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The insurance industry is no laughing matter. Millions of people use everything from borrowing against life insurance when securing a home to getting car insurance for their newly licensed teenager. To give you an example, MetLife is one of the largest insurers and grossed over $40 billion in 2022.
When you think about it, everyone interacts with an insurance company in their lifetime. If you want to get your headache checked out, you can use health insurance at your local clinic. If you purchase a trip to Bali, you consider travel insurance in case of disaster.
With so much demand, having an integrated and informative insurance chatbot as part of your system only makes sense. If you want to grow engagement with existing customers and smooth out lead generations and your agency’s marketability, using chatbot technology is a surefire way to boost interactions.
Let’s look closer at how insurance chatbots work and the best ways to maximize your operations with their benefits.
How AI is transforming the insurance industry
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing every sector, and the insurance industry is no different. While some might equate AI to new video games or generated weird pictures of fantasy worlds, the reality is AI is everywhere.
You’ll find AI being leveraged in the insurance industry by streamlining mundane and repetitive tasks. Instead of wasting hours running numbers or developing new marketing materials, AI provides a real-time solution so you can focus on developing your insurance network of leads.
AI allows insurance providers to scan through massive amounts of data and find the best ways to serve customers with the precision products they need for a happier, healthier life. That changes the industry by offering more personalization aligned with current customer needs – resulting in greater customer satisfaction and experiences.
What is an insurance chatbot?
On its own, a chatbot provides a repository of information that is called up whenever a customer interacts with the software. It is a “call and response” system that enables customers to get the information required.
For example, if a customer wants to know if their premiums will go up due to a recent car accident outside of their control, the chatbot can run the numbers on their account against current actuary tables and present an estimation and CTA (call to action) to contact a local agent for additional details.
An insurance chatbot uses this technology, like a virtual assistant. Where some industries may rely on an FAQ chatbot or customer inquiries, this system offers far more personalization and 24/7 communication solutions.
The parameters of the chatbot for insurance your agency uses are highly dependent on the target audience you serve, stakeholders involved in your brand, and personal goals for sales, retention, and payouts.
Benefits of using an insurance chatbot
Again, the specific benefits your agency will receive vary based on the conversational AI you choose to integrate into your systems. Always be on the lookout for tools that work with your legacy systems. They should be easy to use and simple enough for your team or individual agency to add to your website, social media, or other customer interaction platform.
Some of the primary benefits you’ll receive with quality insurance chatbots include the following.
Cost efficiency
Well-run insurance chatbots save you time and money by automating many of the back-end office tasks you have to complete. Instead of dedicating a large phone bank of receptionists to your team, you can have a single insurance chatbot to complete the work instead.
That saves you on labor ROI as you can direct your team to more crucial business needs like developing leads, new products, or improving marketing.
Compare our pricing plan, which is suitable for all sizes of insurance businesses. You can also start a free 14-day trial to see how our tool fits your agency's needs.
Scalability
You never know when your agency will bring in a large number of new clients. Maybe a natural disaster occurs, and suddenly, your team has a call for additional home insurance. Or there is a string of car thefts happening, and people want more comprehensive auto insurance.
When these events happen, you want an automated system that quickly scales to the needs of your customers and team members.
Consistency
Consistency and accuracy are crucial to your insurance business. If the word gets out that you offer one customer a fantastic deal but not another, you could face backlash that harms your bottom line.
The same is true if you have inaccurate coverage or terms that can then lead to a legal situation due to misled clients. Integrating AI-driven insurance chatbots that rely on verified information saves you many headaches down the road.
Increases engagement
From proactively reaching out to potential leads to ensuring all questions are answered, an insurance chatbot streamlines communication. That gives customers the responses they need to make a quality decision.
Moreover, modern chatbots for insurance are personalized. They can respond to customers' needs based on demographics and interaction histories, allowing for a highly engaging customer experience too.
