4 min read
Insurance can be seen as an obscure topic. Be it on the news, on social media, or in social circles, insurance is always being demystified due to its perceived complexity.
As individuals go through their life, insurance becomes a topic of growing importance no matter your age, nationality, occupation or gender - insurance remains essential.
For example, life insurance comes with maturity benefit and safeguards your family from dire financial situations should something happen to you. Another example is health insurance which pays for your health costs when you feel helpless with expensive medical bills.
Insurance is essential.
Yet, not everyone can get insured easily.
Yes. Individuals with existing medical conditions either qualify for extremely high rates on the insurance they are buying or are denied the purchase altogether.
Why?
The reason for this is that providing coverage to a person who is already seriously ill would mean a higher financial risk for the insurance company.
Different companies view the state of a person’s health differently. But, if you walk into the office of any life insurance company with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, depression, or any other chronic condition, then you are likely to not go through the standard underwriting process. Other diseases like cancer or multiple health issues can result in high rates or outright rejection.
How ironic it is. The one who desperately needs to be insured is the one being left out in the rain. Although the insurance market is improving with new offerings for everyone, there is still a long way to go.
How do current digital journeys deal with pre-existing medical conditions?
Current digital journeys are usually web-forms. They are detailed questionnaires which attempt to gather a buyer’s personal history in the length of a few pages -- have little tick-boxes only with no provision for including detailed information for existing conditions. The obvious answer would be to add a text-box in the web-form itself which then leads to a cluttered and inconsistent digital journey.
Individuals cannot explain the length and breadth of their medical condition which would probably have gotten them the insurance they so needed.
Information gathering, which often remains incomplete, makes executing the underwriting process for individuals having pre-existing medical conditions time consuming and sometimes oscillates from online to offline using phone calls or letters. This results in higher lead times which means long windows of uncertainty and anxiety for the prospect as well as wastage of resources on the company’s side.
Is it fair to be at the mercy of a slow system which is supposed to bring peace of mind?
An implementable solution
Since so much of the process has already gone digital, why not take it up a few notches to make things easier for the concerned demographic by implementing Spixii solutions?
When the existing way of working will blend with the benefits provided by Spixii solutions, conversations with individuals having pre-existing medical conditions will broaden.
These conversations will allow the transmission of better information to the insurance prospects. They can understand the status quo and what exactly it entails for them, their diagnosis, and the future of their family.
Spixii solutions go further by explaining concepts and technical terms through conversations rather than a digital monologue provided by web-forms. Such solutions are configured by underwriters who know the frequency of questions they get and where the underwriting process can be improved and automated.
High levels of personalisation can be weaved in at a large scale and each customer can be thoroughly attended to. Different diseases demand different plans and terms. Spixii solutions enable the deliverance of granular and customised solutions in both cases leading to exponentially better customer service.
Finally, despite the technical ring to the name, Spixii solutions are actually easy to use thanks to chatbot front-end. Anyone can become adept at utilising them for availing better insurance guidance.
How these solutions fulfil the needs of stakeholders
Higher efficiency
1 sales representative can only serve 1 customer at a time i.e. even if he/ she gives a presentation to 100 potential clients, after stepping down the stage, extensive and detailed answers can only be given one-by-one. This pace cannot be compromised upon because the quality of service rendered at this point will determine whether the potential client converts to a willing customer and also requires a lot of personalisation.
In contrast, an automated solution will attend to each customer with detailed answers to their query while seemingly paying complete attention to them. Human beings aren’t capable of such levels of multitasking yet they need support.
24*7 availability
An automated solution doesn’t need coffee or toilet breaks or 8-hour sleep. This is a huge bonus for insurance companies with overseas customers as well as companies wanting to serve new demographics such as millennials who are seen online and outside the classic 9-5 time slot.
Personalisation
Since the automated solutions will be configured for various medical conditions, they can provide specific and contextual answers directly to the prospects. There will be less of the cookie-cutter answers and more of the personalised ones that provide actual value to customers.
This allows insurance companies to benefit from efficient operations while helping the end-customer as well.
To conclude: insurance is essential for all; Spixii solutions even more so.
And it’s high time for insurance companies to integrate them into their digital distribution strategy and current processes if they haven’t already.
Please enquire about Spixii distribution solutions by engaging the Infobot.