Recently I have spoken at a number of insurance conferences and with industry executives about social media and the most common question I get is: “What can we do with social
Insurers Need to Regain Trust
media?” Executives admit that it could be big but are struggling to work out what problem it solves, if any. As a result, the action plan is to host a company Facebook page, approve a minimal staff budget and secretly hope that it all blows over.
Social media might prove to be a fad but if so, it would be a loss for the industry. Social media can address the fundamental problem of trust – of lack thereof. Consumers are now inclined to seek advice from family, friends and even complete strangers rather than insurance companies and that is due in part to a lack of trust.
According to a recent study commissioned by Pitney Bowes Business Insight and conducted by the ESCP Europe Business School, only 48 percent of consumers in the U.S. and the UK trust their insurance provider. One interesting conclusion however is how easy it might be to address the problem. According to the study, respondents believed that improving customer communications would have the greatest impact in terms of developing trust.
“One of the major struggles for the insurance industry is commoditization and customer churn,” notes Bill Sinn, strategic marketing director, Pitney Bowes Business Insight. “The key to addressing these issues is creating a dialogue with customers that is consistent, reliable and creates a relationship that extends beyond the policy renewal date.”
Insurers typically have a distant relationship with customers, with interaction often restricted to a handful of stressful occasions, a claim or policy renewal but social media has the ability to change that. Social media provides the means and opportunity for developing ongoing dialogue and providing information, thereby creating multiple touch-points during the period.
Insurers struggle with how and what to communicate using social media but that illustrates the lack of a clear strategy and vision. If the objective is to improve customer retention, then recruitment of Facebook fans and Twitter followers would focus on customers. Content strategy would be to deliver information that your existing customers would find useful. As an example, we know content regarding natural disasters is highly appreciated, especially if it is timely and helpful. Community involvement programs resonate as well as dialogue with specific groups of customers. State Farm has a program to engage with Hispanic customers, Mass Mutual with GenYs and Sentry with Motorcycle customers. Content should not try to sell policies but to deepen the relationship with those that already have policies.
The strategic objective should be to build brand awareness, develop a sense of trust and customer loyalty. Consumers want that interaction but due to the increase of online research and self-service, the personal interaction with an agent has been severed. Developing greater trust and loyalty is a critical stage to get to the second and arguable biggest benefit of social media. As previously stated, consumers seek advice from family, friends and even complete strangers. Social media is a series of interconnected networks of people that know and trust each other. To generate referrals and recommendations, you need to enter the networks and the easier point of entry is your existing customer. Unfortunately, this goes both ways, if they do not trust you, this knowledge might flow even more quickly as a recommendation.
The most striking aspect of USAA’s new Life Insurance page, redesigned recently, is that its whole purpose has been changed. It has evolved from being a page on which no tasks could be started, to one where one could be actually be completed and two more could be started.
Plus, you get an overview of the process to get insured, with four clear steps listed.
The four stages of getting insured are clearly outlined
USAA has recognized that site visitors are impatient, and that pages like this are ideally not just a collection of links to more detailed information on other pages.
Life Insurance pages, generally one level below the home page on insurance sites, have traditionally been stop-off points en route to more content. The trend now, however, is to get more use out of this page and allow visitors to do more without clicking down to lower levels in the site. In other words, they are becoming more task-focused.
The main content area is dominated by a comparison table. This allows visitors to complete one of the fundamental tasks—which type of life insurance do I need—with an option to drill down for more detail at the end of the page.
Further up the page (albeit as part of a graphic featuring a tremendously happy family) there is a list of the four key benefits of life insurance.
The quote button (with important words such as ‘personalized’ and ‘in minutes’) is prominent at the top right, with the calculator button just below. (Other sites—such as State Farm and MetLife—allow people to enter information for a quote right on the home page, but at least the USAA button is prominent on this page.)
Another feature is that the left-side menu has disappeared. No more links to RV Insurance or Medicare Solutions, and we’re pretty sure they won’t be missed. The space saved has been usefully filled with good information.
USAA has placed a clear quote button at the bottom of the page with three links to get more information, thereby not wasting the opportunity to advance prospects to the next stage.
Having a call to action at the bottom of a page can strongly influence user behavior
The ends of pages are often wasted. They can be prime real estate, if a prospect has taken time to read the content and arrive there with intent. Studies have shown that offering a call to action at this position can have a dramatic effect on the behavior of site visitors.
Task-orientation, as demonstrated on this page (and others), is not a fad. It is an evolution of customer-centric design that separates great websites from failing ones.
