In order to better serve their customers, more insurance companies may want to consider adopting a unified communication and collaboration as a service (UCCaaS) solution.

All client-facing businesses, including insurance companies must strive to meet the ever-shifting needs and desires of their customers. Although insurers are not always considered on the same plane as retailers or food service providers when it comes to customer retention needs, insurance firms need to place just as much of an onus on this element as does any other consumer-centric business in order to reduce churn and ensure continued success.

To reach this goal, insurers have a number of tools and strategies at their disposal. However, the most powerful solution available can often be the one most commonly overlooked by these firms: unified communications. While altering internal policies and training can be useful, often organizations realize the biggest customer service gains via technology upgrades, according to a recent report from insurance industry analysts Strategy Meets Action.

“Many insurers are making improved customer experiences a centerpiece of their strategy, and are discovering that innovation plays a key role in their transformation to a customer-centric enterprise,” SMA Partner Mark Breading wrote. “Creating exceptional customer experiences begins by capitalizing on every interaction with prospects and policyholders to learn and understand more about their needs and behaviors.”

Why UC boosts customer satisfaction
Insurers in the past had to deal with two central portals when communicating with customers: mail and telephone lines. With only two sources of information, consolidating all customer service efforts was a relatively easy task. However, as the number of communication channels expands to include formats like email, instant messaging and social media, keeping track of all incoming and outgoing interactions becomes far more difficult, Canadian Underwriter noted.

In order to provide a quality unified customer experience, insurers need a way to handle this influx of information in a coherent manner. After all, consumers may use multiple channels to get in touch with an insurer, and the organization should have a system like UCCaaS in place that can effectively synthesize all of these messages and provide a coherent and consistent customer experience at all times, the news source reported.

“When communications are viewed from a customer’s vantage point, it has become apparent that insurers need a strategy to unify their communications so that they are recognizable as being from one company with a consistent brand, and with information that is available and updated real-time,” Breading wrote, according to Canadian Underwriter.

While insurers may be able to immediately recognize the customer service benefits that can be realized from UCCaaS, integrating such a system with the contact centre solution already in place can prove to be an immense chore. Insurance providers looking to have a high quality UCCaaS solution should turn to FlexITy. Not only is FlexITy one of the largest IT consulting services firms in Canada, but FlexITy is also the only company in the country that offers the full suite of Cisco unified communication and collaboration solutions across a variety of cloud and on-premise delivery models.

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