First Insurance Sales Chat Bots Launched On Facebook Messenger
An Israeli small business insurance startup, Next Insurance, are pioneering a much-maligned technology as they recently launched a “chatbot” for personal trainers interested in buying insurance.
The chatbot works via the Facebook Messenger app, and in a similar fashion to the operation of their website, the bot guides users through answering a few short questions to provide them a quote.
The Messenger bot will queries users for their details in a chat screen format which most of us have come to accept as a normal daily activity.
A press release from the company prior to the initial release of the app said Next Insurance is “the first company to provide full service via a social channel.”
“70% of our customers are buying insurance on their phones,” said Next Co-Founder and CEO, Guy Goldstein. “Enabling customers to buy insurance through a chatbot on Facebook Messenger brings simplicity, transparency and easy access. We’re making sure that insurance is working for the small business owner and not the reverse.”
Next Insurance, co-founded by Nissim Tapiro, Alon Huri and Goldstein, raised a whopping $13 million in startup seed money last year from three venture capital firms – Ribbit Capital, TLV Partners and Zeev Ventures.
The chatbot integrated into a social media application is representative of fast-moving innovations in the insurance industry. These ‘insurtech’ rollouts over the past 18 months are all aimed at improving “the insurance experience” via simple to use and web savvy technology interfaces.
Companies like Next Insurance are hoping to provide a breath air into the often slow-to-adapt insurance industry.
Lifequotes.com, one of the initial pioneers in online insurance policy quote functionality, still offers a “chat” feature, but the company takes a much more personal and human-centered approach. When you receive your 50 anonymous quotes from their site, you also have the opportunity to “chat” about your policy features and selections.
The difference in approaches? With the Next Insurance application, you’re guided through the process by a pre-programmed algorithm and AI responses.
On the Lifequotes.com site, you actually chat with “Peggy,” a very nice lady who’s been at her craft for many years. And yes, her name really is Peggy. And she’s actually rather nice and above all – an expert in the field.
