3 ways to take control of your policyholder experience during climate change

As weather-related events become the norm and impact a greater percent of the population, insurers need to optimize their responses and revolutionize their CX.

More severe and frequent natural disasters are destroying homes and businesses. In just the first half of 2021 alone, natural disasters hit a 10-year record high in insured losses of $42 billion, according to an AON report. McKinsey estimates that the value of climate-induced hazards could increase, from about two percent of global GDP to more than four percent of global GDP by 2050.

Amid the climate-related losses upheaval, the one area insurers should not fall short in is their policyholder experience. Natural disasters and the resulting onslaught of service calls, paired with the regular volume of service calls insurers receive during a typical day, put extra pressure on insurers—most notably their contact centers, making it difficult to provide an efficient and empathetic experience during these times.

There are turnkey tools available that can be seamlessly implemented into processes and enable insurers to manage the overwhelming volume of calls and surprise policyholders with an experience that’s both convenient and pleasant.

Here are the three main keys to revolutionizing your contact center and ensuring a great experience during the most critical times for your policyholders.

1 . Empower your agents to address inquiries faster and smarter.

Natural disasters are inherently stressful; that stress is compounded when policyholders encounter lengthy wait times and under-prepared agents when trying to receive help.  With limited knowledge and time to address the situation, the best agents take control of the situation and are assertive: providing empathy while also guiding policyholders. However, most agents typically struggle in tense situations.

Insurers must empower their agents with artificial intelligence (AI) tools to prompt the best response based on the scenario. An AI-powered knowledge base can help agents to find the right information in less time.

2. Streamline service requests leveraging automated service bots.

While natural disasters upend people’s lives and put immense pressure on contact centers, it doesn’t mean that life elsewhere stops. During critical situations like a tornado, hurricane, or even wildfire, insurers find themselves prioritizing these emergencies but that often leads to dropping service for non-climate change related inquiries such as first notice of loss claims, life claims, or even billing questions.

Dropping service can be detrimental to the insurer; by leveraging AI-powered bots, insurers can continue to manage non-critical queries without ever requiring a live agent. In the event that a call becomes too complex for a bot, that call can be elevated to a live agent when needed.

3. Rapidly redesign your policyholder journeys.

As insurers standardize their responses to more frequent natural disasters, they also need the ability to adapt their policyholder journeys depending on the scenario. Climate change will not wait for a legacy system or process to backlog a change in IT demand management.

Insurers should adopt new models, evaluating low-code/no-code tools that will alleviate pressure on their IT staff. By shifting call flow and IVR change management from  IT resources to business users (such as call center supervisors, sales leads, or marketing leads), insurers can operate with greater agility to respond quickly to rapidly evolving business needs during the course of a natural disaster.

The insurance industry is at an inflection point and delivering fast, convenient, and smooth policyholder experiences is pivotal to reduce churn and keep policyholder loyalty. Talkdesk helps insurers take control of their policyholder journeys with an end-to-end cloud contact center solution.

Learn how the world’s leading insurers are addressing their policyholder journeys with our new white paper and see how Root Insurance uses Talkdesk to transform the experience they provide.