How digital services support hybrid customers

How can ERGO ideally accompany customers’ journeys? Responsibility for this falls to the Online Service department. The team works in close collaboration with Sales on modern digital solutions for our customers.

When potential customers come across ERGO online, this marks the start of what is known as their Customer Journey. “Our digital services help to make this journey as attractive and convenient as possible for customers,” explains Andreas Mertel, Head of Online Service at ERGO.

Continuously accompanying the “Customer Journey”

In simple terms, the Online Service department works as follows: 

Ongoing market analysis is used to find relevant answers to questions that potential customers currently have. Articles on social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, generate attention promoting the relevant topics. This also helps ERGO to reach a younger target group. Articles and stories guide prospective customers to ergo.de, blog-ergo.de and then also to the sales partners’ websites. 

Once they have concluded their first insurance policy, customers can register at the ERGO Customer Portal, where they benefit from a host of digital services. The former prospective customers are now on their “journey” to becoming existing customers, possibly about to conclude additional policies with their sales partners.

Now comes the Customer Experience, their experiences with ERGO. The ERGO app generates positive momentum here. 

Have these well-coordinated, modern services achieved their goal? Andreas Mertel: “No. We are, as it were, on a kind of ‘innovation journey’ that is continuously moving forward. We are always finding new ways of communicating on social media, using TikTok and other platforms. We will raise our sales partners' websites to a new technical platform that will provide for faster and more diverse opportunities and responsive presentations. And we will integrate services into the customer portal that will significantly improve customer contact with ERGO and will also be clearly superior to today's standard.” 

Top ratings in the latest studies

ERGO is already playing a key role in the market in terms of digital solutions in sales, as shown by the latest studies and indexes: for instance ERGO is ranked no. 1 in the “Insurance Ranking Index 2020”. According to the study, ERGO's sales partners’ websites are by far the most visible online. Salesurance GmbH certifies ERGO as having “digital excellence in the presentation and presence of sales partners online”.

Google users award ERGO agencies an average score of 4.9 out of 5 stars, as confirmed by a study undertaken by the online marketing consulting agency “Digitalagenten”. ERGO once again comes top in this analysis. Consumer behaviour in recent years has demonstrated the importance of a top-rated digital presence. 82 percent of users now pay particular attention to the online ratings of local providers.

Important basis for a hybrid approach

Modern technology and digital services are indispensable in sales today and form the basis for the hybrid customer business model actually working. The hybrid approach was shown to be an important approach, and also the correct approach, not least in the light of the pandemic.

Video consulting, to name but one example, played a comparatively minor role at ERGO before the coronavirus pandemic. Only three percent of customers confirmed in a survey that they could envisage using this approach. Now 14 percent are convinced that they will continue to use video consulting after the pandemic. In 2020, well over twice as many meetings with sales partners were booked online than in the previous year. And contact via the sales partners’ websites has also increased significantly. The customer portal continues to play an increasing key role. Well over a million users have already registered for it.