VoIP Solutions for Insurance
How VoIP is Transforming Communication in the Insurance Industry
The insurance business is all about relationships, and any phone call between a customer and an agent, broker, or claim rep has the potential to either foster positive relations or hurt them. What makes life difficult for insurance companies today is the fact that they need to handle more relationships, more compliance issues, and more competition and do so within the same communication framework they have had in place for years.
A purpose-built VoIP solution for insurance agencies, insurance companies, and insurance brokerage firms offers every member of the organization, from the independent agent who is out prospecting for customers to the claims adjuster working a tricky claim, the technology platform they need to get the job done right. The best system can boost prospecting, resolve claims faster, facilitate client communication, and help produce compliance documents.
No matter whether you run an independent agency at one location, manage a team of captive agents, or operate a full-scale insurance call center, there is a VoIP solution tailored to your needs and able to enhance the way you interact with your customers and prospects.
Independent Insurance Agents: Professional Communication at Any Scale
Independent agents usually work alone or in small groups. These types of independent agents require communication systems that convey professionalism, separate personal and business calls, and have an acceptable price tag. A VoIP solution from the cloud provides all of the features required by an independent agent:
- Professional business number that is separate from the agent’s personal mobile
- Automatic receptionist who answers calls professionally when the agent is not available
- Voicemail transcriptions sent via e-mail so messages can be sorted out immediately
- Access through the mobile application on any smartphone
- Call recordings
- Small monthly fee, which depends on the size of the agent’s practice
The fact that a single agent uses communication systems similar to those of large firms creates confidence in potential clients.
The Distinct Communication Needs of the Insurance Industry
High-Volume Prospecting and Lead Follow-up
The insurance industry is the most call-intensive industry in the country. Insurance agents and brokers use much of their working hours prospecting, contacting leads that have been purchased, and calling back policyholders who have lapsed on their policies. The success of such activities depends on how efficiently this is done. An agent who makes 40 productive calls a day is bound to succeed more than one who makes only 15 such calls. This usually depends on the phone system and not the effort of the agent.
Claims Communication and Policyholder Update
The claiming period is the time when customers can either establish strong loyalty with the insurance company or become dissatisfied forever. Customers are already stressed due to a car accident, flooding in their house, or health problems; therefore, the claims agent must communicate with them efficiently. Long wait times on the phone, unreturned calls, and lack of policy update communication while the claims are being made are some of the most common reasons why policyholders cancel their policies.
Regulatory Compliance and Communication Records
There are regulations both at the state and federal levels governing insurance, and record keeping for communications can be instrumental in complying with regulatory requirements and resolving disputes. Some of the states require that insurance firms keep records of customer communications about policy amendments, claim decisions, and coverage disputes. A VoIP service that features automatic call recording and secure storage of those recordings, along with proper access controls, will make it easy to have such records available at all times for either a regulatory audit or a legal case.
Managing a Distributed Agent Network
Many insurance companies have a scattered network of employees that consists of captive agents working in retail stores, independent agents working from a home office, and regional managers who are in the field most of the time. A cloud-based VoIP solution allows every member of the network to use the same professional communications platform and integrate with the same system wherever they happen to be located.
Essential VoIP Features for Insurance Agencies and Carriers
Power Dialer and Auto Dialer for Insurance Agents
Insurance agents who make a large number of outbound calls throughout the day can benefit greatly from having access to a power dialer. A power dialer automatically dials the next number on the list right after a call is finished or the agent notes that a certain number is unavailable. As a result, the time required to manually dial each number and leave a message on the voicemail decreases greatly, thus enabling an agent to engage in twice to thrice more real conversations during the course of the day.
TCPA Compliant Outbound Dialing
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act regulates automated calls and texts in the insurance industry. Noncompliance leads to per-call financial penalties that resulted in several multimillion-dollar lawsuits and settlements against insurance companies. A VoIP service compliant with the TCPA includes features such as do-not-call list management, time-restricted calling according to time zones, consent documentation, and auditing tools.
Local Presence Dialing
An insurance agent calling a particular geography will enjoy a greater percentage of answered calls if they are making calls that exhibit a local area code instead of a non-local one. With local presence dialing technology, insurance agents can automatically show their calls with a number reflecting the area code of the person they are calling irrespective of their location. It has been established in research that local presence calls have a higher answer rate ranging from 30% to 60% as compared to unrecognized calls.
CRM Integration for Policy and Client Management
Applied Epic, HawkSoft, AgencyZoom, and EZLynx are insurance-specific CRMs used by many independent agencies. When you integrate your VoIP phone system with your agency management system, the moment a customer calls, the customer information like policies, claim history, and notes about previous communications appear on your agent’s computer screen even before the connection is fully established. All the outbound calls made through your CRM are automatically recorded by it, and no additional documentation is required by the agent.
