As the nation begins to reopen businesses, including those in the insurance industry, preparations are underway for what’s considered as the new abnormal. To ensure they’re positioned for success in today’s recessionary economy, there are three ways insurers can prepare.
According to Karlyn Carnahan of Celent, the beginning of the pandemic required insurers to react quickly to the situation at hand. They began implementing work-from-home solutions for employees – assuring VPN access and providing all the equipment needed to keep normal operations running.Now, with the situation solidifying into a new normal, organizations are identifying their path forward. Through budget cuts and the reprioritization of projects, insurers continue to look for new ways to control expenses while still delivering the same products and services expected by their customers.
“COVID-19 posed a lot of challenges for insurers including budget modifications and the reprioritization of projects,” explained Michael Wilson, senior director of Marketing at Cognizant. “However, as insurers begin to re-emerge, there are three strategies they can implement to become more agile and resilient, better prepared for the next crisis, and also more communicative and better able to meet the needs of prospects and policyholders.”
To be robust and resilient, insurers must reevaluate traditional processes with one key focus in mind – modernization. Here are three ways insurers can prepare to thrive:
#1. Modernize Your Data
Now that the initial shock of COVID-19 has worn off, enterprise executives realize the massive amounts of data they have and the expense of storing it all. They also recognize when not used properly, data is more of a liability than an asset. This means that insurance companies must conduct data audits to determine what data is available, how and if it’s being accessed, and for what purpose. Data auditing also helps to pinpoint if a company’s data is, most importantly, providing valuable insights to improve decisions or customer experiences.
#2. Modernize How Your Employees Work
For the foreseeable future virtualizing work will be of continued importance as social distancing persists. Slow and outdated interfaces and systems will hinder employee productivity and collaboration and instead will be replaced with seamless, secure, and easily accessible platforms and connections to allow insurers to continue meeting customer expectations and keep workflows running smoothly.
#3. Modernize Your Customer Experience
Moving forward, enterprises must continue cross-channel communication to identify and engage with prospects and customers. Creating content has always been of the utmost importance but now, in a recessionary economy where the battle for business is intensifying, the key is to deliver content to the right audience at the right time, anywhere, via any platform.
Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic and the economic downturn, there’s the opportunity for insurance companies to make lasting, impactful, and positive changes. When organizations ensure that data translates into valuable insights, traditional and outdated methods of work are updated, and the customer experience is transformed insurers are best positioned not just to survive today’s recessionary economy but prosper for the long term.
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