Insurance Consumer Communication Preferences: Affordable Opportunities for Agents

Consumers have always wanted to communicate with businesses, including your insurance agency, the way they want to and when they want to. Back in the day when those options were limited across the board - phone, in person, maybe a snail mail letter - consumers accepted the limitations because there were no alternatives.

It isn't like that today. Today consumers expect immediacy, they want to be able to get responses from businesses irrespective of the time of day or day of the week, they want to choose the communication channel they want and they expect the experience to be consistent across whatever channel they choose.

The primary communication today options are:

• Webchat
• SMS Texting
• Social Media but particularly Facebook and your agency's Google Business Profile
• Video (primarily email, YouTube and social media)
• Email
• Phone

We'll discuss each of the first four options in turn in this post but it bears noting, if it hasn't already crossed your mind, that it can be a challenge to keep up with so many different communication channels when most insurance agencies are just trying to keep their heads above water.

(We have a solution for that but more on that in a moment.)

Before we jump into webchat, texting, Facebook Messenger and Google Messages we should note that a recent study by LivePerson found that 75% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if they can message rather than call. So it makes sense to have messaging options available and to respond to them quickly. If you can.

Webchat

Until recently the only options available to insurance agencies were live chat or chat manned by a third party service. The problem with the second option is that the third party live chat agents don't understand much about the insurance business. The problem with the first option is having someone in the insurance agency available to respond to chats as they come in during the day. A study done a few years ago by Confluency showed that only about 32% of agencies responded to chat requests in under 5 minutes and almost none responded after hours or on weekends. (A recent study performed by Hubspot found that consumers define immediate as under 10 minutes. However, in our experience consumers will abandon a chat if they receive no response within the first couple of minutes of session launch.)

Enter AI. Artificial Intelligence powered chat assistants can handle almost any chat inquiry and schedule appointments for your insurance agency 24/7, including weekends and holidays. You get a notification when a chat is launched and details go to a central location allowing someone in your office to follow up as necessary or jump into an ongoing chat.

AI assisted chatbots have become more widely accepted. A recent study by Uberall found that 80% of consumers viewed experiences with chatbots as positive. Done right, there is no reason for your insurance agency not to jump in and meet client and prospect expectations.

SMS Texting

Let's start here with this one: 99% of text messages are opened and 90% are opened within three minutes (Podium study).

Consumers prefer text messaging to any kind of communication for almost all business contacts and 31% more consumers texted businesses in 2023 than in 2022 (EZ Texting survey). We are all consumers and we all love the convenience, efficiency, immediacy and personalization that texting permits.

A final statistic: Businesses that text customers are 683% more likely to report digital marketing success than businesses that don't use text messaging. (Simple Texting survey)

If your insurance agency isn't offering texting to clients and soon-to-be clients then now is the time to start.

Facebook Messenger and Google Messages

53% of consumers are already using Facebook Messenger to communicate with brands, and while Google Messages in Google Business Profiles is used less often, the use of the messaging service is growing. As to Google Messages, it should be noted that this communication option is tightly tied to Google search so the vast majority of these messages are from prospects. This is borne out by data we have seen at Confluency.

Those businesses that have used Google Messages have noted these improvements in business metrics:

• Customer Satisfaction Scores (55%)
• Response Time (49%)
• Cost per Sale (52%)

If instant messaging via Facebook and Google isn't part of your insurance agency's communication then now is the time to consider adding these options.

Video Email, Youtube and More

72% of consumers prefer to receive product and service information via video vs. text, a strong endorsement for video email or video in text and instant messaging. Couple that with the fact that people retain 95% of a video message vs. only 10% of a text message (Insivia study) and the case for using video in email communication is all but made.

Omni Channel Management

At different points in a sales or service interaction consumers often jump in and out of different communication channels: social messaging, email, text, social... it can be challenging for any one agency employee to keep an entire conversation in front of them and maintain consistency when responding to requests. The challenge is multiplied when more than one staff member gets involved in a request or transaction.

The difficulty as noted above and earlier is how to corral all these conversations your insurance agency could be having with clients and prospects. That's the idea behind an omni channel communication platform solution - one inbox with all communications in one place. We have such a solution and are happy to share details of our Inbox Pro service which also includes strong AI Chat support. Get in touch today to learn more or schedule a demo!