Digital Transformation Puts Customers at the Heart of the Process
About State Compensation Insurance Fund
Assets
$400M+ in assets under management
People
24,000 members
Locations
6 Branches
Challenges
Complex line of insurance that is required for all California employers
Difficult application processes often required customer support
Wanted to shift focus to relationships vs transactions
Solutions
Improved customer experiences by meeting clients where they are—OnScreen—and helping to navigate to successful outcome
Improved telephone interactions by adding personalized OnScreen assistance with CoBrowsing
Increased ability to guide customers to a decision
Reduced the number of communications by visually walking customers through applications from the start
Instilled client confidence that
knowledgeable underwriters were available to assist via Chat, CoBrowsing, or OnScreen Voice
Decreased abandonments
Results
2x
Online Policy conversion versus phone only
4.8/5
CSAT for Glia engagements
2%
Abandonment rate nearly eliminated from reduced customer effort
The Customer
State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) is California’s leading provider of workers’ compensation insurance. Not for profit and funded solely by premiums and investment income, State Fund has supported California’s entrepreneurial spirit and played a vital role in the state’s economy for more than 100 years.
With approximately 112,000 policyholders, more than $1 billion in premiums, and nearly $21 billion in assets, Californians rely on the security and certainty offered by State Fund to the state’s employers, particularly the small businesses and new ventures that are key to California’s economic growth. State Fund’s purpose is to provide fairly priced workers’ compensation insurance, help make workplaces safe, and restore injured workers
Challenge
Workers’ compensation is a challenging line of insurance for small California businesses, in
addition, State Fund had a complex process to offer quotes and bind workers’ compensation insurance policies.
After answering 88 questions on a digital application, often, receiving a quote involved multiple communications with customers over a few days and then ultimately a bind. Leaving the desperate small business owner frustrated. In addition to an undesired customer experience, underwriters walked customers blindly through the application process, resulting in low employee satisfaction.
To address this complex process, State Fund designed a digital application, offering California small business owners a simpler, no touch, quote and bind experience. The initial application was slimmed down to 25 questions and serviced by a dedicated insurance underwriting team.
The updated process reduced quote times from three days to minutes and increased sales volumes. But, State Fund felt that the user experience still wasn’t optimal. Many small business owners still needed help to complete their transactions. On calls, representatives would often refer to screenshots of the web site to determine what customers may be seeing on their screen to help troubleshoot. Customers also had to navigate multiple phone menus before a conversation could begin.
Solution
After their CIO was impressed by a Glia demo, State Fund quickly saw the value of the Digital Customer Service (DCS) platform. After due diligence, the Small Commercial Business Direct team implemented Chat, Live Observation, CoBrowsing, and eventually OnScreen Voice to reduce friction and improve the customer experience.
Regardless of how an interaction begins (on screen or via telephone), representatives can quickly understand where clients are in their process and can visually guide them through the online application. By decreasing customer effort and confusion, State Fund has increased the number of completed applications, reducing the number of policy corrections prior to binding and decreasing error-related pricing adjustments.
The flexible solution was added to the State Fund website with customized text reading “An underwriter is here to help!,” instilling confidence that customers are working with professionals who can guide them through the application process. With customers and underwriters able to connect and interact through DCS, State Fund is able to help customers make a decision, in the moment, live.
Customers are responding positively to the digital communications offerings. Chat receives a 4.8 out of 5 CSAT rating and CoBrowsing assisted calling customers report a 5 out of 5 rating.
The Glia solution is decreasing the number of telephone interactions and abandonment. In a post-engagement survey, 64% of customers said that they would have called in if they hadn’t been able to resolve their issue via chat and 30% said that they would’ve given up. The result is twice as many conversions and counting.
