How AI helps

insurance providers
grow revenue and
improve the customer
experience
Introduction
The past few years have undoubtedly had
profound effects on how businesses across
industries operate. Perhaps no one area has
been more impacted than contact centers,
which saw a 300% increase in call center
volume in the aftermath of the COVID-19
pandemic. This has had ripple effects on
everything from revenue growth to customer
experience.
These impacts to the contact center have
been acutely felt in the insurance industry,
where interactions between policyholders
and their insurers can be an emotionally
charged process, involving decisions that
affect the health and safety of policyholders’
families and biggest investments.
Compounding this is the fact that
opportunities for insurers to deliver value
through policyholder touch points are limited
to purchases, claims, and renewals.
With such a narrow window of opportunity to
connect with policyholders, the challenge for
insurance companies is multifold. They must
deliver valuable, consistent, and personalized
experiences to the customer. In order to do
this, they must also ensure that their agents
have the necessary tools at their disposal
to drive value to the customer and to the
business.
In this paper, we will explore key trends
impacting these challenges in the insurance
industry, critical strategies for success, and
why the future of contact center success is
inextricably linked with AI technology.
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Trends shaping the insurance industry
The four trends below continue to have tremendous impact on the
intersection of contact centers and generating value in the insurance
industry, and require a strategic and full response.

The contact center as a

high-velocity revenue generator
Macroeconomic and global forces mean that
growth and profitability are more top of mind
than ever for businesses. As we addressed
above, the contact center is uniquely
positioned to be a driver of revenue in a role it
has not previously occupied quite so fully.
According to HubSpot research, 68%
of cross-selling professionals offer
discounts and promotions, and another
66% recommend related or complementary
products and services.
Similarly, upselling is a key strategy for
delivering premium packages and product
options to customers. Without a key
understanding of not only the products,
policies, and options on offer but also
customers’ needs and goals, agents will be
unable to deliver a customer experience that
will convert and drive value.
As contact centers look to diversify the ways
that they deliver revenue, empowering agents
with the information they need to effectively
and efficiently upsell and cross-sell is critical.

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 Lack of customer trust

When people pay for insurance, they’re

paying for peace of mind — everyone sleeps
easier knowing they’ll be supported if their
car is damaged in a fender-bender, or a storm
damages their home. But despite the role
insurance plays in quelling daily anxieties, it
isn’t known as an especially customer-centric
industry.
Those who say
In fact, most people don’t totally trust ‘sentiment analysis
their insurance providers, and there aren’t is important’
typically frequent opportunities to change
that. While customers purchase directly
from their insurance providers throughout
the calendar year, purchases, claims and
renewals remain the three times that insurers
consistently speak with policyholders. This
leaves very little opportunity to change
negative perceptions of the industry in any
meaningful way.

This lack of trust is also compounded by the
vastly different perspective that insurance
providers have on the same topic. While
nearly 42% of policyholders say they don’t
fully trust their insurer, 62% of insurers
believe their customer service is above
average. Similarly, insurers seem unaware of
policyholders’ priorities during interactions.
While 64% of consumers say sentiment
analysis is important; just 44% of insurers
say the same. 68% of customers are looking
for empathy from Customer Service staff
- but how can leaders ensure that empathy
is a consistent part of their contact center
playbook?
Such a disparity between customer
expectations and customer experience
leaves this an area that is ripe for
improvement. And with recent research
showing that American businesses lose over 42% of policyholders
$62 billion in revenue due to poor customer say they don’t fully
service, the ability to deliver value to the trust their insurer
customer and the business’ top line are
inextricably linked.
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 Investment in infrastructure
and technology
Consumers have high expectations of
having a fast and efficient, yet also deeply
personalized, customer experience. Recent
research shows that 60% of customers
are in favor of applying AI to customer
service because of its ability to quickly
resolve concerns and issues, and a further
69% anticipate that businesses will be
implementing and accelerating digital
initiatives.
The transition to digital over the last decade
has reshaped the way that work is done
across industries, leading to an explosion
in digital solutions and platforms that are
custom-built to different use cases across
60% of customers an organization. However, prioritizing
are in favor of consumer-facing technology at the expense
applying AI to of technology that engages and empowers
customer service employees is a common pitfall.
Insurers know that there is room for
improvement - 85% have plans to deploy
initiatives to improve the experience of
not only customers, but also of employees.
Innovation and a willingness to experiment
here will only further allow insurers to
become more customer-centric.
A willingness to innovate and invest
in digital platforms will not only allow
insurers to proactively anticipate and fulfill
customer expectations, but also to drive
profitable growth.
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 Surging need for staffing
Recent research shows that 68% of insurance
companies are planning to increase staff
during the next 12 months due to an expected
increase in business volume. One recent
study showed that Average Handle Time
(AHT) alone has increased for 55% of
companies. This is not surprising as routine
inquiries or easy-to-resolve issues are more
frequently handled via self-service channels -
leaving the more complex issues to the agent
to address.
Average Handle Time
(AHT) has increased for
55% of companies
It’s never been more challenging to be a
contact center representative. And these
challenges lead to high levels of attrition, with
the insurance industry facing annual turnover
rates climbing as high as 30-45%.
Insurers are often so focused on retaining
policyholders that they may forget to
prioritize retaining their representatives.
As volume spikes, insurers risk finding
themselves without enough representatives
who are adequately trained to both navigate
different scenarios and deliver winning
customer experiences in the process.
Hiring, maintaining, and engaging employees
has never been harder - or had bigger
implications for the bottom line.
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Strategies to address
the unexpected

