Today someone at American Family Insurance sent me a news release about new mobile capabilities being brought to their customers. I receive these announcements often, but this one was especially notable given the company is focusing on the Mobile Customer Experience, something we evangelize at Interactive Mediums as a best practice.
“The new applications are designed for Apple iPhone and Blackberry Storm users. A new, streamlined version of the company’s Web site is also available to all mobile phone users.”
“The new applications and mobile Web site deliver a better user experience on mobile devices with smaller screens and potentially slower Internet connections. By eliminating much of the graphic and multimedia extras, the clean interface quickly links users to business functions.”
Insurance is not the most exciting product nor is one anyone wishes they needed, but it is essential for every consumer. Providing a gateway to their services across popular mobile devices via purpose built application as well as a mobile optimized web presence, is a smart move for a company playing in highly competitive, frankly price driven industry. American Family has wisely taken advantage of mobile’s real time interactive capabilities to facilitate a positive customer experience, which should only improve customer retention measures:
“…the new applications will allow customers to immediately report a claim from the scene of an accident and even locate nearby vendors that can help repair their vehicle.”
That is a great application of mobile’s ability to meet the needs of time or event-based product or service customers. Perhaps the application also allows customers to capture photos of an accident which can be annotated and attached to a claim – if not, that would be another valuable capability to bring to these mobile applications.
