Allstate + Heretto

Challenge

 As a provider for over 250,000 small-business policyholders distributed through 10,000 small-business insurance agency owners, Allstate Business Insurance provides insurance solutions and shares resources to help American small businesses prosper. Locating and accessing the necessary information for quoting and issuing intricate business insurance products posed a significant challenge for agents at Allstate Business Insurance (ABI)

Finding answers to customer inquiries meant searching the company’s content management system to find a PDF of the appropriate policy and procedure document and then searching through that PDF to find the relevant information. 

This was a tedious, expensive, and time-consuming process with unnecessary manual labor. Since agents had trouble accessing information, they often resorted to calling the sales and underwriting help desks for faster and more accurate answers. As sales grew, help desk volume grew with it, reaching over 2,000 calls per day at its peak. It quickly became apparent that using the call center as a primary information delivery method for agents was unsustainable and put policy sales at risk.

Solution 

Allstate developed a content strategy that prioritizes the search and discoverability experience by analyzing the questions agents were asking the call center and then storing the answers as individual DITA XML topics in the Heretto content management system. Allstate used Heretto to publish its content in a chatbot that agents could use to find answers. 

Results

Within just four months, Heretto was adopted as the agents’ primary source of help, avoiding thousands of calls to the help center. Allstate reduced help desk calls by 40% with Heretto.  

“Using Heretto, we’ve been able to streamline our publishing process, improve our search, and lower our call center support costs. The Heretto project has been and continues to be, a significant win for Allstate Business Insurance. ” Larry Porter, Content Manager, Allstate 

Here are some of the benefits Allstate has experienced

• Accurate information is delivered at the point of need.
• Business users like Product Managers and Underwriters can update information in Heretto in real time.
• Content is easily reused, boosting efficiency and keeping documentation accurate and consistent.
• The call center is freed from answering the same questions repeatedly and now adds value by supporting the expansion of Allstate’s business insurance products into new markets.

‍