Overview

Ohio Mutual Insurance met customer demand for a texting option with Hi Marley’s communication platform enabling claims handlers to move claims forward faster and improving their customer rating to 4.9 out of 5 stars.

About Ohio Mutual Insurance Group

Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, founded in 1901 and based in Bucyrus, OH, partners with more than 400 independent agencies to distribute quality property and casualty insurance products throughout Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Ohio Mutual has maintained a rating of “A / Stable” from A.M. Best Co. for 28 consecutive years and has been named to the Ward’s 50 seven times since 2009.

Challenge

Ohio Mutual Insurance Group had constant customer requests for texting, particularly during the claims process. Traditional communication tools like email and telephone are increasingly falling behind in their ability to keep claims moving forward and ensuring customers know the status of their claims.

Ohio Mutual tried several solutions over the years, from sharing mobile phones across the team, using email-to-text options and sourcing technologies from third parties. In every case, the solutions fell flat for both the team and their customers.

The Solution

Rather than settling for “good enough” they refined their requirements and scanned the market, where they came upon Hi Marley. A cross-functional team engaged with Hi Marley and ran a pilot.

Hi Marley is a purpose-driven communication as a service (CaaS) platform built for the insurance industry by insurance people who love insurance to enhance customer trust and loyalty. It provides hassle-free communication between the policyholder, insurance carrier and partners through a conversation SMS platform to help insurance companies delight policyholders, service policies, and achieve faster time to resolution. Maximizing the Hi Marley team’s deep insurance knowledge, the platform delivers comprehensive data and analytics to help carriers easily visualize insights from lost conversations and enable insurance carriers to transform communication to drive positive outcomes. Hi Marley has flexible APIs and requires zero integration to get started.

Outcome

Ohio Mutual adopted Hi Marley quickly given its ease-of-use and ability to meet its needs. Claim handlers found themselves on the phone less, freeing up time to move claims forward. Customers appreciated the ease of texting during critical moments in their lives – and there is data to back it up.

To me, it’s all about alignment. If you get the culture in place, and then you align the goals and incentives – all of us are incented by our policyholder NPS since, as a mutual, our focus is on our policyholders – all our goals are aligned across all associates.

Mark Russell, CEO

Andrea Presler, Ohio Mutual’s Auto Material Damage and Subrogation Leader, talked about alignment and working with partners who truly understand insurance, given the industry’s nuances and unique challenges, “A big part of our decision was that the team at Hi Marley understands claims and the insurance business, whereas others just didn’t get it.”

The case is a strong example of the need to preserver and respond to customer needs. Any carrier, large, small, public, mutual, regional, national or international – can innovate and evolve meaningfully and impactfully.

The case is a strong example of the need to preserver and respond to customer needs. Any carrier, large, small, public, mutual, regional, national or international – can innovate and evolve meaningfully and impactfully.