Voicemail Drop for Lead Follow-Up Campaigns
Insurance agents using purchased leads for follow-up frequently have the task of leaving the same core message many times over the course of a day. With voicemail drop, an agent is able to leave a pre-recorded message in one simple click whenever a voicemail recording prompt is detected and move on to the next phone number without needing to wait for the message to be delivered in its entirety. When properly developed, a voicemail drop leaves an initial positive impression and results in better callbacks than a generic or hurriedly delivered voice message.
Claims Department Call Routing and Queue Management
In a claims department, incoming calls will range from first notice of loss calls to status inquiries, settlement questions, and coverage disputes and will require different people to handle each call type. Skills-based routing will ensure the proper routing of a call the first time around without having to transfer a call multiple times. The first notice of loss call is routed to the intake specialist, while the settlement negotiation call should go to the appropriate level adjuster that can progress the process.
Who This Solution Is Right For
- Insurance agents who want to upgrade their current communications infrastructure
- Captive agency groups that require standard communication capabilities for all their agents
- Providers of life, health, auto, and property & casualty insurance that have high-volume outbound calling programs
- Claims departments who require skills-based routing, call recording, and automated status updating
- Companies that generate insurance leads and have high-volume outbound dialing programs with TCPA compliance requirements
- InsurTechs who are expanding their customer service operations in line with their policy expansion
Frequently Asked Questions
What is TCPA compliance, and why does it matter for insurance outbound calling?
TCPA compliance is an act that sets standards as to how businesses should communicate with their customers through telephones, including limiting automatic dialling of calls to cellphones with prior consent, setting time restrictions on outgoing calls, and mandatory compliance with the Do Not Call list. Insurance companies are among the most common defendants of TCPA lawsuits due to their high number of outgoing calls. A TCPA-compliant VoIP system integrates these requirements into the process of dialling itself.
How does voicemail drop work, and what makes a good insurance voicemail drop message?
Voicemail drop gives an opportunity for the agent to pre-record the message and then leave that message by simply clicking the button when a voicemail greeting begins. The best insurance voicemail drop message includes the name and company of the agent, the reason for calling—for example, getting a quote or renewing a policy—and the telephone number where customers can reach the agent back, and it is no longer than 30 seconds. Agents who try out two or three versions of a message will always have a better response rate from one of those messages.
Can an independent insurance agent afford a professional VoIP phone system?
Absolutely. Cloud-based VoIP is much cheaper than one would expect from this kind of equipment for an independent agent. Typically, it starts at $20-40 per month per user. Such a plan will include not only full functionality—business number, mobile app, transcription of voicemails, and call recording—but also provide a lot of value—such as a virtual receptionist or professional caller ID—that is important for client acquisition.
How do insurance claims departments use VoIP to improve the policyholder experience?
Insurance claims departments can leverage VoIP solutions to minimize the waiting time for their clients, using skills-based routing to ensure that the client gets connected to the proper specialist during the first attempt; call back and virtual queue options to avoid holding the policyholder on the line; automated updates via SMS/outbound call regarding the progress of their claim; and even call recording to ensure that there will be proof of all conversations.
Does our insurance agency need to record all calls, and how does VoIP support this?
Mandatory call recording policies for insurance companies differ from one state to another as well as from one line of business to another. In some cases, insurers are required to record and store conversations regarding claim decision-making or other issues. Though call recording might not be mandatory, most insurance companies still choose to record their calls out of precaution in case of future disputes and for monitoring and training purposes. VoIP software that has an automated call recording feature, secure cloud storage of recorded calls, and other options will easily help with that.
How quickly can a distributed insurance agency deploy VoIP across all its locations and remote agents?
VoIP technology has been developed specifically for distributed implementation. Within 30 minutes, a new remote agent can get his own business number, extension, and mobile access to the system. When implementing VoIP for 10-50 agents in a distributed insurance agency, the whole implementation process will take two to four weeks. There will be nothing to deliver to individual sites, and there won’t be any coordination with local telecommunication providers.
Can VoIP data help us identify which lead sources are producing the best-quality calls?
Yes. By attributing a unique phone number to each source of leads, each marketing channel, or each specific campaign, you will be able to monitor which sources yield the incoming calls, which conversion rates are achieved from these calls to quoted policies, and what is the average duration of the call per source. As a result, your agency or carrier will be able to direct its marketing budget to those sources that yield the highest quality of leads, not just the highest quantity of leads.
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