Blogs - Insurance Services Outsourcing
| Tweet Car Insurance--the role of Social Media in Insurance Sales |
| By Anish Nanavaty on 3/4/2010 10:50:37 AM |
Over the last year or so, the economic slowdown has taken its toll on insurance companies' top line. To survive, insurers have been forced to re-align their portfolios to focus on the sales of economically viable products.
During this downturn, communication channels have changed dramatically. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are now used by the insurance industry, helping insurers to build relationships with new classes stakeholders and customers.
Aggressive use of social media can help insurers to:
Target younger customers: Insurers must communicate through the right social media vehicle for each target audience segment. For example, social media is de riguer amongst young people; according to Pew Internet, the median age of Twitter users is 31 of MySpace, 27; Facebook, 26 and LinkedIn, 40.
Improve customer service and obtain faster feedback: Although previously treated as an extension of a company website, social media sites are becoming increasingly popular on a stand-alone basis. They can be used to cross sell, up sell, and convey information such as price changes. The key is to leverage social media to build brands, and disseminate value-added information on issues such as retirement and wealth management.
I rarely visit my insurer’s website, but I'm on Facebook several times a week. If I got an update on Facebook, I would see this as real value.
Provide customer support: An increasing number of companies now provide some sort of generic customer support via Twitter. The advantage is that Twitter adds a personal touch to otherwise impersonal news. Twitter and Facebook can also be used by customers to post feedback which will reach the company much faster than traditional media.
Create agent/broker communities: Almost all insurance companies have a network of agents and brokers through whom they sell products. By using social media, insurers can easily reach out to their networks with updated information on rates, discounts and other policy-related matters.
The challenge for insurance companies is to rapidly assess how social media can positively impact their business, stakeholders and customers. They must also develop mechanisms to monitor feedback, track responses, and discern emerging trends and opportunities before their competitors do. If they can do so, then social media will prove to be an extremely beneficial channel to market.
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Re: Tweet Car Insurance--the role of Social Media in Insurance Sales
Internal IT organizations choose to outsource for any number of reasons: to cut costs,
improve service, increase efficiency. Increasingly, they're seeking innovation from their
IT outsourcing partners, even though many don't have a clear picture of what innovation
means in the context of outsourcing. Thanks for the post.
| | |  | | | | By suvie on 5/22/2010 1:34:42 PM |
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