The insurance industry has always been one of the most demanding sectors of all. With the rapid transformation in the digital landscape, the challenges in the sector have grown leaps and bounds.
Be it constant attacks by hackers and cybersecurity risks, changing customer expectations, and the way customers want to pay their premiums and avail customer service, insurers now need to leverage advanced digital technology more than ever before.
This blog post outlines some challenges insurance companies and insurance contact centers face on a daily basis and how they can overcome the challenges by leveraging the right tools and contact center software. Read on and thank us later.
Common Challenges Faced by Insurance Contact Centers
The challenges faced by the insurance sector and insurance contact centers are quite different and unique to some extent compared to other industries. In the last few years, some new types of challenges have emerged due to several factors. Here are the common challenges and their solutions.
1. High Call Volume
Would you be surprised to know that insurance companies receive a lot of calls? Be it a Monday or a Friday, insurance companies receive huge call volumes every working day. Ask any call center representative who handles communication for an insurance company, you will understand the huge volume of incoming calls they receive day-in, day-out.
Even if most customers prefer other communication channels, a large number of customers still prefer the good old phone calls to contact their insurers directly. As per a survey, as many as 47 percent of customers will pick up the phone to speak with a representative.
When insurance companies and insurance contact centers leverage sophisticated call center software, they are easily able to handle all incoming calls in a highly effective manner. It’s not at all surprising to know that insurance companies that handpick the right contact center software don’t have to worry about the huge volley of calls they receive every single day.
2. High On-Hold Time
A recent stat found that the average time callers wait on hold when calling insurance providers is three minutes and 24 seconds. That’s quite high. But if you go to open forums on the internet such as Reddit or Quora, you can easily find many stories of insurance customers who have had to wait for hours to get connected to a customer support representative. For instance, a post by a Reddit user that ranted about his wife being put on hold for more than four hours trying to get through her insurance firm.
Even though the average on-hold time in the insurance industry paints the picture of inconvenience of just a few minutes, the reality is quite shocking! Insurance providers must take that into consideration and do everything possible to reduce the on-hold time of customers.
Leveraging advanced contact center software can be extremely beneficial for insurance companies and insurance contact centers that struggle with high on-hold time. Sophisticated contact center software comes equipped with real-time analytics and reporting tools that calculate average hold times time of day and day of week.
3. Outdated Legacy Systems
A study conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers has found that on average, around 70% of an insurer’s IT budget goes on maintaining their legacy system. Another global survey found outdated legacy systems is the number one threat for insurance companies.
Many insurance contact centers still rely on outdated legacy systems that are not compatible with newer technologies. As the survey rightly pointed out “for years (even for decades), many insurance companies have been squeezing the life out of their legacy systems so as to bypass the high replacement costs.”
While cost saving is crucial to the bottomline of every company, not leveraging the right technology to save some money could be detrimental to business growth. That’s why insurers must replace their outdated legacy communication systems with advanced cloud-based solutions to provide the best customer experience.
4. Data Security Risks
According to the Munich Re Cyber Risk and Insurance Survey 2024, nine out of every ten global decision makers (87 percent to be precise) say their company is currently not adequately protected against cyber-attacks. Last year alone, many insurance companies, including big names such as Sun Life, Prudential Insurance, New York Life Insurance Company, were targeted by cybercriminals.
Prudential Insurance reported the attack in May 2023 and in that over 320,000 customer accounts were compromised. Next month, Sun Life witnessed an attack on its vendor Pension Benefits Information LLC. The attack on New York Life Insurance Company left 25,700 accounts affected. Insurance companies and insurance contact centers are soft targets for hackers and cyber attackers as they hold personal data of millions of customers. Once they lose the data to malicious actors, then they will face legal actions, lawsuits, fines, miscellaneous fees, and fraud monitoring costs.
This is where insurers and insurance contact centers can robust their security by investing in reliable and reputable contact center software equipped with strong security features such as multi-factor authentication, two-step verification, access controls, robust encryption protocols and more.
All in All
The challenges insurance companies and insurance contact centers face are quite unusual and different from businesses in other industries as insurers often serve diverse customer bases with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
For that reason, insurance contact centers must leverage sophisticated technology tools and contact center software to overcome the wide range of challenges. If you are looking to overcome various challenges your insurance company faces, you must do whatever it takes to join hands with the right software solution provider.
