How Insurance BPOs are Powering the Insurance Industry in the Post-Pandemic Era
The pandemic and its associated lockdowns around the world have wrapped us in digital dependence for everything from checking on loved ones to ordering groceries. From virtual doctor's appointments to medicine delivery, court proceedings to education, every aspect of life, essential or non-essential, has been accomplished with a few clicks and finger-taps on the Smartphone or laptop - services we had never really considered to be digitally adaptable. Therefore, it is imperative for the insurance industry to acclimatize, an industry once entirely reliant on live interpersonal communication.
The insurance industry has been one of the last few to fully digitize as stringent regulations make the process complex. It has also been mired in cumbersome practices and negative associations carried over from the previous century. But this has been rapidly evolving thanks to the Business Process Outsourcing model.
The insurance industry is consumer-centric. It has been and always will be. It is based on a customer's expectation of security delivered in the future, be that future near or far. However, what has changed is the customer. Customers have become accustomed to (and rightfully so) receiving instantaneous responses. Post-the pandemic, the digitally-savvy customer expects and demands smooth procedures and can get daunted by the prospect of endless paperwork. The procedural hassles that come with both personal and corporate insurance can prove to be a speed breaker for insurance agencies to overcome, as compared to other industries. This is where BPOs have been clearing the clutter and smoothening the road ahead.
Quickly reworking and tweaking methodologies of customer approach, product design, product delivery, and velocity have brought success to those businesses that have thrived during the pandemic. While the outlook of overhauling the entire systemic architecture of a company's workflow can be a herculean task, BPOs offer doable solutions that can be implemented in easier installments. Both the above option or a complete changeover are attractive choices and a boon to insurance agencies and brokers who can no longer afford to rely on the traditional methods of reaching out to new clients and ensuring customer loyalty. The swiftness of policy issuance and certificate issuance is unmatched owing to the superior technological edge that only BPOs can offer. Speed is an advantage here and speed is guaranteed, with the kind of dedicated IT systems a BPO has in place.
Data filing, maintenance, analysis, retrieval, and updation is another area where BPOs are keeping abreast of client databases, rather than manual entry by staff who are already overloaded in uncertain times. Handing over the renewal process to a BPO streamlines what can be an unwieldy system and enables quick access to records.
An insurance agency's or carrier's worth lies in its smooth claims management. BPOs have a proven track record of proficient claims administration and boast of authentic success stories of professional underwriting, policy checking, and loss run processing.
Work culture has switched overnight to an almost completely digital model. Water cooler chats, company retreats and customer house calls have been swiftly replaced by Zoom meetings and telecons. With most of the personnel working from home, companies are realizing the advantage of lessened admin costs and are finding profitability in outsourcing the routine tasks, with employees completing data entry from any corner of the world at fractions of the cost. This has proved the efficacy of outsourcing - standardized workflows and deeply satisfied employees. Employees get to level up their skills and showcase initiative due to the freed up time and energy.
The pandemic has caused a great shift in the work evolutionary model, with adaption being the key quality to stay afloat. A thinned-out employee force has made it necessary for certain processes to be transferred so that the top echelons ofmanagement can focus on the vision and mission of the company. Investing in outsourcing future-proofs an insurance firm. Weaving together systems, data and people in an intricate tapestry of efficiency and productivity brings forth huge returns in a traditional industry that is slowly but surely reinventing itself.
