You write that “Face-to-face and even voice-to-voice human interaction is being supplanted by more impersonal communications” which is so true in every industry. But, as you rightly point out, to be successful in this industry, we need to speak with people, understand their needs and help get them into the right products.
But with some many digital channels to engage potential customers, how can you easily sort out with whom to have that personal engagement? How do you separate the real buyers from those who are just digitally exploring their options?
You could hire an army of staffers to handle every inquiry, but that’s hardly scalable nor cost efficient for most organizations.
Conversica (full disclosure: I work there) has tried to solve that challenge by introducing a practical application of artificial intelligence for insurance that automates some human tasks to actually free up staff time to have quality conversations with engaged and qualified leads.
The company provides a “digital virtual sales assistant” that reaches out over email to all the leads you get from advertising, social media, lead purchases, email marketing and your website. A natural, two-way dialogue ensues in which leads are engaged and qualified and then passed off to agents or other staffers to have quality conversations that result in more sales.
It’s a great way to engage potential customers with a personalized, consistent and persistent outreach that draws them out from behind the keyboard and ultimately connects them with a real person, and that’s after all what you correctly suggest will differentiate the successful agencies from the rest.
Excellent article, Alan.
You write that “Face-to-face and even voice-to-voice human interaction is being supplanted by more impersonal communications” which is so true in every industry. But, as you rightly point out, to be successful in this industry, we need to speak with people, understand their needs and help get them into the right products.
But with some many digital channels to engage potential customers, how can you easily sort out with whom to have that personal engagement? How do you separate the real buyers from those who are just digitally exploring their options?
You could hire an army of staffers to handle every inquiry, but that’s hardly scalable nor cost efficient for most organizations.
Conversica (full disclosure: I work there) has tried to solve that challenge by introducing a practical application of artificial intelligence for insurance that automates some human tasks to actually free up staff time to have quality conversations with engaged and qualified leads.
The company provides a “digital virtual sales assistant” that reaches out over email to all the leads you get from advertising, social media, lead purchases, email marketing and your website. A natural, two-way dialogue ensues in which leads are engaged and qualified and then passed off to agents or other staffers to have quality conversations that result in more sales.
It’s a great way to engage potential customers with a personalized, consistent and persistent outreach that draws them out from behind the keyboard and ultimately connects them with a real person, and that’s after all what you correctly suggest will differentiate the successful agencies from the rest.