Taking a look back at the key insurance insights learned at BIBA ’24
Last month, myself and some of the IPI team were in the great city of Manchester, home to BIBA ’24 – Europe’s largest insurance broking exhibition.
The event was, as expected, a great opportunity to meet with old clients and new, as well as to connect with current partners and prospects. However, beyond that, it presented the opportunity for us to take the pulse of the marketplace and to understand the main drivers and concerns from those operating within the insurance and broker sector.
What became clear from our discussions is that the insurance market is still overwhelmingly concerned with how to drive efficiencies within their Contact Centre operations, how to remain compliant, and how to ensure their operations are secure.
These topics came up time and time again in our conversations and with good reason. A Contact Centre is a vital cog in the insurance process, acting as the primary point of contact for all clients and prospects. It processes and holds huge swathes of customer data and, operating within such a tightly regulated industry, is under the microscope continuously with how this data is secured.
Insurers and brokers are caught between the challenge of legacy infrastructure, which lacks flexibility and is difficult to integrate, and the need to embrace the AI-driven revolution which is currently transforming all aspects of customer contact, all whilst maintaining a focus on improving customer experience, keeping control on costs, and creating a positive and productive environment for those working in customer contact.
The advice we gave to the organisations we met at BIBA, and the advice we repeat now is – don’t let the scale of what needs to be achieved be a deterrent to change. It’s important to assess where your organisation is at the moment, and then look to put together a manageable targeted roadmap of enhancement to the Contact Centre. There is a whole myriad of new technology that is available, including chatbots, voicebots, automated agent assistance, automated post call work and AI-driven automated quality management, and it’s important to not get caught up in the noise of ‘AI’ but to think about what processes are most suitable for improvement. Ask yourself,
- Can you automate part or all of the process?
- Do agents need more support with this process?
- Is the process driving a lot of time-consuming work?
- Is the process giving the best and easiest customer experience?
- Could the process, as it stands, drive customers to leave?
Going through such a review could act as the catalyst needed to inspire a wider programme of change.
Over the 20 plus years we’ve been in business, we’ve worked with a whole host of organisations to help kick-start their business transformation programmes. From helping organisations move to the cloud, to building chatbots, from introducing speech and text analytics, to opening up omnichannel capabilities, we truly understand all the possibilities that technology can offer. We pride ourselves on working in partnership with our clients to deliver change at a pace that suits them and importantly helps them meet their desired goals. Sometimes all you need is the right partner to help guide you on your journey.
If we missed you at BIBA or you’d like to hear more about how we work with insurers to effect change, please get in touch here.
Isaac has been part of the IPI team for the past 8 years and specialises on working with our Insurance clients. Isaac consults with our Insurance contact centre clients to look for opportunities to enhance the customer experience, drive operational efficiencies and meet their business objectives. Isaac has worked on numerous deployments of contact centre technology projects in the Insurance space.
