolo, manager of digital strategic services at Liberty Mutual, addressed the advent of video and mobile with Loyalty360 saying, “All types of video, both traditional and “smart,” will be driving consumer engagement for a long time to come. And with the explosive adoption of smartphones, mobile apps will continue to evolve and provide a platform that will allow marketers and brands to deliver truly personalized, contextual experiences to consumers.”
Mutual of Enumclaw is another insurer that leverages SmartVideo, in this case to welcome new policyholders as well as engage existing customers that are coming up for policy renewal. The personalized video aims to reiterate the values and high levels of customer service, educating the customer about their policy and value-added services available, such as the mobile app and paperless billing.
SundaySky President and Chief Revenue Officer Jim Dicso explains that a welcome or acknowledgement video “sets the tone for an affirmation video that talks about value they’ve already received and views into getting more value from that service. Smarter video can help drive down potential of churn, help take out costs, and help drive a good customer experience.”
Across the industry, 96.1% of SmartVideo viewers gave the personalized, real-time onboarding videos from their insurers a “found helpful” rating, and 76.4% of viewers had a more favorable brand impact. (See more benchmarks in our SmartVideo Index for Insurance Leaders.) Adding personalized video communication allows insurers to speak on a one-to-one basis with customers, and provide the information that is most helpful to each individual at a specific moment in time.
