Published by Janet Barber on June 24th, 2020

You hear the words “new normal” thrown around a lot these days. Things have changed, there’s no doubt about that. But, while much of what has happened was unforeseeable, what consumers are expecting from companies could have easily been predicted. In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t changed expectations, so much as it’s accelerated trends that were already there.

Looking at the past several years, many companies already (or should have already) had an eye on the trends towards digitalization, more emphasis on self-service (and fewer brick and mortars) and the importance of efficiency. The expectations for customer service were already on the rise, especially in the digital space, and now, in this “new normal” customer service has never been important both for the wellbeing of customers, but also for how they relate to your business.



A superior customer service experience and, more specifically, a superior digital customer experience are table stakes for developing the kinds of lasting, meaningful relationships that companies want with their customers. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at these customer service trends, both digital and otherwise, that have been accelerated by the pandemic.

A self-service experience

Think about how much shopping is now done online. Or even how many people file their taxes online. The trend towards self-service is nothing new. Online shopping is nothing new, but now it’s expanded. With people even doing their grocery shopping online and the hesitancy to go into stores, consumer expectations for self-service will be even higher than ever.

With so much of an emphasis on “contactless” customer interactions, other industries are raising the bar for digital customer experiences and self-service. In the insurance industry, we have to be able to meet these needs too. A clunky, or nonexistent, self-service experience won’t cut it if we want to have lasting customer relationships. Everything from claims, to online payments to your customers’ account management tools needs to be available via self-service and not just available, but intuitive and streamlined.

Connecting with customers

When the pandemic first hit, how many communications did you receive about every company’s response to COVID-19? Suddenly, every company needed their customers to know what they were doing to address the situation, how they would continue to operate and how customers could continue to do business with them.
Again, even before the pandemic, you saw more and more companies trying to engage on social media, trying to connect with customers and trying to create experiences that would build customer loyalty. Today, the need to communicate is critical. For smaller companies, it may have even meant the difference between keeping their doors open and shutting down.

So, in the insurance world, we need to find ways to make sure we’re connected with our customers. Especially in a health crisis, connecting with customers is paramount and, while not a new trend, it’s one that we need to be focused on. From regular communication, to digital tools to let them find the information they need; you have to have a network of communication and connectedness with customers.

Efficiency

I can’t really say that anyone ever liked inefficiency. But, we lived in a fast-moving society before. Order a pair of socks from Amazon? It can be at your door in 2 days. That’s the business model people had become accustomed to. Today, people are trying to minimize time in stores and minimize contact with other people. So, the need for efficient processes when it comes to customer service has only been accelerated.
For us, that means that long delays on claims adjudication or cumbersome processes to change payment methods and update policy information have to go. If you can’t make life easy on customers, you can’t expect them to stick around.

Caring

While the other trends we’ve addressed are more measurable, the trend towards being a caring company is no less important. It’s no longer enough to pay lip service to caring about your customers and your employees. The general population is more stressed, more unsettled and expecting more from the companies with which they do business. If you’ve seen the news, you’ve probably seen stories of companies that rushed to open their doors too soon or did so without instituting safeguards for their employees and customers. In many cases, they’re seen as being uncaring.

People want to do business with companies that care about them as customers but also about their employees and their communities. It’s not something you can fake, your actions will speak louder than your words and customer service is a key part of how your company is perceived.

So, how is Trustmark tackling these trends? Frankly, the answer is “all of the above”. We’re revamping our digital tools to be more efficient for customers, provide more opportunities to connect and because we do, genuinely care we’re looking for ways to get payments to customers faster and implementing provisions to address the pandemic. Caring and customer relationships have always been the cornerstone of our company. From our enhanced online claims tools to the development of a new customer portal, we’re excited to be embracing the new normal with tools to make sure we’re delivering what our customers need.