10/31/2024
Blog
Recently, The Washington Post published an article entitled Sick of Scams? Stop Answering Your Telephone.
For some people, that may be the most obvious statement of the year, but this type of advice poses a huge problem for others, including the insurance industry which still relies on outbound telephone calls to meet customers’ needs.
A significant chunk of your customer base wants to communicate with you over the telephone, especially when it comes to discussing complex and urgent matters or personal and financial information. According to the 2024 TransUnion® Insurance Consumer Survey, 31% of consumers said a telephone call is their preferred mode of communicating about managing an existing insurance policy, and 40% preferred to submit or follow up a claim via the telephone instead of the web, an email or text, or mobile app.
Furthermore, while 86% of insurers agreed the telephone channel is the most important outbound contact channel, an astounding 88% of business calls go unanswered, according to TransUnion data and the TransUnion-Forrester report, the State of Customer Outreach: Top Ten Findings for Insurance.
Consumers increasingly are fearful of fraud, and rightfully so. According to the Federal Trade Commission, in 2023, fraud losses passed $10 billion — with imposter scams topping the list. It turns out scammers love to contact people by telephone: This channel has the highest fraud loss per incident — a high $1,480 median loss per person.
The TransUnion Trust in Calls Consumer Survey (cited in the eBook, Reaching Customers by Phone Feel Like a Fairy Tale?) discovered 66% of consumers aren’t answering because they’re worried an unknown caller could be a scammer, and 73% assume they’re robocalls or unwanted offers.
Even your existing customers — with whom you already have relationships — aren’t likely to pick up. Consider these findings from a 2022 Forrester study commissioned by Neustar, a TransUnion company:
· 67% won’t answer if it’s an unknown caller
· 51% do not trust calls
· 49% are worried about fraud
Beyond customers and prospects becoming wiser to fraud and taking steps to protect themselves, many calls are being blocked or mislabeled as spam. In fact, 69% of insurers estimated 21%–40% of their calls were being blocked, while 89% said over 10% of their calls were being mislabeled as spam, as reported in the whitepaper, Enterprise Call Experience: Insurance.
Ultimately, your calls may not be getting through at all, and if they come from “Unknown,” the chances of someone answering are decreasing by the day.
With so many other communication tools — website, email, social media, apps — is the cost of missed telephone connections actually that high?
Yes. For starters, 75% of insurers said they lost more than 10% of revenue due to call blocking and mistagging in the last year, according to OMDIA Research. The same research found a quarter of respondents are getting lower answer rates than they were a year ago. And nearly half of respondents said more than 20% of their outbound calls are being mislabeled by cell telephone providers as spam — and that's a big problem.
Those calls are often about important issues like understanding consumers' coverage needs, appointment scheduling, servicing a claim, payment reminders or (ironically) fraud alerts. When customers don't pick up, insurers need to keep trying to get in touch, which increases costs and reduces customer satisfaction.
While it’s easy to quantify the loss of consumers not answering sales calls, it’s harder to put a number on losses associated with the degradation of the customer experience. Approximately 73% of consumers have not answered a call — only to later learn it was legitimate. Also, 58% received important calls they didn’t answer, according to the TransUnion Trust in Calls Consumer Survey. These are vital touch points with customers that aren’t happening, and it’s eroding service and satisfaction.
Furthermore, spoofing and fraudulent robocalls hurt your brand’s reputation, which could seriously impact your profitability for the long term.
The good news is you can take steps to prove to customers it’s you calling and give them the confidence to answer. We found that 76% of respondents to the TransUnion Trust in Calls Consumer Survey were likely to answer calls from businesses they work with if the company displayed their name and logo. Additionally 71% were interested in a caller name service on their mobile telephones — the most important feature to respondents.
That said, truly building consumer trust requires a one-two punch. Branded calls without authentication may enable more effective fraud, and 57% of respondents to the survey indicated “verification the call has not been spoofed” is a top feature.
To summarize, the best way to get your customers to answer when you call is to:
TruContact™ Trusted Call Solutions help you promote your businesses while protecting your customers and brand — while enriching the call experience, increasing answer rates and mitigating revenue loss. Explore these three powerful solutions:
To learn more, visit TruContact™ Trusted Call Solutions webpage.