How to get personal with technology

Automation frees insurance companies from mundane, time-consuming tasks, allowing them to respond — and make connections — to claimants or billing-related questions quicker. (Photo: Shutterstock)

We live in a world of disconnected connection. Our personal devices provide constant access to a boundless trove of information and communications. Our perspectives have become increasingly global in scope. Yet, we find ourselves longing for the same basic sense of community that once united our cave-dwelling ancestors. Leading organizations in insurance, finance, healthcare and technology know this new reality quite well. They ask how they can cut through the noise and provide a great customer experience that ties their brand to basic human emotions.

A Harvard Business Review report concluded that emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers. “Companies deploying emotional-connection-based strategies and metrics to design, prioritize and measure the customer experience,” the report said, “find that increasing customers’ emotional connection drives significant improvements in financial outcomes.” Advertisers and marketers are no strangers to courting the human psyche. In these professions, there is little else besides the customer experience. But now the customer experience must become a mandate in all business departments, including engineering and IT.