WHITEPAPER

Why Your Insurance

Company Needs a
WhatsApp Strategy
How insurers can deliver amazing customer
experiences with social messaging
 2

Contents

INSURANCE CUSTOMER CARE

2 Introduction

4 The changing face of customer support

in insurance

5 Benefits of WhatsApp to insurance providers

7 Leading insurance company Axa gets personal

with customers on WhatsApp

8 Get started with Sparkcentral

9 Further Reading

Introduction
From natural disasters and political strife to a pandemic that
continues to disrupt our lives, the past few years have brought
near-constant reminders that life is unpredictable. In this climate,
it’s not surprising that insurance customers are reassessing the
policies that protect themselves, their families, and their assets.

Competition in the insurance space is heating up, with digital

“insurtechs” disrupting the space. Recent research found that
79% of insurers struggle to plan for areas where they can have
a competitive advantage1 and 45% believe rapidly evolving cus-
tomer needs and expectations will be the top challenge affecting
growth over the next three years.2
 3
With customer behavior changing faster than ever before, there is a
fundamental shift in how people buy from and interact with insurers.
Customers are seeking new ways to interact with their insurance
providers. They want to engage more frequently with their insurers

INSURANCE CUSTOMER CARE

via digital channels, with remote interactions outnumbering
in-person contacts.3

Social messaging presents a wonderful opportunity for insurers to meet

customers where they are—at the beginning of their customer journey
and during critical moments when they need their insurers most.

In this guide, we’ll cover the evolution of customer support in insurance

and map out the role WhatsApp and other social messaging apps play
in shaping great customer experiences.

79% of insurers are challenged to plan

for areas where they can have a
competitive advantage. 4

45% of insurers believe rapidly evolving

customer needs and expectations
will be the top challenge affecting
growth over the next three years.5
 The changing face
4

of customer support
in insurance

INSURANCE CUSTOMER CARE

When a customer contacts an insurance provider, it’s often during
or following a time of crisis, personal stress, or bereavement. The
last thing customers want at that time is a typical customer service
experience. Automated greetings, phone trees, and hold music only
serve to exacerbate situations that are already difficult.

Social messaging apps like WhatsApp provide an appealing alter-

native to the traditional experience. Convenient and conversational,
WhatsApp creates a win-win situation for insurance customers and
customer service or claims teams.

Customers can communicate and resolve problems in their own

time, on a familiar channel—and customer care or claims teams can
automate responses to common questions and free up valuable
time to deal with more complex issues or claims.

Example of an Insurance Customer Journey

They send photos They send their The next day, the
A customer submits or stream a video location so customer has a
a claim via social of the issue or the agent can routine question.
messaging. accident directly send roadside about the claim
to a claims agent. assistance. timeframe.

An automated response
The customer calls The customer
gives them the infor-
or messages a resolves their
mation they need right
week later and claim inquiry
away—and lets agents
their entire message and has a great
focus on helping
history is available experience from
customers with more
to the agent. start to finish.
complex needs.
Benefits of
5
1. It gives customers a way out
of the hold queue

WhatsApp Insurers can enhance the customer experience

with conversational interactive voice response

to insurance

INSURANCE CUSTOMER CARE

(IVR) that gives customers the option to switch
from phone service to messaging service. This

providers puts customers back in control, as they can

Digital channels like WhatsApp have surged in
popularity in recent years, completely transform-
ing the way people interact. With digital natives
expected to account for over 75% of the work-
force by 2030,6 the trend toward digital channels
will only grow.
Engaging with insurance customer via digital
channels like WhatsApp creates a better experi-
ence in several key ways.
message you on their terms.
For example, if a customer is calling about damage
to their property, they can multitask and switch
between dealing with their issue and communicat-
ing with their insurer seamlessly. This reduces their
stress immensely as they can pick up the conversa-
tion when it is convenient for them.
2. It enables efficient
round-the-clock service
Insurance issues don’t just crop up during working
hours. Insurers must provide round-the-clock sup-
port—and using automation alongside human agents
can be a highly effective way to accomplish this.

Four out of five customer service leaders say that

significant percentages of their team’s overall
ticket volume are tickets that are highly repetitive,
yet easy to resolve.7 These queries can be easily
addressed by chatbots, automation, and self-service
capabilities, freeing up human agents to deal with
more complex claims and issues.

