Speech technology increases client satisfaction

Insurance has to be more user-friendly and accessible. For how long have we been hearing that now? Insurance companies, sector associations, regulators, consumer associations – everyone says the same. Until now, however, we have seen very little action. But that is about to change. One of the main things that will help this is speech technology. On 1 November, together with IBM, Keylane gave a foretaste of what this will be like.

Dreaming about user convenience

Take out insurance in 3 minutes. Or report damage in a jiffy. Have you ever dreamt of this? As a customer being able to report your damage in no time without paper. Or as an insurance company to be able to offer this possibility. No more large screens with completion fields, lists to be ticked, dropdown menus and other annoyances. No, simply telling your smartphone what you want or what has happened. Whereupon the smartphone converts everything into a request for insurance or a damage report. Mobile and 24/7! This is not a thing of the future, but a new reality.

Speech technology is approaching human perfection

In recent years speech technology has made great leaps and bounds and is becoming increasingly embedded in our society. Operating your smartphone or navigation system with your voice is faster and easier than by hand. Research by Google published last month shows that more than 55% of American teenagers use speech recognition on a daily basis. This month Microsoft will announce that its error percentage during speech recognition is virtually the same as that of a human.

IBM is also making huge progress with Watson. Speech is recognised and translated. Texts are produced or read. Spoken text can be recorded directly and processed without any human assistance. A fantastic addition to Keylane software and reason to demonstrate where this can take us during our client event. During a live demonstration spoken text was digitised in realtime and processed directly by Keylane software into a transaction that was further processed by existing systems.

Buttons and icons make way for speech

2017 will be the year of speech recognition. In the car, on the smartphone and soon at home as well. The talking and thinking microwave is quite literally a telling example of today’s user convenience. Gartner predicts that within 5 years 20% of the companies will have said goodbye to traditional Apps and 30% of the web browsing will be done without a screen.

Insurance companies seeking to reduce their processing costs must make client Self Service more convenient and embrace speech recognition! This applies both for quotes and for cancellations as well as for reporting damage where self service is still very small scale. Each obstacle you remove is a step forward in client satisfaction. With speech technology you don’t take a step forward, but a leap.

User convenience on its own is not enough

Remember! Combine speech technology with properly designed processes in your back office. Make sure that the client can go through the process step by step using the device of his or her preference – the so-called omnichannel principle. That consultant, repairer, client and insurer all have access to the same up-to-date information.   Investing in speech technology alone is insufficient. The processing in the back office needs to be looked at too. This produces two benefits at once. Both your client satisfaction and efficiency will increase!

Do you want to improve user convenience and efficiency? The ball’s in your court

Is start speech recognition already on your agenda for 2017? Let us know! We’re ready to take that leap forward at your side.