Ten Ways IVR Can Power Your Insurance Growth

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is doing a lot to power company growth for major players in life, health and P&C insurance. So, what can it do for you?

1. Give you better info with less effort. For example, Humana uses IVR to provide insurers with a wealth of member info, including referral requirements, lifetime maximums, status updates on all your claims, and more. For example, it can confirm member coverage and the date that coverage began. It can initiate requests for inpatient admission and non-HMO outpatient preauthorization. And the list goes on.
2. Collect more payments at lower cost to you. With IVR, insureds can make payments by phone any day, any time of day – no labor on your part required.
3. Improve payment data security. IVR systems have a PCI Level-1 certification, using redundant systems and geographically dispersed data centers to keep confidential healthcare information HIPAA-compliant.
4. Free your representatives to take more advanced requests. For example, MetLife is using IVR to empower life insurance customers to self-serve. As a result, its customer service representatives are free to focus on the advanced requests that deserve more attention. This is good for both customer and insurer: according to Todd Fusco (MetLife VP of business planning), 74 percent of customers say they’re “very satisfied,” compared to an industry average of 53 percent.
5. Ensure your customers get a fast, relevant response. According to Robin Gomez (Radial) on The State of IVRs in 2018 webinar, 76 percent of customers see customer service as the true test of how much a company values them. If you can improve the speed and quality of your service with IVR, you’re also sending a clear message to your customers about how much you care.
6. Escalate the smart way. Let’s say an auto policyholder runs into an issue. IVR can collect data to make sure they’re sent to the right department, and assign them a routing number, so they’re sure to get the right agent.
7. Personalize the service experience in a positive way. IVR recognizes callers, meaning it can personalize greetings, proactively reach out when needed, cross-sell, and predict outcomes.
8. Prevent fraud. Caller recognition means that IVR can also help authenticate the interaction to prevent fraud.
9. Answer customer questions. Callers can use IVR to check status and rates, get policy information, find an agent, and get payment reminders.
10. Get a faster First Notices of Loss. Because IVR can take customer calls at any time, and also organize and route the information it receives, it can deliver a faster first notice of loss.

Ready to add IVR to your payment platform? Silvervine equips you to accept transactions over the phone. Find out more.