From solos to symphony: How insurers can harmonize customer communications
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From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize
customer communications
Learn how improved
customer
communications
management can help
insurers better connect
with their customers.
The heart of the matter
Customers today are overwhelmed with irrelevant and
inconsistent messages from their insurance carriers. While many
carriers know this, solving the problem is easier said than done.
Developing a customer-centric communications strategy involves
a commitment to collaboration that puts shared corporate
objectives ahead of departmental goals. To make this work,
insurers need the right technology and governance to support
consistency, reuse, and personalization of content.
Jack and Monica, a 30--something married Thinking about the apparent lack of
couple in San Francisco, became customers coordination among the company’s different
of UNeed Insurance when they had their departments, they began to worry what
first child and moved out to the suburbs. would happen if they ever needed to make a
Although they got a 25% discount when they claim. After researching some other
bought an auto, home, and life insurance providers online and checking out social
bundle, they soon realized that these media to see reviews, they decided to switch
bundled policies had nothing in common to a different insurance company.
except a marketing strategy.
Property and casualty insurance carriers
After an initial flurry of correspondence for today recognize that Jack and Monica’s story
each policy containing coverage details is by no means atypical. Many insurance
(which differed from those set out on the companies are unable to provide good cross-
company’s self-service web portal), they channel communications for optimal
began receiving three separate monthly bills customer experience. Carriers know they
from UNeed, as well as a blizzard of need to create order from the chaos by
promotional flyers—often for policies they crafting a customer-centric communications
already had. Even when Monica signed up strategy. But it’s easier to say you want a
for paperless billing, the mail kept coming. customer-centric communications strategy—
where customers get only the
The couple received a complimentary check- communications they need and want, in the
in call during which they were offered auto form they want them—than to implement
insurance, a product they already owned. the required structures and capabilities to
Jack and Monica started to wonder why no actually make it happen.
one at the company seemed to have an
overview of the coverage they already had.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 1
To implement a truly customer-centric With the right technology capabilities and
strategy that avoids these problems, we governance framework in place, a carrier
believe insurance carriers need two things. can move away from a disparate collection of
The first is an enterprise-wide governance “solo” communications and towards a
framework that coordinates and sets rules “symphony” of content that is harmonized
for the creation, use, management, and across the organization.
distribution of content across business
functions and channels. This commitment
requires different parts of the business to
collaborate and put shared corporate
objectives ahead of departmental goals. The
second is adequate investment in customer
communications and content management
technology.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 2An in-depth discussion
Today’s insurance carriers struggle to create How did this happen?
coordinated and targeted communications,
Historically, different departments and lines
as Jack and Monica’s experience clearly
of business within an insurance company
illustrates. As shown in Figure 1, customers
created, managed, and even distributed their
receive separate communications from
own communications. Without common
various functions, products, and channels—
technology capabilities in place, these
with different messages, purposes, and
processes become labor intensive and
formats—rather than coordinated
unique to each business unit. In most
communications that are relevant to their
insurance companies today, business units
needs. As communication channels have
continue to operate based on departmental
expanded to include websites, email, social
needs rather than on overarching
media, “Internet of Things”, and mobile
organizational objectives.
devices, insurers have found it even more
difficult to produce consistent and
coordinated content for their customers.
Figure 1: Customers today are overwhelmed with too much information; it is
redundant, not personalized, and uncoordinated across functions, products, and
channels.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 3At most carriers, employees use desktop The end product is also compromised, with
word processing tools to create content often showcasing widespread
communications rather than entering the inconsistencies in look, tone, and messaging
information into a content management across business lines, functions, and
system that requires authors to “structure” communications channels. Furthermore,
the communication into defined fields (such carriers are unable to personalize messages
as header, subject, greeting, or closing) that based on individual customer
the system can parse. characteristics.
In addition, disparate platforms gather Even with a good content management
massive amounts of data (such as system, a carrier can’t necessarily eliminate
The disjointed information from customer interactions, the “solo” effect. Without a centralized and
approach to social media, and third parties) to gain well-thought-out governance framework for
insights into customer behavior. However, customer communications in place, it is
managing
these platforms are rarely connected. difficult to ensure that authors create
customer structured content, promote collaboration
communications in What is the impact? across groups, manage the central storage of
most insurance The disjointed approach to managing content in the appropriate format, and avoid
carriers today customer communications in most redundant local copies.
impedes the entire insurance carriers today impedes the entire
While most carriers might have some
content lifecycle, from creation through
content lifecycle, business rules and processes in place, they
distribution.
from creation are often inconsistent, uncoordinated, and
through The lack of connection between data systems distributed across a number of technology
means that carriers can’t make the best use platforms and business divisions.
distribution.
of the data to understand customer needs
This can result in carriers contacting
and preferences and to optimize customer
customers too frequently, through many
interactions. Instead, carriers often end up
different channels, and with messages
flooding customers with too much of the
irrelevant or inappropriate to their lifestyles,
wrong information.
situations, and current insurance coverage.
