The insurance industry has become more ambitious than ever before. Within minutes, modern consumers can obtain multiple policy quotes, query reviews from past clients and form opinions about the quality of service that a company will provide.
According to recent statistics, consumers develop a first impression about a company in just a tenth of a second. Furthermore, a top analyst firm explains that the insurance industry must address specific patterns to keep up with their demanding audiences.
These patterns include:
- The majority of consumers demand seamless multi-channel experiences that can only be delivered via an omnichannel platform.
- Insurers can remove bottlenecks and common issues that plague insurance transactions, driving customer interactions that build loyalty and brand empowerment.
- Insurers can improve customer engagement speed and quality if they are willing to tackle technology challenges such as lack of integration.
These three trends are unavoidable, and CX designers and data scientists must be aware of these when building effective CX strategies and supporting technical environments. Leadership must streamline front-facing services and back-office processes to differentiate themselves in this increasingly crowded market. By doing so, they can decrease the cost of providing service and optimize the customer experience.
In a Deloitte Insights report, they add that insurers are becoming more reliant on new technologies and data sources to improve efficiency, cybersecurity and capabilities. However, they should also enhance the customer experience by automating processes and providing customized service. The most pragmatic way to improve operational efficiency for most insurance companies is to adopt universal document automation solutions.
What Is Universal Document Automation?
Universal document automation is a technology that falls under the umbrella of intelligent document processing (IDP). IDP solutions have been in existence for years. However, the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies have led to significant advancements in IDP software.
Machine learning and AI facilitated the creation of universal document automation technologies. These solutions can process unknown documents, automatically detect and extract critical data and compile this information to be leveraged for core business purposes. A top analyst and research firm found that AI allowed business value and task feasibility to integrate successfully in agent recommendation/support, autonomous underwriting, contract analysis, claims estimation, fraud detection and much more.
Universal document automation will be invaluable to insurance companies as they strive to remain competitive in this evolving industry.
Biggest Challenges Facing Insurance Companies
Insurance companies face several looming challenges that pose a significant threat to business continuity. The most notable of these challenges include:
Increased Competition
There was a time when a handful of national insurance companies dominated the market space. While the largest insurance companies still have more reach than their regional competitors, none currently possess a double-digit percentage of the market share.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, State Farm wrote the highest total value of premiums in 2021 and captured 8.9% of the total market share. The 10th ranked group only accounted for 2.5% of the total market share. These figures indicate that insurers compete for revenue in a highly divided market.
High Volume of Documents
Insurance companies must review and collect data from countless documents when processing claims. Many claim documents not only include unstructured data but images as well. As a result, reviewing documents is a labor-intensive process that can extend the claims resolution timetable.
Universal document automation can facilitate streamlined claims processing, and insurance companies can turn this pain point into an organizational strength. In turn, they can process claims faster and better serve their customers.
Evolving Customer Expectations
Changing client expectations represents one of the biggest challenges facing the insurance industry. Advances like overnight shipping and limitless access to information via smart devices have made customers accustomed to instant gratification.
While insurance claims cannot be processed instantly, universal document automation technologies will help insurers better meet the expectations of their customers. They can decrease the wait time for claims processing and rapidly disperse funds when appropriate.
Why Universal Document Automation is the Solution
Universal document automation can remedy many of the competitive barriers facing today’s insurance companies. By adopting universal document automation, insurers can:
Facilitate Error-Free Document Processing
Document processing errors create a cascade of consequences for insurance companies and their clients. When an error is made during document processing, the claim may not be resolved on time or might be closed out incorrectly.
Either event will diminish customer satisfaction while also increasing the burden on staff. Staff members will have to either process a claim appeal or backtrack to locate and correct all processing errors.
Universal document automation facilitates true error-free document processing. Machine learning and AI technologies become more efficient over time as they evolve with each processed document. These technologies will significantly decrease data collection errors and improve the quality of claims processing.
Improve Efficiency
Universal document automation technology can substantially improve an insurance company’s processing efficiency. Companies implementing universal document automation technologies have experienced 89% faster claims processing. They are also able to process seven times more claims per day.
Faster claims processing will directly impact the customer experience in the insurance industry. Clients will no longer have to wait weeks to find out the dispositions of their claims. In turn, improved efficiency will help insurance companies develop and maintain a positive brand image.
Reduce Reliance on Manual Processes
Manual document review processes are inefficient and expensive. They also prevent employees from engaging in dynamic activities or interacting directly with customers.
Universal document automation will substantially reduce an insurance company’s reliance on manual processes, especially as it is able to recognize any document type. Companies can automate redundant activities, thereby reducing the workload on staff members. This automation will improve employee morale, aid with retaining top talent and create a better working environment for all.
Provide Better Customer Service
Universal document automation enables insurance companies to provide customers with higher-quality service by quickly transforming any type of document into usable, actionable data. Once the data is accessible, IDP can export the data so it can streamline policy creation, facilitate seamless bill processing and reduce the time it takes to close out claims.
According to recent statistics, 68% of consumers are willing to pay more for services as long as the provider has an excellent customer service track record. By improving the quality of the services they provide, as well as having quick response times, insurance companies can increase the average lifetime value of customers. They can encourage clients to renew their policies and make them less likely to jump ship in search of cheaper rates.
Ultimately, any universal document automation strategy requires quality data. In light of this, organizations must find an effective way to supply their systems with usable, meaning structured data. At Ephesoft, we offer universal document automation technology to transform documents and data into a structured format, allowing data to flow into other applications.
Contact our experts today if you want to learn more about Ephesoft’s universal document automation solutions for insurance companies.
