A digital agent workstation is currently revolutionizing customer support at a large Swiss insurer: over 1,000 agents in more than 50 branches are now benefiting from a modern, workflow-based document management system for customer support and closure of sales on-site which offers the perfect mobile assistance on an iPad. In this blog entry, we provide an overview of the exciting project!
The project goal: outstanding customer experience
The optimal customer experience has been shown to be a crucial success factor across industries. A digital agent workstation is therefore crucial for customer advisers. Agents can use it to address individual customer requirements immediately and they have all the documents they require to hand in the latest version. As a result, they can create various offers ad hoc and conclude all policies on the iPad with fingerprint signature wherever they are. Supplementary customer documents, such as health declarations or a third-party insurance policy, can be simply added as an iPad photo. The agent can therefore document any new business in full and send the signed documentation back to the company at the click of a mouse.
The benefit: customer expectations are met and agents receive their commission for new policies quickly.
The challenge: meeting individual customer needs
The market for end customers in the insurance field has now become confusing. This makes personal contact and a customer relationship with the insurance adviser all the more important. If the insurance agent can identify customer requirements quickly, they can address individual wishes and offer suitable insurance solutions on the spot.
The result: customers are offered a customized solution and agents significantly increase their chances of concluding new business.
Starting position: outdated technology, rigid processes
Established corporate structures and external circumstances do not always allow things to run that smoothly. Until a few months ago, the private customer business of a large Swiss insurer was still in the dark ages:
slow processes dominated by paperwork
a lack of agility on the part of agents
inconsistency in important documents such as terms of insurance
outdated hardware and software technology
Mimacom´s service: Mimacom helped the insurance company with software architecture and digital advice for the implementation of the digital agent workstation of the future. The aim: greater efficiency in day-to-day business, a better customer experience and an increase in new customer acquisitions.
The digital agent workstation for insurance companies
Before | After |
|---|---|
Outdated hardware (laptop and mini-printer) and paper-dominated processes. | iPad |
Media discontinuities resulting from insurance policies on paper have a detrimental effect on the customer experience. | Digital signature by fingerprint and digital submission to head office |
Slow payment processes for agent commission. | Receipt of commission on the next day thanks to digital transmission. |
Inconsistencies in the documents such as insurance conditions for various agents. | Digital library with the latest version of insurance conditions in all languages on the iPad. |
A lack of agility on the part of the agents (e.g., General Terms and Conditions only available in one language). | Possibility of upselling thanks to new flexibility of agents. |
Incomplete, outdated customer documents (minutes of consultation according to the Insurance Contract Act, missing information, declarations, etc.). | Scan of the relevant documents directly with the customer on the iPad, central storage on the server. |
High administrative, printing and postage costs. | Significant cost savings with digital workflows. |
A lot of time required to issue quotations and check processes on paper, including printing at customer. | Almost 100% digital processes: > 100,000 documents signed digitally and processed in less than a year. |
Significant lack of transparency. | Audit trails for all documents. Comprehensive reports and KPIs. |
The solution: system architecture and implementation
Thanks to a user-friendly iPad app for the PDF solution (Software-as-a-Service SaaS), a high-performance document search is always available (including searches of the entire content).
Agents can now:
subscribe to documents relevant to them
synchronize documents for offline use
receive push notifications about changes.
In the back end, the app communicates via interfaces (API) with the relevant surrounding systems, such as Microsoft OneDrive, for the master file library.
The result: enthusiastic agents, happy customers – successful transactions
The digital agent workstation allows optimal customer support with end-to-end digital process support from advice, through quotation and the insurance application, to the digital signature and submission to head office. The solution is based on a digital document library which is available offline and online and provides all agents with over 2,000 consistent documents.
Advantages and functions:
digital signature by finger directly on the iPad for agent and customer
documents are automatically locked after signature to prevent retrospective alteration
automated workflows make things easier for the agents, as they do not have to navigate through complex decision-making trees.
decrease in paper consumption and postage costs, contributing to the insurance company’s sustainability.
increased productivity
better quality of advice
new, impressive customer experience
As a result of the high level of satisfaction among agents and the greater success rate for policies concluded in the private customer segment, the insurer decided to roll out the digital agent workstation to the Corporate Insurance division once the project was completed.