Chatbots at Insurance Companies - 5 Best Practice Examples

Chatbots are already widely used by insurance companies on their websites as digital assistants. They perform various support functions. The range includes sales, service, but also more and more customer consulting. A great added value for the insurance company is on the one hand the simplicity of contacting the customer and on the other hand the round-the-clock availability of the bot without waiting times. We present some examples of very successful insurance bots.

Competition never sleeps, and an optimal customer experience at all touchpoints of the customer journey is very often a crucial argument for customers today when deciding for or against a particular insurance company. In recent years, numerous insurance companies have already introduced the chatbot as a digital touchpoint and additional contact channel, gathered initial experience, and further developed their bots based on customer feedback.

We have taken a closer look at 5 insurance bots from Switzerland and Germany and show you which functions, some of them complex, chatbots can support and how, in most cases, they dynamically evolve and take on additional use cases.

1. Chatbot «Alfred» sorts and triages incoming inquiries for ERGO 24/7

The German ERGO insurance company has deployed chatbot «Alfred» on its website. The bot is based on the Real Person Chat Suite from the German provider «optimise-it».

It sorts customer inquiries by content and categorizes them before forwarding them to an employee in the live chat. Alfred is what is known as a hybrid bot, as it is designed to forward customers to the right place. To do this, he does not need artificial intelligence, but works on the basis of predefined rules and processes. In this way, it also supports sales. He thus delights both customers and «colleagues» internally. Bot Alfred can handle many customer concerns directly in real time, or users can get help via live chat. This frees up time for service staff to deal with more individual concerns.

Alfred first clarifies what a request is about: for example, are there questions about the product, is a claim to be reported, or is it about a contract or insurance benefits? After the initial pre-selection, however, further differentiation is made. Does the inquiry concern dental insurance, private liability, car insurance, travel insurance, risk life or another product? Once a decision has been made, the customer is immediately forwarded to the appropriate expert with the right skills. This saves time and energy on both sides. Alfred is always on duty and supported 2020 on average with up to 23,000 inquiries per month. Learn more about it here.

Alfred is what is known as a hybrid bot, as it is designed to forward customers to the right place. To do this, he does not need artificial intelligence, but works on the basis of predefined rules and processes.

2. «Serge»,the service bot handles frequent requests for Simpego

«Serge», the bot in flamingo form of the Swiss Simpego insurance company welcomes customers in the service area of the website. Serge is based on the chatbot technology from aiaibot.

The bot receives the searchers and offers them a selection of topics on which it can provide assistance:

• Change of address
• Damage report
• Order of documents
• Questions about the processing status of my claim

When the claim is reported, Simpego clarifies, for example, the type of damage (glass breakage, natural hazards, damage in connection with animals, parking damage and/or vandalism), asks for all the necessary information and accepts the claim in its entirety. He then forwards the damage report by email to the relevant department, which then contacts the customer in a timely manner. In this way, Serge relieves the customer service team of a great deal of work and frees up staff time to deal with more complex cases. The customers are also very happy to use Serge's services. Learn more about it here.

3. «Clara» is Helvetia's digital assistant and works as a FAQ and info bot

On the home page of the Swiss Helvetia insurance company, potential or existing customers are greeted by chatbot Clara, who asks how she can help them. Clara is an intelligent bot. She is equipped with Artificial Intelligence and can also work with free-text input. Here, there are no suggested topics to click on; instead, visitors type in what they want to know. Clara points out right at the beginning that it understands short sentences or keywords best. Clara's goal is to answer standard questions on her own or to direct searchers to the right information or to the right place. Clara can answer many of the most common questions in this way, so they don't even get as far as customer service.

One popular use case for Clara is reporting a bicycle theft. Around 25% of those affected use this service, which allows them to trigger a payout directly and within just 90 seconds. Clara can also actively help in the event of storm damage, which has unfortunately been a frequent occurrence recently. When the phones are ringing off the hook, Clara assists customers with their damage reports at any time and without any waiting time. Chatbot Clara is based on the open source conversational AI software from «Rasa».  Learn more about it here.

Clara is an intelligent bot. She is equipped with Artificial Intelligence and can also work with free-text input. Here, there are no suggested topics to click on; instead, visitors type in what they want to know.

4. Chatbot «Ada»is the multi-talent that works for AXA as a service and info bot that also sorts

The Swiss insurance company AXA also works with a digital assistant called «Ada». The core technology of the AXA chatbot is based on the Microsoft Bot Framework.

But Ada also helps internally. Employees use her to quickly and efficiently retrieve information that they don't have by heart at the moment, for example, when questions are asked about the reimbursability of certain medications. Instead of spending a lot of time looking for it, they simply ask Ada, who is always on duty and never busy on the phone.

In any case, Ada saves a lot of time for both sides and offers a very pleasant customer experience. It will certainly continue to develop for a long time to come and include new use cases in its repertoire.

5. Chatbot «Sympi»helps Sympany Insurance as marketing and sales bot

Chatbot «Sympi» supports Sympany Insurance in marketing and sales and, like its colleague Alfred from ERGO Insurance, is a so-called hybrid chatbot; this means that customers can also be connected to an insurance expert via live chat during office hours if the chatbot is unable to help. Sympi is available around the clock to provide advice on insurance offers. The chatbot is particularly busy in the fall, when people are busy researching health insurance companies with more attractive insurance premiums.

In its first peak season, Sympi already succeeded in concluding around 400 additional contracts on the basis of offers ordered through it. However, Sympi is still being continuously improved and also takes on customer service tasks for existing customers, who can also benefit from its round-the-clock availability. It is easy to see that the chatbot not only improves the customer experience, but also provides great added value and relief for the customer service team. Learn more about it here.

Chatbots are meanwhile part of the state-of-the-art channel offering of insurance companies

The many chatbots that are already being used very successfully by insurance companies today and the various use cases covered by the digital helpers clearly show that the bots make sense and generate added value at every touchpoint of the customer journey. Be it in customer acquisition, consulting, support of existing customers or in the service area - everywhere a chatbot offers great advantages for all parties involved. Of course, the round-the-clock availability of the chatbot greatly enhances the benefits of this digital channel.

The many chatbots that are already being used very successfully by insurance companies today and the various use cases covered by the digital helpers clearly show that the bots make sense and generate added value at every touchpoint of the customer journey.

When choosing the chatbot software, it is important to inform oneself sufficiently in advance about the numerous providers on the market and to clarify which software best suits one's own needs before making the choice. In any case, it is important to use chatbot software that can evolve with the individual use cases and the needs of the company, which can change over time, for example, if the chatbot is to be equipped with additional functions.

If a company offers its customers the opportunity to contact the company digitally and at any time, to obtain advice or information quickly and efficiently, and to solve certain problems independently, this can be decisive for concluding a contract and thus for gaining new customers.