Chatbots enable insurers to scale complex use cases, automate claims, and provide frictionless customer experiences. Let’s have a look at some of the best examples for 2024.

What is an insurance chatbot?

An insurance chatbot is a virtual assistant that enables seamless communication between insurers and their customers. Insurance chatbots can handle simple use cases like FAQ automation, or more complex ones like customer onboarding and policy comparisons. 

In fact, most insurers find that they can fully automate up to 80% of cases with chatbots. However, when necessary, the bot can also hand over the conversation to a human agent. Therefore making a chatbot a must-have tool for any insurance customer service department.

Why do insurance chatbots matter now?

After an accident, loss, or theft, it’s understandable for customers to be anxious or distressed. That’s why, as an insurer, you want to deal with each claim as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Chatbots can help you achieve this and in turn, alleviate customer anxiety.

This is increasingly important today, as most insurers now compete primarily on the basis of customer experience. Customers are looking for providers that simplify their claims processes, keeping them satisfied, loyal, and willing to recommend to others. 

When we keep in mind that more than 30% of customers switch their insurers within a year after one poor claim experience, it is clear what significant value an effectively-integrated chatbot can have on customer retention.

Benefits of using an insurance chatbot:

Reduce average handle time

AHT (Average Handling Time) is the most common metric that contact centers and CS departments use to measure efficiency, which is why it is such a key metric for insurers. 

Taking into consideration the high volume of tickets that insurance CS departments receive, even a small reduction in AHT will affect the bottom line.

Reduce costs

With a chatbot helping reduce the AHT for each query, you will also be freeing up more of your agents' time. This time is then able to be used on more complex queries, rather than the same, repetitive tasks that can be automated easily. The more you reduce the pressure on your support teams, the more you can save on labor costs.

Improve customer satisfaction

In insurance, the client is the top priority, and they should feel it. The quicker a client’s queries are resolved, the happier they will be, which is why insurance chatbots have such an impact on CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Scores). In fact, Hubtype helped one of Spain’s leading insurance companies automate roadside assistance requests through WhatsApp. They were able to reduce calls by almost 50% and increase their CSAT to 9.2/10. 

Insurance chatbot use cases

Automate claims

Insurance chatbots streamline the claims process exponentially. Customers are able to choose which type of claim they want to make, provide the necessary information and photos, and then submit the claim, all within the comfort of a single conversation. 

Not only this, but customers are able to make claims 24/7, without needing to wait for contact center opening times or an agent to become available. Hubtype’s insurance partners are able to resolve claims 5x faster, and reduce contact centers calls by up to 50%. 

This is one of the ways in which an insurance chatbot can help lower the average cost per claim. Hubtype has helped insurers reduce the cost of a claims journey by as much as 80%.

Onboard customers

Onboarding new customers is often a complex journey involving labor-intensive steps. These steps cause delays and additional costs, which can lead to poor customer experience. By automating these time-consuming processes with a conversational app, you can create a better, faster onboarding experience for both you and your customers. 

Manage policy renewals

Insurance chatbots can help customers easily renew their policy - and pay for it - all within one conversation. By integrating payment services, your customers can experience a smooth and seamless renewal process. The time of renewal is also the perfect opportunity to cross-sell and upsell to clients. Conversational insurance makes doing this easier, which means an increase in revenue per policyholder.

Send proactive notifications

Helpful reminders can drive revenue. Conversation insurance allows for the automation of personalized notifications for your customers. Policy renewal reminders, customized offers, weather updates, and more. Setting up triggers and notifications adds transparency to the claims process. The more up-to-date customers are about their claims, the higher the rate of customer satisfaction.

Connect customers to dedicated advisors

For those particularly complex cases, your insurance chatbot can handoff to a human advisor. Hubtype is the secure way to connect customers with expert insurance advisors easily through their personal devices. The combination of both automated and human communication, allows agents to foster relationships which yield renewals, upsells, and cross-sells.

Automate FAQs

One of the many time-savers of an insurance chatbot, is being able to automate FAQs. This enables you to answer your customers’ most common questions in a natural and fluid way, which feels like a conversation. Being able to solve their queries quickly and frictionlessly through self-service, is what keeps customers satisfied and loyal.

Best Insurance chatbot examples

Driver Insurance

Here you can see an example of an insurance conversational app in action. In this demo the customer responds to a promotional notification from the app which is upselling an additional policy type for said customer. Then, using the information provided, the bot is able to generate a quote for them instantaneously. The customer can then find their nearest store and get connected with an agent to discuss the new policy, all within a matter of seconds. 

JKV insurance

Another great example of how conversational apps can improve customer experience for insurers is this claims journey. This demo shows just how quickly a customer is able to make a claim on their car insurance. Through this bot they can upload all the relevant information and photos for their claim with just a few clicks of a button. Faster resolutions, and happier customers. 

Must-have insurance chatbot features

Seamless chatbot-human handoff

Sometimes there is a need for assistance from a human agent, in these cases what differentiates a good chatbot from a bad one, is being able to provide a smooth handoff process. All Hubtype’s conversational apps allow for seamless chatbot-human handoff. 

Rich elements (not just text)

One of the major things that make Hubtype’s conversational apps unique, is their rich elements. These graphical elements such as images, buttons, links and more, go much further than text-only chatbots in providing frictionless customer experiences.

Expert support and guidance

Great customer experience starts way before the claim process, by providing customers with the relevant information and education. Conversational insurance helps eliminate the frustration and confusion that leads to customer service calls, or worse, customer churn. The better the level of support and guidance you are able to provide to your customers, the more satisfied and loyal they are going to be. They are also more likely to recommend your service to others, as Conversational Insurance is proven to increase NPS by 2X.

How to get started

Are you ready to get the conversation going? At Hubtype, we understand the unique challenges and opportunities that insurance companies face. That’s how we have helped some of the world’s leading insurance companies meet their customers on messaging channels. If you think yours could be next, book a demo with us today to find out more.