The customer is king. Insurance and pension companies who want to stay ahead of the competition have to make this catchphrase their mantra in 2014 – even more so than ever before. e-Spirit, the experts in web content management, have compiled five tips for insurance providers to improve their web strategy in order to noticeably streamline processes, boost business success and crown their customers. According to a recent report by Gartner, customer experience management and consumer alignment, enterprise information management and distribution optimisation are some of the most challenging business trends insurers are currently facing. To prosper in 2014, insurers should keep these developments in mind when reviewing their online strategy and unifying their on- and offline marketing. These are the five pillars to improve outside image, employee satisfaction and performance:
1. Choose one central umbrella CMS for your online activities
Having one central Content Management System in place is key to providing consistent information for websites, extranets, intranets and marketing campaigns. By consolidating web processes and solutions, it is easier and faster for insurance customers and brokers alike to access and publish up-to date forms, contracts, terms and conditions. One central CMS also supports companies compliance-wise since it offers them versioning and archiving functions to be legally compliant. Additionally, companies have to spend less time and money on maintenance since they have to manage just one system. Thereby, content can be easily reused, edited and updated in one place.
2. Mobility and multichannel is key
As more customers and brokers use their mobile for private and professional purposes, it is essential to offer them the same information and ease-of-use for all devices. Insurance brokers are often visiting their customers at home to give advice, discuss contracts or examine damages. This is why extranets need to provide the same reliable and up-to-date information on every device – the laptop, mobile, tablet or office PC. Therefore website, extranet and intranet have to be optimised for mobile use. They have to offer consistent information and reusable, current content in multiple channels for different purposes, users or marketing campaigns.
3. Don’t forget to personalise
In our day and age, if you want to retain your customers, online and marketing content needs to be personalised and customised – no matter if you want to buy a pair of shoes or if you are looking for the best coverage for your car or house. The same is true for your employees. Offering tailored content in extranets and portals in one central hub ensures that insurance agents have access to all relevant information about clients, prospects, contracts, offers and forms that are necessary to offer excellent service.
4. Look out for performance and capacity
Websites and company platforms have to be dynamic in order to provide customised and personalised content, but this shouldn’t affect their performance. That’s why insurance companies have to find a high-performance CMS that is specialised to provide both: dynamic content and rapid loading times. Neither pure conventional dynamic websites nor static content management systems are able to handle the growing complexity of modern websites. What’s required is a smart approach that blends the flexibility to support dynamic content delivery with low resource utilisation and high performance and stability.
5. Pay attention to integration capabilities
For efficiency reasons, insurance companies should also choose a system that integrates with their Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Digital Asset Management (DAM), enterprise portals, special insurance solutions, analytics and any other best-of-breed systems. Integration is key in order to always be able to revert to current customer data and activities on the CRM system, to avoid silos and to optimise content as well as services directly where they are needed for analysis.
To stay ahead of the game, insurance companies and pension providers should update their web strategy and streamline online processes. One central CMS helps achieve this goal, saving money, optimising user friendliness and improving work processes. By developing personalised and more efficient online strategies insurance providers can for example allow brokers and agents to quickly and easily access individual customer accounts and contract information wherever they need them. Self-service functionalities are another useful tool: Here customers can find all the information on their individual insurance, they can report damage, see payment details or review old cases. Companies can use this tool to promote new services or products. A high-performance easy-to-use CMS as a central content integration platform is the best way to reduce administrative costs, automate many processes, optimise business success and engage the customers.