84% 2.77B 64%

of insurance customers people use messaging of people prefer to
use digital channels on apps frequently message rather than
their customer journey call a business
eMarketer9

McKinsey & Co.8 Facebook for Business10

 6
3. It supports rich media to facilitate quick resolution
To deal with insurance claims effectively, customer care teams often
need more data, such as a document, a photo, or information about

INSURANCE CUSTOMER CARE

a location. For example, if you’re dealing with a customer who just
had an accident while travelling, you may need photos of the damage
to their belongings or person or copies of travel documents to process
a claim. If customers can get you the information you need quickly,
you can provide them with rich responses full of useful information
to help them solve their problems.

Messaging apps like WhatsApp support rich media content like

interactive voice, video, and images. This allows you to connect
with customers in more meaningful ways and gain valuable data
to improve important key performance indicators (KPIs) like first
contact resolution (FCR), average handle time (AHT), and cus-
tomer satisfaction (CSAT).

4. It creates a consistent customer experience

Like all digital channels, social messaging apps like WhatsApp gen-
erate lots of important customer data. By integrating this data with
other insurance data (for example, from a customer relationship
management (CRM) platform), you can gain a full picture of your
customer’s history and ensure a seamless experience for your cus-
tomers and your customer-facing employees.

Data should follow your customer, wherever they go. It’s vital that
every customer touchpoint is captured in a CRM and each represen-
tative has the data they need to communicate effectively.

By 2025, 25% of the insurance

industry will be automated.
McKinsey & Co.11
 7
“The continuous analysis of customer requirements
shows that people attach great importance to
simplicity, comfort and ease of use. A messaging

INSURANCE CUSTOMER CARE

feature was the logical next step alongside existing
communication channels in our customer journey.
This became apparent from explicit demand from
our customers.”
JEF VAN IN

CEO, AXA BELGIUM

Leading insurance
company Axa gets
personal with customers
on WhatsApp
AXA is a leading insurance company in Europe with a customer-first
culture. Based on feedback from its customers, AXA integrated
WhatsApp into its customer service engagement strategy to deliver
faster, more personalized service.

Today, AXA’s assistance provider, AXA Partners, also offers cus-

tomers the option of communicating via WhatsApp if they’re
involved in a car accident or need roadside assistance.

The first insurance company and roadside assistance provider in

Belgium to use WhatsApp for customer service, AXA now boasts
a customer satisfaction score of 4.5 / 5 for customers served on
the popular social messaging channel.

AXA uses Sparkcentral by Hootsuite to manage and secure its

WhatsApp communications with customers.
Get started with
8

Sparkcentral

INSURANCE CUSTOMER CARE

With Sparkcentral by Hootsuite, insurance providers can manage
incoming social media customer support queries through WhatsApp,
as well as through other messaging channels including Instagram,
Twitter, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat.

Sparkcentral’s automated message distribution can help you manage

messages received via your own digital channels like your website
or app. Use AI-powered chatbots to address simple support queries,
allowing live agents to step in when needed. The platform is easy to
integrate with existing ticket distribution functions in your customer
service contact center and with CRM systems like Zendesk, Microsoft
Dynamics, and Salesforce.

To see how you can deliver an exceptional customer service

experience on every digital channel, request a demo at
sparkcentral.com/demo

About Hootsuite
With over 200,000 paid accounts and millions of users, Hootsuite
powers social media for brands and organizations around the world,
from the smallest businesses to the largest enterprises. Hootsuite’s
unparalleled expertise in social selling, social customer care, and
social media management empowers organizations to strategically
grow their brand, businesses, and customer relationships with social.

To learn more, visit www.hootsuite.com

 9
Further Reading

GUIDE: Solve 4 Common Customer Care Challenges with

Social Messaging

Social Customer Care

CASE STUDIES: Social Care Superstars: 5 brands delivering
exceptional customer experiences with social messaging

BLOG: 4 Metrics to Track if You’re Using Social Messaging

for Customer Care

BLOG: Why Social Messaging is the Key to an Unbeatable

CSAT Score

Endnotes
1 Deloitte. 2021 Insurance Industry Outlook.

2 Deloitte. The four trends that define insurance in 2020.

3 McKinsey & Co. The multi-access (r)evolution in insurance sales.

4 Deloitte. 2021 Insurance Industry Outlook.

5 Deloitte. The four trends that define insurance in 2020.

6 Live Career. Millennials in the Workplace.

7 McKinsey & Co. The multi-access (r)evolution in insurance sales.

8 eMarketer. Global Mobile Messaging 2020.

9 Facebook for Business. 5 Reasons Travel Brands Should Focus on

Messaging. 2020.

10 Digital Genius. Survey Says: What Customer Service Leaders Say

About Their Jobs in 2018.

11  McKinsey & Co. The multi-access (r)evolution in insurance sales.