In any industry, customer service is important. But for the insurance industry, it can be a particularly important part of doing business. There are always large numbers of competitors in the marketplace for any insurer which, combined with the similarity of services offered, makes it very difficult for customers to differentiate between providers. The quality of customer service is, alongside price, the most important factor in many customers’ decisions of who to choose as their insurer.

To provide an outstanding customer experience, insurers should always aim to adapt and grow their services in response to both customer needs and technological changes. Chatbots are one way that they can do both of these things quickly, cost-effectively, and reliably.

In this post, we look at the different ways chatbots – and specifically AI-enabled chatbots – can help insurers to optimize the customer experience.

What are chatbots for insurance?

All chatbots are computer programs designed to converse and interact with human users, usually in a text-based format. The capabilities of chatbots can vary massively depending on their intended use and the sophistication of their design but, at a basic level, they provide fixed responses to specific commands or questions. Insurance chatbots are simply any chatbots that have been designed to support the operations of an insurance company in some way, usually in a customer support capacity.

However, basic chatbots are limited in their usefulness for many companies by the fact they can only respond to a small, pre-programmed list of inputs. Fortunately, a new generation of AI-enabled chatbots is now available to overcome these limitations.

AI chatbots can be used in a far greater range of applications, often using machine learning and advanced algorithms to provide personalized services. This makes them more adaptable and capable of further enhancing the customer experience.

How are AI insurance chatbots optimizing the customer experience?

Rapid issue resolution and claims handling

In the past, customers with queries or issues needed to directly contact a customer support agent, usually via a call center or in-person at an office. This method of support is inefficient for both the customer and for the business. For customers, the wait times can be long, with every person needing one-on-one support, often leading to frustration and disillusionment with the provider. For the company, it means staffing and running expensive call centers and constantly balancing support capacity with expenditure.

To overcome these challenges, customer support chatbots can be used by insurers, offering customers an alternative and faster line of communication with their providers. Chatbots are often able to resolve simple queries and issues in seconds, and if not then they can automatically escalate to a customer support agent.

Reduced pressure on support agents

Specialized AI chatbots can effectively reduce the workloads on support agents, especially at times of high demand that could otherwise overwhelm them. While this is clearly a benefit to insurers and their employees, it also benefits the customers themselves. When less pressured by incoming demand, agents can focus their attention on the customers that really require support, improving the customer experience for them.

The reduced pressure on support teams can also translate to a lower overall spend on customer service, freeing up resources to improve other services and enhance the customer experience in other ways that may have otherwise been neglected.

Greater accessibility

Another significant benefit of AI chatbots for insurance is their improved accessibility for customers. To contact support agents, customers would usually need to either telephone a call center, write to a company, or go to an office in person. These are all time-consuming and can be impractical for customers leading busy lives. Additionally, these support channels are generally only available during business hours, failing to reflect the unpredictable reality of support demand from customers.

Chatbots are intrinsically more accessible, helping customers to access the support they need whenever they need it. Firstly, they are contactable 24 hours per day, every day of the year, so customers can always open a line of communication with their provider. Additionally, AI chatbots can include multi-language support, functionality across several channels like SMS, email, and via browsers, along with various other innovative accessibility enhancing features.

Targeted support and promotions

AI chatbots are intrinsically adaptable, learning how to tailor their language and support style to individual insurers and their customers. One way that this can manifest as a benefit to customers is through more targeted support, for example by drawing from data on previous interactions to reduce resolution times and offer more relevant solutions to individuals. Additionally, AI chatbots can offer targeted promotions to specific customers, making promotions more relevant to each person and keeping people engaged with the services.

Scalable support

Chatbots are not affected by demand surges and customer volume in the same way as human support agents, making them ideally suited to insurance companies looking to scale or experiencing a high volume of support requests.

For example, one customer support agent can only realistically deal with one customer at a time. Chatbots can effectively take care of thousands of support tickets simultaneously without a drop in response times or quality of service. Whatever the trajectory of your business, chatbots mean you’ll never have to worry about being able to offer customers timely, personalized, and reliable support at all times.

Why choose Skil.AI chatbots?

At Skil.AI, we create customized AI chatbots for insurance that provide rapid and tangible upgrades to insurer’s customer service capabilities. We create our chatbot platforms using the latest in advanced AI and machine learning technology to provide insurers with an automated, responsive, and personalized support channel that can simultaneously benefit you and your customers.

Built with accessibility as a key priority, our insurance chatbots can include multi-language support, and omni-channel functionality including support for email, WhatsApp, SMS, in-browser communication, and more, so your customers can always access the support they need.

Talk to our insurance specialists today to learn how Skil.AI chatbots can revolutionize the way you interact with customers and upgrade your customer service strategy with instant results.

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