Enhance value and increase profit

through proven playbooks
A Fortune 500 Insurer used
If reps lack confidence, take too long to

7%
find relevant information for personalized Cresta’s Agent Assist and
policies, or can’t provide needed answers, Insights capabilities to
it could seriously damage the policyholder’s
perception of the brand. New representatives increase revenue revenue increase
often lack the skill and confidence of their via direct mail
veteran counterparts; even experienced In the first nine months of deploying Cresta, a
employees need updated training as policy Fortune 500 insurer has used Cresta’s Insights
offerings evolve. capabilities to drive significant value, including a
bump in premiums revenue and a 7% increase in
To break out of this negative feedback loop, revenue via direct mail.
insurers need a solution that can:

• Help agents ramp up on the key

behaviors that drive value faster
and more consistently
• Leverage that playbook in real time to
provide in-the-moment guidance to agents
during engagements with policyholders
“ Cresta is really giving us a window into how
we can improve as a sales organization, and
is significantly driving our time to sales”
-  Head of Sales

• Reinforce positive behaviors to ensure new

and existing reps adhere to best practices

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Monitor quality and compliance
Claims and purchases of new or additional
coverage (outside of health insurance)
may come at any point, and they’re
overwhelmingly likely to come by way of the
contact center. Further, a recent report from
the Insurance Labor Market Study indicates
that claims activity is anticipated to surge
after declines in both 2020 and 2021.
Because policyholder touchpoints are so
few, insurance providers are understandably
rigorous about QA and compliance. After all,
compliance infractions can translate to big
costs, and consumers expect more from
brands than ever before where experience is
concerned — even, or maybe especially, from
their insurance providers.
But all that rigor may have unintended
consequences. When performance scrutiny
and compliance requirements aren’t
paired with any positive reinforcement,
representatives get burned out, and they’re
more likely to leave.
Rather than monitoring and scoring
conversations after the fact, and oftentimes
for only a fraction of all calls, insurers can
empower agents to perform better without
making them feel scrutinized through
support like:
• Real-time hints, step-by-step guidance
and compliance notifications Claims activity is
anticipated to surge
• Progress monitoring and customized
and automated QA scorecards
after declines in
both 2020 and 2021
• Live digital manager assistance,
comments and feedback to make
coaching constructive
The right solution helps strike a happy
balance of focusing on positive engagement
for the customer and employee experience,
creating performance visibility in a way that
feels supportive rather than oppressive.feels
supportive rather than oppressive.

Hiring and training new talent is a costly

endeavor. Until reps are ramped up, insurance
providers are vulnerable to the same
compliance concerns and quality missteps
they’d hoped to avoid in the first place.

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Real-time intelligence

Defining a CX strategy in insurance requires

some adaptability, but real-time intelligence
makes it easier to weather any storms and With the power of real-time intelligence, Cresta customers have seen:
ensure all of the (precious few) interactions
between providers and policyholders are
brand-building and loyalty-boosting.

During this particularly busy period for

the insurance industry when certain CX
concessions may feel inevitable, remember 2 week reduction 20% increase 60% increase 5x increase
that it’s not only possible to enhance value
for policyholders, boost profit, and provide
in ramp time in CSAT in conversions in adherence
personalized experiences — it’s also possible
to do it in real time.

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Building trust and loyalty
through personalization
Only about 40% of policyholders say they
trust their insurance providers; at the
same time, 80% of policyholders want a
personalized experience from their provider.
The actionable takeaway is clear: build
trust through personalization. But with
policyholders already wary of insurers, is
there any way to ensure a personalized
experience isn’t interpreted as a pitch? And in
an industry where policy and product details
are constantly updated, how can reps provide
up-to-date information on every conversation
without constant retraining?
80% of
policyholders want
a personalized
experience from
their provider.
Intentional value building for each
policyholder is well within the realm of
possibility when representatives have
support from:
• Knowledge assist to help right-size policies
with up-to-date, localized information
• Live assist for real-time answers
and approvals from supervisors
• Real-time hints and checklists designed
to uncover each policyholder’s unique
needs while keeping compliant
• Behavioral coaching to detect
(and help reps overcome) critical
sentiments like frustration
A more personalized experience and policy
mix not only boosts profits in the immediate
sense, but it also creates a more loyal long-
term base by satisfying the desire and
expectation for personalization. Plus, when
reps have the tools they need to perform well,
they’re more deeply engaged and more likely
to stay in their roles.
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What the future holds
Newton’s Third Law of Motion tells us that for
every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction. Insurers may feel this manifests
when they attempt to address barriers
to better customer experience — their
actions are met with new, equally daunting
challenges that spring up reactively, and
often unexpectedly.
This, in turn, creates a forced trade-off where
insurance providers must prioritize certain
aspects of experience over others, inevitably
compromising somewhere. But it doesn’t
have to be that way.
Though the challenges facing the insurance
industry are more dynamic than they’ve been
before, they are still familiar ones. Adopting
digital solutions provides a new, more adept
way of not only overcoming them quickly, but
of turning them into powerful engines for
business growth.
Real-time intelligence solutions like Cresta
support teams with features specifically
designed to equip all employees with the
information and guidance they need to
deliver exceptional customer experiences
and impact the bottom line. Insurance gives
policyholders peace of mind every day.
Cresta gives insurance leaders peace of mind
through every conversation.
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To learn more about how Cresta supports
insurance contact centers, get in touch.