Customer Service and WhatsApp: 7 Push Notification Cases for Insurance Companies

Customer service and WhatsApp – the data from the MessengerPeople Study 2018 have made it more clear than ever that customers deliberately choosing to communicate with businesses via messaging apps. Push notifications for businesses are becoming more and more important, offering a direct, attention-grabbing, and convenient way of communicating with customers. Today, let’s take a look at how WhatsApp push notifications can be used in the insurance industry.

Listing of Insurance Push Notification Cases

• Versicherungskammer Bayern: Push Notifications for weekly news & 1:1 customer chat
• AOK Plus: WhatsApp notifications with personalized news
• ADAC: 1:1 customer service and travel, traffic, and technology consultation
• LV1871: push notifications for partners, 1:1 service for customers
• vfm Gruppe: WhatsApp notifications for franchise partners
• WWK: automated information via Chatbots helps sales efficiency
• Barmenia: push notifications for more fan engagement

Versicherungskammer Bayern

Push Notifications for weekly news & 1:1 customer chat

The biggest public insurance company in Germany is based in Bavaria: the Versicherungskammer Bayern. This leading insurance company sends WhatsApp push notifications to alert customers about their weekly news.

The WhatsApp news service doesn’t just focus on company news, but also information about preventive products. They also offer 1:1 dialogues over WhatsApp for customer questions. However, at the moment they don’t answer questions about contracts, although this kind of data handlign is fully GDPR-compliant.

The WhatsApp newsletter is useful for the Versicherungskammer to raise customer awareness and to give the customers all relevant information about products. Relevant, persally sent product information from a trusted provider converts much better than social media posts or online banners. The customers don’t have to search for the product or research the ad themselves, because they are sent an overview and link directly over WhatsApp.

AOK Plus

WhatsApp notifications with personalized news

The AOK Plus is an insurance company for the German states Sachsen und Thüringen. It uses WhatsApp push notifications for customer service, to support customers and prospects in learning more about health, health trends, and to keep them informed about general company information.

The posts which are sent to the users via WhatsApp push notification are based on their personal selection of which categories are most relevant. You can see two current categories in the screenshot: “Gesunde Taten” (Healthy Actions) and”Movember”. Customers choose whether they’re interested in one or both categories, check the box, and then receive regular WhatsApp messages about these topics.

Categories help users to personalize their content, adding value and relevance. This leads to a better user experience, because customers can shut out the irrelevant messages which flood typical daily digital consumption.

ADAC

1:1 customer service and travel, traffic, and technology consultation

The German insurance company ADAC created a campaign #donttravelwithmom in summer 2018. This campaign was directed specifically at a younger target group, to answer their questions about traveling. The WhatsApp service also answered general questions about cars, car safety and insurance, ADAC membership, and ADAC products – as well as topics like traffic and technology. Information about all of these topics was available over 1:1 chat on WhatsApp. This successful campaign  speziell der jüngeren Zielgruppe zugewendet und diese im Rahmen ihrer Reisen bei Fragen begleitet und geholfen. Zudem wurden auch allgemeine Fragen rundum das Auto, die Mitgliedschaft im ADAC und seinen Produkten erörtert sowie generell zu Themen wie Verkehr und Technik im 1:1 Chat per WhatsApp Antworten gegeben. This was a great campaign, especially with the background, that the ADAC community has over 20 million members worldwide.

The ADAC noticed and understood how to successfully and creatively use low-threshold customer service to increase awareness and marketing for their products. Over the fast and helpful chat, the company could communicate helpfully and informatlly with potential customers, and offer a great customer experience, creating positive associations with the brand.

Look inside the Messenger Communication Platform and learn about messaging app customer service strategy and best use cases in our free webinar:

Successful Customer Service with Messaging Apps.

LV 1871

push notifications for partners, 1:1 service for customers

The life insurance company 1871 a. G. München, LV 1871 for short, specializes in occupational disability, life insurance, and pension insurance. To keep their partners and brokers up to date, they send updates about products or new consultation possibilities via WhatsApp notification, and offer a 1:1 chat to speak directly.

