Process automation has quickly become one of the best ways to improve the productivity for insurance companies and improve the overall experience for customers and employees.
Automating manual insurance processes will provide obvious benefits, including shortening the time required for completion and the elimination of data entry errors. But there are some benefits of process automation that you may not be aware of, making it even more important to spend time and effort on your company’s digital transformation.
What Is Process Automation and Why Do Insurance Companies Need It?
You may have heard about the digital transformation of the insurance industry, and you may have even tried to build some automations yourself. But digital transformation extends beyond using computers and servers (often in the cloud) to store information and run your insurance company.
Because of the switch to a digital environment, there tends to be less paper involved in your day-to-day operations. While there may be less paper in the office, there are daily operations that still require data entry to keep your processes moving. Some of these processes include:
- Insurance customer onboarding
- Quoting insurance policies
- Underwriting insurance policies
- Claims management
- Customer service
Here are four of the most impactful benefits that insurance companies see when they set up process automations.
1. Insurance Process Automation Enhances Staff Efficiency
One of the first steps that process automation focuses on is streamlining your existing workflow. That means that your staff doesn't have to worry about constantly inputting information into multiple places, and sometimes, in multiple software programs. With process automation, repeated tasks are identified and software is put in place to capture the data in each of the necessary systems, all at the same time.
With this in place, there’s no missing data in the various systems and everyone has access to what they need to take the next step for the customer. Staff is then able to focus on more significant tasks.
Additionally, rather than train staff on multiple different steps of a system or systems, process automation allows you to train them on a single process. This reduces the amount of time you and your staff spend training and allows everyone to focus on activities that will generate more revenue. Training time can be re-allocated to topics that will help personal employee growth and focus on more challenging issues.
2. Encourages Insurance Agency Growth
Busy insurance companies often can’t keep up with the requests coming in, especially if their processes aren’t automated. Automations allow an agency to keep up with the pace of new business, helping them to grow. There is also the ability to automate other areas of the company that can become overwhelmed with manual processes, including human resources, claims processing and customer service.
You can read more about this in our blog: How Does RPA for Insurance Increase Profitability?
3. Process Automation Increases Accuracy, Increasing Total Insurance Company Revenue
Currently, many insurance companies view the manual processes for claims and document management as a necessary evil. These are time-consuming processes that have high rates of human error. Switching to process automation might not necessarily cut down on the processes that have to be completed, but it does reduce the likelihood of errors and the amount of time tracking them down to be fixed. Greater accuracy means less re-work. This results in more productivity and profit for your entire company.
4. Improve Customer Satisfaction with Automated Insurance Processes
Automating your insurance processes isn't just focused on helping your staff reduce repetitive work. It also helps one of the most important parts of your business: making sure that your customers get excellent service from the very start of their experience with you.
- Self-service client onboarding is easier and faster than ever before with automations, creating the desired customer experience. They don’t have to get on the phone or go to an office to ask questions, follow up on policy details, or find the status of a claim.
- Customers have the ability to make policy and account updates online, reducing the need for possible data entry errors or omissions by your staff.
- Improving claims management with workflow automation keeps customers informed of the status of their claims. Again, this goes back to offering more self-service options so that a call isn’t necessary to get important information.
Related Read: What is Digital Customer Onboarding for Insurance?
How to Start with Process Automation for Your Insurance Company
Process automation is not out of reach for any insurance company. The plan and execution for automation simply has to match your size and scope. Implementing process automation will then position your company to be competitive in this quickly changing industry.
If you’ve tried process automation and didn’t have success, don’t give up! You’ll need successful automations to stay competitive. Consider revamping existing automations if they’re not already giving you the benefits discussed here. If you’re new to automation, an assessment of your needs to create a short-term and long-term automation plan is the best place to start.
Whether you're starting out fresh or you’re ready to get to the next level for your insurance company, schedule a time with our team for a free consultation about how process automation can help you.
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