How brokers can leverage social media

Savvy brokers can get ahead by using social media for customer engagement – with some caveats in mind

How brokers can leverage social media

Business strategy

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Social media is quickly gaining ubiquity as insurance agencies use the platforms to support their sales and customer engagement initiatives. Insurance Technologies Corporation president Laird Rixford notes that social media platforms have evolved into a “powerful” sales and service tool because they allow insurers to be where their customers are. However, Rixford emphasizes the need for agencies to deliver “a consistent experience” across all platforms they use to interact with their clients.

“A consumer should feel they are talking to the same person or the same group of people, no matter what kind of channel they are speaking on,” Rixford says. “They talk to you in your office, they call you on the phone, they interact with you over email, or they interact with you over social media. You need to make sure they have a consistent experience throughout. You don’t have a short, unfriendly experience when they are on social media, then have a long-winded relationship over the phone. It needs to be cohesive so that they work together.”

Rixford adds that the current technology climate has its limitations, making agents and brokers as necessary a part of the sales and service equation as the social media tools they use. He explains that when AI and social media channels fail, which they tend to do at some of the most inopportune moments, policyholders are still inclined make a phone or video call to engage in an interactive, realtime conversation with their insurance agent. Rixford also cautions brokers and agents to recognize the limitations of the security infrastructure supporting these platforms,
and refrain from using them to transmit and exchange sensitive data, especially relating to policy information.

The picture might be different five years down the line, Rixford adds, highlighting the fact that technologies such as machine learning take time to deliver the kind of support needed to enable customer service representatives and producers to focus on “doing what they do best,” which is cultivating long-term relationships with the insurance market.

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