The Journey From Prospect to Customer Should Be Anything but Tedious

Picture this: after weeks of procrastination, you finally decide to give your health the importance it deserves and sign up for an online fitness and nutrition program. You log onto their website and choose the program that best suits your needs. You are then led to a link with necessary details of the program, make the payment, and soon receive a confirmation e-mail and SMS.

In less than ten minutes, you’ve secured yourself a program that promises to help you take care of your health and nutrition. And, in less than ten minutes, the online program turned a prospect into a customer. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if your insurance company could do the same?

Insurance extends beyond health, so leave no prospect uninsured

In a contrasting scenario, picture this: a prospect decides to buy an insurance policy, to help cover his/her health, life, home or financial assets. The prospect logs on to the website, fills in the details required as part of the KYC process, selects the premium policy, receives a confirmation SMS and E-mail, and reaches the payment gateway. The payment is made, but there is no acknowledgement or confirmation email or SMS from the insurance company. How do you think this will make the customer feel about their choice of brand? Sounds like the perfect recipe to lose prospects at the altar of tedious onboarding, doesn’t it?

One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that a customer logs onto the website of an insurance provider after a fair amount of market research. Once they choose your brand, they expect the journey from prospect to customer to be smooth. New-age customers expect a personalized experience at every possible touch point spanning across multiple channels, such as print, mobile, web, and email for policy documents, renewal notices and self-service portals.

Had every step of the on-boarding process been seamlessly connected, this prospect would have easily turned into a customer, thereby making this provider adept at new business acquisition. In an alternative and successful scenario, the customer would have by now received a payment confirmation e-mail, Policy schedule and Policy document, and an SMS mentioning the required details.  This would not only lead to the acquisition of a new customer, but also increased trust in the brand.

Complex as it may sound making this journey a flawless one isn’t impossible

Customers nowadays have several customer experiences with different brands to choose from, and one flawed experience is enough to make them switch. This makes meeting their expectations slightly challenging. Extending great customer experience across various channels, such as direct sales, Affiliate, Branch, Web, and Mobile Apps is often easier said than done.

Integrating and connecting across all of these channels, and thereby ensuring an omnichannel experience, goes a long way when it comes to cashing in on new business opportunities and acquiring customers. A smooth onboarding experience ensures no prospect ever leaves without an insurance policy.