Increasingly, insurers are embarking on the social media journey, each formulating its own brand and strategy. Despite the uniqueness of each journey, there are seven points that an insurer should note about social media.
The insurance industry needs social media more
Insurance is not something that is always on people’s minds and it is a complex product that nobody wants to talk about regularly, hence, social media (SM) is not a suitable tool for the industry, say opponents.
On the contrary, Ms Veronique Meffert, Head of Group Digital Marketing, Great Eastern Life Assurance Co Ltd, said: “This is exactly why social media is important for products and services that traditionally have low engagement and low purchase frequency. Social media is a great way to create more regular engagement with customers. It requires listening to them, understanding what they need and adding value to their daily life.”
Concurring, Mr Mukesh Kumar – Member of Executive Management of HDFC ERGO; Head Marketing & Strategy Planning, said: “Insurance is often considered as a sophisticated subject. Social media can help us to better connect with customers as we are able to arrange quick and swift sharing of insurance tips and advices, regulatory updates, information about launches of new products and other business related contents effectively.”
Giving an example of presenting content in the form of easy-to-understand visuals, Ms Ho Lee Yen, Chief Marketing Officer of AIA Singapore, said that the simplified protection visual on “Disability Income”, in line with the launch of the company’s disability product last year was very well-received by consumers. “We have since developed a series to explain other life insurance policies including term plans and investment-linked policies, among others.”
These easy-to-understand visual content are also popular among the Financial Services Consultants who regularly use them to provide a basic explanation about the different policies before going into details, added Ms Ho.
Reluctance could be more costly than imagined
The reluctance to embrace social media is not unique to the insurance industry. “We see quite a few companies across industries reluctant to embrace social media engagement. The question is whether the impact of this reluctance is costing them more business than they imagine,” said Ms Meffert. “Consumers now increasingly look for information and peer recommendation on the website and, increasingly, social media is their preferred channel of engagement.”
Today and in the future, social media is not about immediate sales, but it is becoming crucial in building a strong, emotional bond with the relevant audiences. And that is essential to drive revenue, she added. So not embracing it may be more costly than one imagines.
Mr Kumar also said: “We consider social media as a good interactive tool for brand promotion and apt for the growing demand of today’s technology savvy environment.”
Top management support is crucial
“We are fortunate that the top management recognises the importance and value of social media and strongly champion it. They recognise that customers are more sophisticated and discerning, have higher expectations and are more IT-savvy,” said Ms Meffert. “This is why we have invested significantly in building up our social media capabilities, particularly in the last two years.”
For AIA Singapore, Ms Ho said: “The team invested significant resources to develop a robust social media strategy at the very beginning of our journey, detailing the importance of social media for the business and providing assurance that our initiatives would complement customer service and other aspects of our organisation. AIA Singapore’s social media initiative is part of the company’s systematic approach to demonstrate the understanding of the real issues faced by our customers in their journey through life, strengthening our relationships with policyholders, the online community and families in Singapore.”
Support agents who are the face of the company
Even for companies that utilise social media, some have not granted approval to their agents for fear of misrepresentation or running afoul of regulations over often instantaneous communication on social media platforms that insurers have no control over. However, it is important that insurers provide the necessary support for agents, who are the face of the company in the market.
Ms Meffert said: “We strongly encourage our agents to use social media to engage with their network of customers, friends, family and business partners. Other than sharing best practices with them, we also provide a structured framework as well as conduct social media training for them to enable them to deliver the highest standards in financial advice and for them to do their work efficiently and effectively.”
Likewise Ms Ho said there are guiding principles for its agency force to follow when utilising social media and assistance is also given to leaders and FSCs who seek guidance in using social media during the course of their work.
Getting started
“One of our first initiatives was to set social media guidelines which included a clear process for online communication,” said Ms Ho. “It also set the tone for online conversations and how we would respond to inquiries and comments. This would ensure that our social media initiatives are always in alignment with our company’s values and business objectives.”
An important principle AIA Singapore holds to is: “What applies offline also applies online. We firmly comply with regulatory and industry guidelines in all our communication efforts, including those on our social media platforms,” she said. “We place equal importance on our online posts as we do in traditional media.”
Also, different markets may have different readiness or need for social media. Instead of waiting for a group or regional approach, it may be advisable for a country’s unit which is ready to lead the way. Ms Ho said that AIA Singapore is one of the first within AIA Group to pioneer and make a real change to its social media engagement.
Treat complaints as feedback to make it right
What stops some from getting on social media platforms is the fear of complaints and negative feedback that consumers may post. But that could be a little too short-sighted. If such feedback is not on your social media platforms where you can act on and rectify immediately, they may be gathering pace somewhere else in cyberspace.
While Ms Meffert agreed that comments and complaints are almost inevitable on social media platforms, she said that they should be treated as valuable feedback that needs to be dealt with quickly and in a timely manner.
“They help us understand what our customers need that we are not offering today – or not offering at the level they expect. This gives invaluable insights and has helped us deliver a differentiated customer experience. We have set up clear processes to deal with feedback,” she said. Today, a key communication channel for Great Eastern is Facebook where it has more than 43,000 fans, and Ms Meffert added that other than complaints, the public also posts enquiries and praises alike.
Likewise, Ms Ho said: “This is where our social media guidelines and policies come into play, ensuring that we respond swiftly to their queries and provide assistance accordingly.” To get further feedback, there is also a “Contact us” tab on its Facebook page which allows fans and policyholders who have specific questions about the page or their policies to contact the company directly and keep their privacy. “These initiatives complement our existing customer service system, providing policyholders another platform to ask questions, share feedback and seek assistance,” she said.
Being on social media reinforces the need for transparency to earn and maintain trust, added Ms Ho. “We do not delete comments unless they do not comply with our house rules of using expletives etc and respond with public online post to close the loop on comments from our fans. This not only builds on the trust and credibility our fans have entrusted in us, it also lives AIA Singapore’s message that we genuinely care about our customers’ real issues and are committed to serving them.”
Mr Kumar said that if complaints do arise on its social media platforms, HDFC ERGO resolves them on real-time basis with utmost importance. Taking it a step further, there is also a dedicated team to monitor and track blogs regularly in order to respond to complaints on short notice,
he said.
Test, measure, improve
Once started, the only way to get better at it is as Ms Meffert put it – “test, measure, and improve”. “Consumer behaviour is constantly evolving, and so should our efforts to engage them,” she said. And some of the key lessons Great Eastern glimpsed so far in its social media journey include listening to consumers and defining key objectives, roles and resources for each platform.
And for the metrics used in defining success, she said: “Our foray into the social media space is relatively recent. At this stage we measure our success in many different ways. Depending on the social media network used, and the phase of the development we’re in for that specific platform, our KPIs include number of fans, views, reach, buzz value, clicks, positive mentions, leads generated.”
As for AIA Singapore, Ms Ho said, “We measure the success of our social media efforts by looking at the overall level of engagement and fan base. We are pleased to share that we currently have more than 13,000 Facebook fans to date with among the highest level of engagement in Singapore’s insurance industry.”