Communication is Key: Insurance Customer Journeys

Clear communication is the basis of any good relationship, both in romance and in business. If customers can’t make sense of a company’s message or feel ignored when they have a problem, they’ll dump the guilty party and rebound with a different product or service.

This is especially true in insurance. Whether for health, cars or something else, these policies are not always intuitive. Also, when customers are shopping for insurance or filing a claim, they tend to be stressed. To make matters more complicated, modern customers lack patience. They want answers delivered fast, regardless of channel, device or time of day.

Charisma on Command

To cozy up to the modern customer, you might be searching for a way to get more sophisticated with email campaigns or savvy with SMS. But this is a lot like apologizing half-heartedly to end an argument; it’s not enough. Chances are, what you really need is Journey Builder.

This Salesforce tool goes beyond email or SMS, allowing you to concoct step-by-step customer interactions, leading users to a desired outcome with little to no manual effort from your team. These journeys work across channels, adapting to the behaviors of each unique individual.

But baby, talk is cheap. Let’s show you what these journeys can do for insurance companies:

Prospecting & Enrollment

Consider a Medicare provider. For compliance reasons, this enterprise can only send marketing messages during a limited time of year. This means all competitors are advertising heavily at the same time – before and during open enrollment – targeting the same 65 and over age group.

Regardless of whether this provider is selling directly or through partners, having an enrollment sequence ready at the click of a button is imperative. Time is of the essence; internally, sales teams can’t be scrambling to come up with a strategy.

Potential leads on the cusp of turning 65 are being inundated with information. In the midst of this cacophony, the prepared enterprise can deliver a clear and targeted message. Emails scheduled ahead of time can educate individuals and encourage them to enroll. Based on whether any given prospect opens an email, they can receive a different second message by phone, SMS or even on social media.

Automating prospecting and enrollment means large volumes of leads can be generated and processed with little manual effort – a perfect fix for a hectic time.

Agent Onboarding

Let’s examine the case of an agency offering property and casualty underwriting. To stay ahead of competitors, the agency is constantly recruiting and training top sales agents.

Journey Builder can be used to guide new agents as they complete training. If an agent misses a step, the journey adapts to send reminders on that person’s preferred communication channel.

In this case, maintaining strong lines of communication internally is just as important as listening to customers. After all, happy sales agents bring in business. The agency sends congratulations right as members of the sales team achieve their first milestone. This type of timely touch makes employees feel valued and more likely to stay long-term.

Cross-Promotion

Most insurance companies likely already have existing lists of contacts. For instance, a renter’s insurance provider with a customer base on the West Coast. This enterprise recently added a separate earthquake insurance product.

Journey Builder allows the provider to target West Coast leads and customers that already have renter’s insurance or have expressed interest. This is as natural as continuing a conversation with a friend. Cross-promotion can happen over email and phone as well as Facebook or Instagram ads. Recipients can be led to a landing page with a quote calculator, for instance. This way, cross-promotion is both highly targeted and effortless.

Hyper-Personalized

Both carriers and agencies often end up gathering copious amounts of buyer personal data, from health data to credit scores to home addresses and driving records. This kind of information can be used to create detailed persona models for hyper-personalized marketing. This strategy is similar to the ways you adjust conversations in daily life; Grandma may not appreciate a Snapchat message, while your BFF cares whether you comment on her latest Instagram (even though it’s just another photo of her dog).

For example, an agency selling auto insurance can target a lead list using Facebook ads. Clicking on the ad leads users to a landing page designed to capture email. Next, individuals who share their email receive a message featuring a special promotion. Based on whether any given person opens this email, the next interaction might be a call with an agent or another special offer. The steps become increasingly personalized.

Of course, this is a simplified example. Some Accelerize360 clients have as many as 30 steps in a personalized customer journey.

Nurturing

An on-going nurture journey can be tied to content strategy. For example, an agency that sells homeowner’s insurance might partner with a university to offer an online course in financial literacy. This journey can start with targeted Instagram ads that lead to an email capture landing page. Once a new lead signs up, the agency will get increasingly more information about this person based on course attendance. In time, this trove of information and the goodwill established with helpful content, lead to a sale.

Nurturing journeys are a low-effort way to keep leads engaged even if they’re not ready to purchase right away. The objective is to always stay at the forefront of their minds (just like when you send cutesy texts throughout the day to someone you’re dating).

Find Your Own Voice

Just as clear communication is always helpful, these automated, cross-channel customer journeys work well across industries. But now that you’ve reviewed five must-have insurance journeys, you understand how this technology can help your specific business.

Now unleash your imagination! Design journeys based on your signature brand voice. Each interaction can harmonize with your internal sales and support structure, target audience and even time of year. Then, gather data to fine-tune these programs based on audience responses. Journey Builder helps you both listen carefully and speak convincingly.

If you’re intrigued by Journey Builder, read our blog about Marketing Cloud.