Collects data
Any experienced insurance agent knows relevant data is the lifeblood of this industry. You want the latest insights into how your customers think, the effectiveness of any products, and how you can better serve needs to onboard more leads.
Having an insurance chatbot that collects data allows for greater analysis of your business so you can proactively grow into the future.
Automates tasks
A lot of processes in running an insurance agency involve keeping on top of regular, mundane tasks. This can be everything from easy claims processing and claim validation to a more complex settlement process.
You can hire many support agents to complete these tasks or allow insurance chatbots to improve your operational efficiency. That way, when your partner asks to take a night off for dinner, you aren’t stuck at the office crunching numbers.
Unifies customer interactions
Odds are, you have a lot of customer touchpoints online. The marketing side of running an insurance agency alone probably involves social media, review websites, email campaigns, your website, and others.
So many platforms can quickly get confusing to operate without a centralized location to unify customer touchpoints. That is where AI-powered insurance chatbots can make all the difference.
Learn how to use chatbots for lead qualification.
24/7 client support
Customers need insurance at all hours of the day and night. Basic inquiries like needing an ER visit around midnight still require filling out paperwork and confirming information with a human agent at your agency.
Then there are the customer questions. You never know when a prospective lead will want answers, and you cannot be expected to answer customer questions or be on the phone 24 hours a day. However, insurance chatbots can run 24/7 without needing a break, acting as your primary customer interaction in your stead.
If you do your homework ahead of time and test out a few options, you should experience a blend of these benefits. The goal is to find the best combination that streamlines your operations and gives you the most satisfaction for generating leads and keeping clients happy.
Oh, and don't forget to try our lead generation template.
Ten insurance chatbot use cases
How you use your chatbot has much to do with your final integration decision. What works for a health insurance provider in a small region drastically differs from a life insurance agent in a major city.
Here are some of the more common use cases of chatbots for insurance you are bound to find as you shop around.
Selecting insurance plans
Your customers will have questions about which plan is better for them. A simplified insurance chatbot can outline what benefits they’ll receive based on their demographics or specific needs.
Simplifying plans
Some plans can be overly complex and challenging to explain. A chatbot simplifies this language into modern and easy-to-understand terms that more leads will appreciate when making a selection.
Claims processing
Claims processing takes a lot of time to complete. There are detailed forms and considerations going into every situation that can be streamlined through insurance chatbots. This generates a report you can then use to make a final decision.
Offline form templates can make claim filing easier for customers, improving claims processes at your agency. You can create different contact forms that match claim status, reducing the number of phone calls you get about an insurance policy.
Policy details
Customers may not want to read through fifty pages of complicated insurance policies. With a well-trained insurance chatbot, you can group policy details so customers can be directed to the specific information needed, putting them in control.
Qualifying applications
Not everyone is allowed to onboard to every insurance company. Different agencies have varying requirements that need to be “weeded out,” and a chatbot for insurance can automate this process so you only work with “hot” leads.
Insurance payments
Your clients will have questions about how they are paid, where that payment will come from, and how soon they will receive payment. A chatbot empowers your agency to answer those questions, even prompting them for banking details in some cases.
Customer feedback
Want to grow your agency to meet today’s changing consumer? Gather feedback about your customer interactions, experience, and insurance products. Then, you can make the appropriate changes necessary to grow and improve operations.
Advertising and promotion
You cannot effectively grow your insurance agency without advertising efforts across multiple channels. You may have a seasonal promotion to garner more leads or have a referral program for friends and family. An insurance chatbot can offer these up-sales and cross-selling opportunities without being too aggressive.
Fraud prevention
Insurance fraud is a severe concern, costing the industry billions in lost revenue. With an integrated chatbot, you can automate the detection of certain trained red flags that may result in fewer instances of fraud.
Payment collection
Monthly, quarterly, and annual insurance premium payments are how you earn revenue for your business. Having a way to streamline that collection ensures you have the capital to payout if a claim is successfully submitted.
