Many industry watchers have predicted that the insurance contact center would disappear. Yet, the contact center has survived changing consumer behaviors, the growth of the Internet and emerging digital tools. In fact, I’d argue that the contact center is more important than ever.
The Next-Generation Approach
Five trends contribute to the importance of contact centers in an integrated distribution strategy:
- Continued importance of customer experience as a significant differentiator.
- Intensified need for cross-channel integration.
- Renewed emphasis on contact centers to fuel growth.
- Matured infrastructure and analytics capabilities.
- Increased expectations for continual improvement.
Given the increasing commoditization of personal lines insurance and the growing complexity of multi-channel distribution, the next-generation contact center can drive growth and create a differentiated customer experience.
Next steps to create a next-generation contact center
Accenture recommends five priorities for insurers who seek to create a next-generation contact center:
- Align vision with business strategy.
- Optimize the customer experience by integrating multiple channels.
- Retrain and reward the contact center workforce.
- Make optimal use of data and analytics.
- Streamline and automate processes.
Insurers can drive high performance by using profitable, efficient next-generation contact centers as part of a comprehensive multi-channel distribution strategy.
To learn more, download The Next-Generation Insurance Contact Center: Driving the Efficient Growth Agenda.