INSURTECH: DIGITISATION
TIMEFORRENEWAL The insurance industry has been slow to see things through a customer lens, but now it needs to quicken the pace, says David Williams, AXA’s MD of Underwriting and Technical Services. And with the help of Axa’s insurtech partners, it is…
THE INSURTECH MAGAZINE: How has the customers’ experience of dealing with insurance companies changed, compared to the relationship they now enjoy with the banks? DAVID WILLIAMS: The industry was very process-driven and efficiency ruled the roost. But we recognise now that people expect an excellent customer experience; their interactions with other organisations set that standard, so we’ve got to be up there. There’s massive investment in making AXA’s customer interaction better. We’re appointing people as customer advocates and seeking feedback about better ways of doing things. But it’s true that we were slow to get started and you have to understand the nature of the industry’s interactions to understand why. Customers communicate with their bank regularly, through holes in the wall or mobile apps. We sell them something then don’t hear from them for another year, unless they have a claim. This meant we weren’t rushing to invest in customer-facing technology. The advantage is that we’ve been able to go at it at the perfect time, learn from others’ mistakes and really raise our game. TIM: So what customer experience improvements is AXA making? DW: We need to increase our customer contact and we’ve also got to address a reputational issue – in the past,
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insurers were known for relying on lengthy wordings and small print, so we’ve got to find ways to remind our customers that we are there to help them. Technology such as mobile communications and social media give us great opportunities to interact with, and understand more about, customers. We’ve always employed lots of actuaries, clever mathematicians and data scientists who focus on pricing in an incredibly competitive market, but how about using those skills to understand what customers really want? There’s lots of external data we can tap into, much of it free of charge. If we can understand what really makes people tick and shape our interactions around that, we’ll stand a better chance of building that relationship. TIM: How critical is mobile technology to the insurance industry? DW: You could almost argue that the web, while one of the most transformational things that ever happened, was just an interim stage. If you look at analysts’ predictions around when and where people are buying, it’s absolutely a mobile future. More importantly, from an insurer’s perspective, when we have an interaction – when there’s a claim for a motor accident, for instance, or while travelling – people don’t have a PC around, they don’t want paper and pens, but they always have a mobile device.
We can also use apps and social media to connect with people on their mobile devices, to provide information that’s helpful. If we sell somebody a travel policy and we know they’re going to Europe, then with their permission we can link to flight data and, using blockchain technology, know when a flight has been delayed, so that they automatically get a payment without making a claim. However, it’s easy to get excited about ‘shiny toys’ and the future, and we must prepare for that, but we also have to recognise that not all our customers want to interact with us that way. We want to give them choice, making sure they can submit a claim by sending an email, writing a letter or submitting a video clip. Working with clever financial tech startups, we can assess damage to vehicles or property just from a video clip or photos. However, while these things are very exciting, if somebody wants to speak to us or have a motor engineer or surveyor come round, we will do that as well. TIM: Does digital technology allow more efficient onboarding? DW: In the past, we might use different techniques for marketing but then force people down a specific route – like filling in a form. Now, we’re trying to understand what they really want, rather than assuming they’ll like our newest way of doing things, or looking at
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