A lack of coordination among departments
also leads to an inability to search through
and reuse content, resulting in content
creators reinventing the wheel. Departments
might even store and use their own copies of
traditionally shared content (such as a logo
or disclaimer), thereby missing important
updates made on a central server.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 4Our recommendations
We recommend a holistic, centralized Create a centralized communications
customer communications strategy that puts rules repository and editor to help ensure
in place the right governance structure and that all business functions consistently
technology capabilities. apply production, management, and
distribution rules previously distributed
In our view, there are two pieces to the across technology platforms. These rules
equation. The first half involves centralized might include triggers, preconditions, or
governance for the creation, management, actions for both regulated and
and distribution of both regulated content unregulated communications. A
(such as bills or policy statements) and business-friendly rules editor helps
unregulated content (such as marketing streamline and speed the process for
materials). The other half of the equation is updating these rules.
the implementation of appropriate
technology capabilities to support a firm’s Identify appropriate technology
chosen customer communications capabilities
objectives. Once we examine these two
pieces, we briefly discuss how to get started. While not all carriers will require the same
capabilities, we recommend that you
Centralize governance consider the following when investing in
content management solutions:
We suggest that carriers:
Capability 1: Effective content
Establish a centralized governing body to organization
enforce communications rules and
Federated search and library functions,
policies across all functions. This body
metadata, and taxonomies facilitate
should be responsible for developing and
collaboration by making it easier to find
approving the rules for frequency,
content stored on other departments’
prioritization, and consolidation of
servers. Library functions, such as check-
customer communications. For example,
out/check-in, help ensure version control
the rules might suppress mailings of
and leave an audit trail. Metadata and
marketing material to customers who
taxonomies make content more useful and
have filed claims or limit marketing
searchable. For example, metadata provides
messages to three per month across all
structure and context for content while
communications channels.
taxonomies, or controlled vocabularies,
Establish common governance processes promote consistent organization.
to support content consistency and reuse,
as well as increased collaboration among
business units and functions. For
example, establish a shared content
calendar so teams can coordinate
communications and make them relevant
to both the activities of other
departments and external events.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 5Capability 2: Efficiency and An event log records all developments in a
reusability customer’s life that could potentially trigger
a communication. This helps the insurance
Carriers should adopt structured, topic-
company to automate personalization and
based authoring with a content management
tailor content and presentation based on
system that requires the use of fields. This individual needs and preferences. For
enables carriers to take advantage of
example, when a customer’s child becomes
dynamic publishing and multichannel
old enough to drive, the marketing
delivery. In essence, structured authoring department might email birthday greetings,
gives authors the power to “create once,
along with educational materials for a new
publish everywhere,” while maintaining a
driver and any applicable discounts.
single source document or image. Authors
then send consistent content to print, web, Capability 4: Metrics and
and/or mobile outlets. When content is measurement
revised, the system automatically updates all Analytics measure communication
related documents regardless of location, effectiveness, assess the engagement level,
presentation format, or channel. The system and inform the creation and production
also automates and streamlines workflow, process for further improvement. Methods
reduces errors, and permits easy can include multivariate testing for web
maintenance and reuse of content. One of channels; click and bounce rates for emails;
the primary advantages of this type of clicks, likes, and re-tweets for social media;
system is the inherent separation of content and response rates for direct mail.
from its presentation, which allows mixing
and matching of different information Leading insurers tie all these capabilities
components as needed for different together across the content lifecycle. In
publication formats and multiple Figure 2, we illustrate what a mature
presentations of the same content. This customer communications management
decoupling means that authors, editors, and (CCM) model should look like.
designers can update content and formatting
independently.
Capability 3: Customer insight and
personalization
Customer interaction and event logs
facilitate contact optimization, automated
personalization, and cross-functional
coordination. Governance rules for contact
consolidation and frequency can keep
insurance companies from overwhelming
customers with content. An interaction log
maintains a record of all communications
sent, creating a “single view” for each
customer that permits even finer calibration
of communications.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 6Figure 2: Robust CCM system capabilities can improve operational efficiency,
collaboration, and the customer experience across the content lifecycle.
Get started Our research shows a convergence of
content creation and distribution
How a carrier implements content
management technologies in the market. In
governance and management will vary
addition, many vendors are expanding their
greatly depending on its operating model
suite of offerings by integrating CCM with
and organizational culture. Some may opt to
web content management systems and other
start small, piloting the concept in several
digital offerings. Furthermore, some vendors
departments or lines of business before
are offering new delivery models, such as
extending it across the organization. Others
cloud-based software as a service, and they
may take a “big bang” approach that
continue to incorporate features for social,
addresses all lines of business, business
mobile media, and analytics. As carriers
processes, and content types together.
make the move to invest in CCM platforms,
Some carriers may want to outsource part or they should align their objectives and
all of their implementation, depending on investments to the future technology
their strategy. In those cases, it is important landscape based on the vendors with whom
to keep in mind that, at the moment, no one they work, since not all vendors support the
vendor offers all these capabilities in a single different capabilities just described.
CCM system. However, platforms continue
to evolve.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 7What this means for your business
Insurance companies face a lack of Carriers that lag behind may lose out to
centralized governance over content competitors whose communications are less
creation, management, and distribution. irritating and frustrating for customers.
Without coordination among departments
or consistently applied rules for why, when, At the end of the day, the goal of any
and how often the company should “reach insurance carrier should be to ensure that
out and touch” each customer, it’s easy for their customers feel understood,
local departmental practices to take over. appreciated, and protected. With the proper
This not only leads to each department technology and governance in place,
going “solo,” it also results in too many valuable customers—such as Jack and
irrelevant, inconsistent, or even conflicting Monica—would have remained loyal
customer communications. customers of UNeed for years to come, most
likely purchasing additional products when
In addition to a lack of governance, most the time was right.
carriers don’t have the technology to support
the effective use of multiple channels, such When carriers move away from a disparate
as web, mobile, and social media. Content collection of “solo” communications and
assembly processes cling to the labor- towards a “symphony” of content that is
intensive processes of the 20th century, and harmonized across the organization, the
systems often don’t make it easy to reuse or results can, indeed, be powerful.
share content with different business units
and functions.
In our view, leading carriers who implement
a mature customer communications
management system will gain a competitive
advantage in the market driven by cost
savings, efficiency gains, and increased
customer engagement.
From solos to symphony:
How insurers can harmonize customer communications 8www.pwc.com/fsi
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“From solos to symphony: How insurers can harmonize customer communications,” PwC, October 2015, www.pwc.com/fsi
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