With this WhatsApp consultation service, partners and brokers can receive specific information about relevant contacts. LV1871’s partner support also offers service deals and webinars.

This information channel helps the LV 1871 provide partners with relevant business content in real-time, which in turn allows the partners to consult their customers in a trustworthy and competent way, closing more deals. A win-win situation!

vfm Gruppe

WhatsApp notifications for franchise partners

The vfm-Group is a special service provider in the insurance branch and supports its customers in developing as independent insurance brokers. They offer B2B WhatsApp service and primarily offer consulting and support for their franchise partners. Starting as a self-employed broker requires a higher degree of communication savvy, and the vfm Group supports this via WhatsApp. They send information in newsletters about product information, marketing strategies, legal basics, and more.

We’ve been using WhatsApp for the past half year and 60% of our cooperation partners have already subscribed to the newsletter service. The acceptance is really high because the news is fast and easy to consume, and because the use of photos and videos is very well-received. It’s important to our users that the “dose” is correct — they don’t want to be overwhelmed with too many messages, explains Madlen Böhm, who is resposible for the vfm Group’s online marketing.

WWK

automated information via Chatbots helps sales efficiency

The german insurance group WWK focus on prevention, protection, and investment possibilites for their customers. For communicating and providing information with customers, prospects, employees, and sales (with password protection), the WWK developed a Chatbot. The Chatbot can automatically send out information and answer FAQs, saving employees time, and providing all users with relevant information.

The sales colleagues and employees are actively sent information through push notifications, and thus save time on research. The information contains links to webinars, video content, WWK history, or contact information.

This automated distribution is a useful feature which allows the employees to regularly receive relevant, personalized information – especially about extra marketing campaigns such as the sponsoring of the German football team FC Augsburg!

The advantages of a customer service Chatbot are:

• available 24/7 – never sick or on vacation
• Chatbots are constantly learning and improving
• synchronous and asynchronous communication – they can go slow or fast, depending on the customer’s needs
• they don’t forget anything, so the conversation can always start where it left off
• the WWK Chatbot could be started almost immediately – unlike Apps, they also don’t require constant updates

You can find more about Chatbots for customer service here.

Barmenia

push notifications for more fan engagement

WhatsApp customer service – but this time, different. Barmenia the largest independent insurance group, with a main location in Wuppertal, is a sponsor of the German Bundesliga footbal team Bayer Leverkusen. It’s focused on the fans: over WhatsApp, fans are regularly sent push notifications with information about the soccer team, their upcoming gails, and information about tickets and raffles.

The brand is able to use fan communication to get into contact with potential customers in a completely natural and informal way.

The special closeness that messaging apps like WhatsApp and Co. are characterized by is a huge advantage here. The WhatsApp channel is also promoted over Facebook and on the special website beidevon1904. The landing page gathers all information about the Barmena sponsoring activities. This is a great, clear example of how to successfully advertize WhatsApp engagement over other channels.

Customer Service, WhatsApp, and Insurance: 3 Take Aways

1. WhatsApp customer service for insurance is off to a great start. The increasing business orientation of messaging app platforms like WhatsApp Business and Apple Business Chat, and clients’ own growing interest in communicating with businesses over messaging apps are the clear forces behind this trend!
2.  To offer successful 2nd Level Support with Chatbots, the Bots first have to be able to offer intelligent auto responses. This means that they have to be able to automatically sum up data in 1st Level Support and pass this on to their human colleagues.
3. “Would you rather wait 10 minutes on hold, or wait for ten minutes for an answer on Facebook Messenger?” asked Stan Chudnovsky, Head of Product FB Messenger, at DMEXCO 2018. Of course he knew that no one is happy with telephone hotlines. The synchronous and asynchronous communication possibilities of messaging apps provide a strong contrast to telephone customer service – in a positive direction.

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