Businesses of all stripes are becoming increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to help streamline processes and offer a better customer experience.
This technology, which can analyze speech or text and extract unique and actionable insights, has become increasingly popular in the B2B world, with companies like Salesforce and Outreach developing conversation intelligence tools to help sales teams improve their approach with prospects via real-time, data-driven insights.
But the benefits of conversation intelligence are not limited to this context. Just as generative AI tools like chatGPT and DALL-E can ingest large volumes of data and use them to create original text or images, conversation intelligence tools can ingest countless hours of conversation and offer users key information about what was discussed, why it matters and what to do next.
In the insurance industry, where the quality of customer support is vital to success, this means AI can be a game-changer, helping leadership better understand the needs and challenges of customers and staff, then take action that fuels a better experience on both ends of the line.
Here are three key areas of opportunity for conversation intelligence in the insurance space.
See related: Using AI to level up contact center training
1. Streamline claims and enrollment
One of the primary challenges faced by insurance contact centers is managing large volumes of claims. Processing claims or managing enrollment can be time-consuming and often requires agents to navigate multiple systems and databases to find relevant information.
The power of conversation intelligence means that contact center agents can get near-instant access to all relevant information about a customer’s policy, claim history, and previous interactions, as well as guidance on next steps or additional information required based on their organization’s protocols.
The technology can also automate routine tasks, such as data entry, freeing up agents’ time to focus on providing personalized support to customers. Additionally, conversation intelligence can flag potential issues in real-time, such as incomplete information, eligibility problems or conflicting data, reducing the risk of errors and delays in the claims and enrollment processes.
This not only makes life easier for the agent, but also makes every call more focused and efficient, boosting customer satisfaction (after all, not many customers enjoy being on hold while agents look up information or get advice from teammates).
2. Improve the customer experience
In order to evaluate the performance of their agents, insurance organizations have traditionally relied on post-call surveys and Net Promoter Score questionnaires, which often offer limited insights and low response rates. Conversation intelligence changes the game by analyzing interactions at scale and offering deeper insights into behavior and challenges, driving a better customer experience and improved operational efficiency.
By providing real-time feedback and insights, conversation intelligence can help agents better understand the needs and challenges of their customers, leading to a more personalized and evidence-based approach. This can improve customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of customers remaining loyal to the organization.
The technology can analyze customer interactions and extract data, such as sentiment analysis, keywords, and call length, allowing contact centers to identify trends and patterns in customer behavior. With this information, contact center managers can tailor their support strategies, providing customers with a personalized experience.
For example, conversation intelligence can help contact center managers identify common customer pain points, such as long wait times, unclear policy information, or complicated claims processes. With this information, managers can make the necessary changes to their processes to address these issues, improving the customer experience.
3. Optimize staff feedback and training
Feedback and training in contact centers can be a real challenge. Training new staff is often an expensive and time-consuming task, with more than half of call centers spending 6 to 12 weeks training new staff and 33% taking as long as 5 to 7 months to become proficient. Plus, some reports say call center agent turnover rates average as high as 45% across the industry.
Conversation intelligence can help managers better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their teams, allowing for easier and more comprehensive performance evaluation and more effective training programs. The technology can analyze agent interactions and provide insights into their performance on 100% of calls, allowing contact center managers to provide truly personalized and evidence-based coaching to their agents.
This leads to a stronger, more confident workforce and, ultimately, a better customer experiences and improved business outcomes.
Since conversation intelligence can also give agents real-time feedback and guidance, underperforming or inexperienced team members can level up their expertise in record time, without needing to sit through lectures, rely on memorization, get lost in bloated knowledge bases or scrub through hours of training videos. This also ensures all agents give customers the one right answer they’re looking for, every time. (Based on research from Forrester, two of the biggest pain points in customer service include encountering an agent who doesn’t know the right answer and getting different answers from different agents).
This not only improves customer satisfaction, but also helps with attrition, as confident agents who feel empowered to do their best work are much more likely to stick around.
This can also work at scale via analysis of the team at large. For example, conversation intelligence can identify common areas where agents struggle, such as handling customer complaints or navigating complex policies. With this information, contact center managers can provide targeted training programs to help agents improve their performance in these areas.
See related: The challenge of feedback in virtual care (and how AI can help)
Bottom line
Conversation intelligence is a game-changer for insurance call centers. By providing real-time feedback, automating administrative activities, and offering deeper insights into customer and staff behavior, insurance organizations can offer a better customer experience, improve operational efficiency and retain their best talent.
With these benefits, it’s no wonder that conversation intelligence is becoming increasingly popular in the insurance space, and it’s only a matter of time before it becomes the norm.
