How insurance companies are benefiting from the power of digital data collection

Everyone knows the insurance industry has existed for a very long time, but very few people know just how long. Believe it or not, it’s been around since ancient times - at least since 1750 BC. The insurance industry is also massive, with nearly 6,000 insurance companies in the United States alone. 

Finding a way to stand out among this competitive market full of established players means learning to offer something that others don’t. And it doesn’t have to be something that will cost you millions to implement. In fact, gaining a competitive advantage in the insurance market can be as easy and accessible as improving your services with no-code digital data collection tools. It’s easy to do, but it can make all the difference - as the following examples show.

How insurance companies are using digital data collection tools to improve their services

The quality of your service is everything. 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, and 49% have left a brand in the past year due to poor customer experience alone. Thankfully, digital data collection can improve your services - and therefore your customer experience - in multiple ways, including:

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• Creating a faster onboarding process
• Collecting insights that help identify optimization opportunities
• Reducing the need for customer support
• Offering more flexible options
• Preventing human error

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[.figure]86%[.figure]

[.emph]of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience[.emph]

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The benefits of using digital data collection tools for insurance companies

The better your services, the more competitive you’ll be. But that’s not the only benefit that your insurance company will experience when changing from complex manual processes to streamlined digital tools. Companies that have made the switch have seen such advantages as:

• Saving on operational costs, manual labor, and human resources
• Staying current in a world that, post-COVID-19, is more digital than ever
• Shortening contract closing time
• Reducing the need to travel
• Reducing training time
• Supporting sales
• Building customer loyalty and trust 
• Simplifying workflows for customers and employees alike

How customers can benefit from the use of digital data collection tools by insurance companies

Many insurance companies have found success with a customer-first approach, making sure that any major shift they make will benefit their customers first and foremost. Indeed, the modern insurance customer loves using digital data collection tools rather than clunky, time-consuming manual processes. Benefits of digital data collection to the insurance customer include:

• Increased security of confidential personal information
• User-friendly and intuitive customer journeys
• Personalized workflows 
• Faster, more efficient processes
• Less back and forth with the insurance company
• Quicker response times
• No need to print, sign, or scan documents

Examples of how digital data collection is being used to improve customer service in the insurance industry

All of these benefits aren’t theoretical. Real insurance companies are using digital data collection today to improve their services and gain a competitive advantage in the insurance industry. Curious as to how? Here are a few stories you may want to hear.

VGM achieved a five-year plan in only three months

VGM & Associates is a 100% employee-owned insurance company serving over 2,500 providers, making them America's largest and most comprehensive Member Service Organization for post-acute healthcare. Post-COVID-19, they knew that they had to make some changes to remain competitive in a younger, more digital world. So VGM made an ambitious plan: make all manual processes digital in five years.

It was only when VGM started working with EasySend to build eight no-code digital customer journeys all on their own that they realized they could achieve this plan in only three months. Not only did this reduce operational costs by 30 to 50%, but it also allowed them to be agile, respond to customer needs quickly, and work independently to embrace change and let go of imagined limitations.

Real Garant reduced the sales cycle

Real Garant is a leading specialist in customer loyalty within the automotive industry, servicing warranty solutions in 22 European countries. Their status quo was taking three to six months of heavy manual work with multiple complex PDFs to complete a single sales cycle. But when COVID-19 hit, they could no longer continue their usual processes of traveling to partners’ regions to finalize deals. They knew it was time to find a digital, scalable solution.

With EasySend, Real Garant transformed their complex manual processes into custom digital journeys. The result? Their contract closing time of three to six months became only 1 - 2 weeks - over 800% faster than what they were used to. They also eliminated the need to travel to close a deal, creating a sustainable workflow that will scale as they grow. 

Nürnberger offered the flexibility their customers needed

Nürnberger is a German insurance company offering full coverage for customers' insurance, private health insurance, property insurance, accident insurance, and car insurance. Known for their exceptional customer support, they knew that they needed to anticipate their customer’s changing needs in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the need to adjust, pause, or cancel insurance plans due to financial distress.

Always innovative, Nürnberger chose to work with EasySend to launch a new digital customer journey in only six weeks, allowing customers to choose the best fit from a number of flexible options. They were able to stay true to their brand by continuing to put their customers first, helping to build customer trust and loyalty even further. Best of all, they set themselves up to be able to continue agilely digitizing data collection in the future as real-world needs call for it.

Meridio served all 50 states with one dynamic digital journey

Meridio offers supplemental benefit programs for full or part-time workers, including Accident Insurance, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity, Disability, and Life. The kicker? They do it in all 50 U.S. states, each of which has its own regulations. Previously, they used a whopping 66 manual processes to manage it all, requiring manual work on both the agent’s and customer’s sides, the use of complex PDFs, and agent knowledge of each state’s unique guidelines. Not exactly scalable. 

That's why Meridio turned to EasySend. Using the no-code platform, Meridio transformed 66 manual processes into one streamlined, dynamic digital journey that automatically finds the relevant information, insurance benefits, and regulatory forms for each state. This way, complex processes are automated and errors are eliminated. 

The future of digital data collection and its impact on the insurance industry

Data has always been at the core of the insurance industry, but the switch to digital data collection has lagged. Thankfully, a few factors have provided the kickstart the insurance industry needed to move forward more quickly toward a digital future. 

First, COVID-19 has ushered in a new wave of digitization out of necessity across all industries. As traditional as it may have been, the insurance sector was no exception. 

And perhaps even more importantly, simplified tools like EasySend have made it easy for insurance companies to create digital customer journeys without the need to invest in costly technology or hire developers. A no-code platform is fast, easy, and requires no coding skills, allowing insurance companies to make transformative changes in just a matter of months - or even weeks, as Nürnberger was able to do.

Today, it’s easy for insurance companies to leverage the power of digital data collection and move forward with the rest of the insurance industry as it embraces digitization and data. Indeed, the InsurTech industry - the intersection of insurance and technology - has now reached an all-time high of $15.4 billion in capital, money that is used to seek innovative ways to understand and leverage data.  

There are a number of industry shifts that you can expect as a result, from what we’ve discussed above (namely an improved, streamlined experience for customers and agents alike) to even more implications like more accurate pricing policies and better fraud prevention. 

With digital data collection, the insurance industry and the companies that comprise it now have an unprecedented ability to gather, store, process, and apply data with resulting benefits to services, organizations, customers, and the industry as a whole. With EasySend, your insurance company can be at the forefront of this shift.