How you use insurance chatbot technology will affect your business. Even something as minor as a chatbot for scheduling consultations and bookings with your team can save you a lot of time, money, and stress as you grow. This allows you to propel your agency into the leading local provider, so whenever someone considers insurance for themselves, their family, or business needs – your agency is the top choice.
How do insurance chatbots work?
In most cases, a chatbot for insurance falls into one of two categories – either an AI-based chatbot using machine learning (ML) or a rule-based chatbot that relies on a database of information.
In the insurance sector, a rule-based chatbot will use a pre-defined database to answer questions, streamline payments, or make determinations of insurance policies and what applications are verifiable. The goal is to base decisions and responses to customer inquiries solely on the provided information you are working with that you know is accurate and current.
With an AI-based insurance chatbot, you have more wiggle room. You may start with a database of information. Still, over time, this technology will use ML and natural language processing (NLP) to respond to inquiries in as much of a human tone as possible. This is also a massive benefit if you run an insurance agency in a multi-lingual area like Southern California, where knowing Mandarin, Spanish, and English is crucial to your success.
In either case, the goal is to respond to customer needs and complex issues as quickly, accurately, and effectively as possible.
Examples of insurance chatbots
There are as many examples of chatbots in insurance as there are grains of sand. This technology is rapidly evolving to the needs of agents, consumers, and stakeholders so quickly that it is next to impossible to list all the various ways it is being used.
However, you can find active examples of rule-based chatbots all around you. For instance, Zurich Insurance relies on a Claims Bot to help process home insurance claims. Customers are driven through a series of questions to narrow down their needs so the agent can respond to claims quicker than expected. This would be a rule-based insurance chatbot.
Another form of chatbot for insurance companies includes Aviva. This company uses a chatbot as part of the FAQ section on their website. Whenever a customer has a question not shown on that page, they can click on a banner ad to get real-time customer support, using AI-powered insurance chatbots.
The point is that users love chatbots because they can get the immediate response. There is no waiting on a long phone call or listening to boring hold music while they write down a long list of questions that may or may not be answered.
Instead, everything is formatted efficiently so they can get the answers they want regardless of your agency's “open hours.” You’ll have a simplified “hub” of operations that streamlines your overall operations and scales with your growth projections.
Building an insurance chatbot with ChatBot
One of the better options for building a unique and tailored customer engagement solution for your insurance agency is selecting ChatBot as your option. This comprehensive technology uses quick and accurate AI-generated answers so all your customer questions are resolved.
With ChatBot, you get 24/7 support and can pass on that same benefit to your clients. There is no dependence on third-party providers like OpenAI, Google Bard, or Bing AI. Everything is stored and processed on the ChatBot platform, increasing your data security and giving your stakeholders peace of mind.
Best of all, you can build your chatbot according to your unique needs. You don’t need to hire a high-powered software engineer or data analyst to onboard ChatBot’s fantastic technology. This is a visual builder that uses an easy-to-understand dashboard where all your information is kept.
Through the visual builder, you get a drag-and-drop solution that doesn’t require knowing any code (sometimes called a no-code/low-code solution). That allows you to personalize communication, design more natural conversations, automatically collect user information, and clear up misunderstandings from multiple flows at the same time.
You can start using ChatBot in your insurance agency with a free 14-day trial. That will allow you to build a simple version of your desired outcome to test how it works with your agency’s team, stakeholders, and current clients. Then, gather feedback before you sign up so you can adjust as needed.
Wrapping up
Staying competitive in today’s insurance landscape is no easy task. New agencies will always knock on your target client’s front door. You need to stand out among the crowd and ensure the customer’s experience generates positive word-of-mouth marketing and higher retention rates.
Integrating a powerful and easy-to-build insurance chatbot is a surefire way to streamline your operations. Not only are you embracing new technology for competition, but you are finding a way to assist your team with the mundane tasks that take them away from building lucrative, long-term client relationships.
Start with ChatBot’s visual builder and bring the power of chatbots for insurance to your agency today!
