4 Trends Driving Acceleration in the Insurance Industry

Kevin Crawford, Global Head of Insurance Delivery Endava

Trends Driving Acceleration in the Insurance Industry4

The past two-plus years have seen the digital economy accelerate at a breakneck pace. As people contended with a global pandemic and continued efforts to ‘return to normal’, one thing hasn’t changed: people’s preference for “digital-first” ways of living.

The accessibility of logging onto one’s bank, car app, healthcare provider website, or favourite retailer with the click of a button has become easier than ever, and insurance companies are making moves to capitalise on this.

Historically, insurance has been considered a ‘grudge’ purchase: something consumers had to buy but wouldn’t choose to if it wasn’t required. Insurers are now thinking about how to change this perception and take the industry from a cost to be dealt with to something that adds value across key industries.

Given the acceleration to digital-led and increasing touchpoints with consumers online, there are four main ways in which insurers are going about this:

1 – Thinking about more than CX

Customer experience is the key driver in guiding decisions around product and service development. If customers aren’t happy, any other work is moot. But many are focusing too intensely on this element to the detriment of the rest of a tech stack, and while many insurers are using ‘digital transformation’ to address CX, this only tends to address user-facing systems, leaving the back-end as an afterthought. But customer experience is more than just UX; it also must take into account critical back-end components that ladder up to what an end-user sees. Elements like faster throughput, less repetition, or fewer processing errors, are indispensable for meeting customer needs. That’s all to say that to properly address CX, we must go further than the front-end, overhauling systems to create a true end-to-end customer journey.

2 – Using data to build trust

One element of providing the best customer experience is in the intelligent use and understanding of data to fit customer needs; insurance companies have recognised the opportunity here and as such, personalisation will set those providers apart in months to come. Implementing personalisation tools like engines or predictive analytics means that companies can better use customer data to provide a more relevant experience. Finding new methods to exploit this data and improve customer interactions will be a key market differentiation for insurers. At the moment, customers seek to complete a transaction with insurance providers as quickly as possible and will generally avoid contacting the insurance until there is a problem, but better data utilisation and an increasing number of touchpoints is changing that. Thanks to smart home goods and insurtech like telematics, customers are engaging with their providers much more favourably and regularly and are rewarded for their involvement and compliance. Simultaneously, insurers experience improvements in claims, resulting in stronger, more sticky relationships.

The use of telematics and sensor technology can be vetted and enriched by additional datasets, furthering this personalisation and building up to the one thing insurers need to continue growing and serving their customers: trust. By providing relevant, transparent and easy to understand options to customers only when needed, insurers will build credibility and rapport with prospective buyers, rather than trying to sell to those who aren’t interested.

3 – Simplifying claims with parametric insurance

Improving the claim payment process will become another critical strategy for insurers to boost consumer confidence and enhance the overall customer experience. Since claims processing is critical to insurance firms’ performance, this is an area where they can differentiate themselves from the competition. However, simple and frictionless payment has yet to become a distinct selling feature for most providers. The procedure is still quite manual and labour-intensive, which frustrates insurers and leaves consumers unhappy.

To mitigate this, insurance companies must take a step back and assess the value of streamlining and simplifying the client payments journey. When purchasing a new insurance, a consumer wants the process to be as simple and straightforward as possible, with no time wasted entering payment information. Parametric insurance allows for the automatic payment of claims once a certain set of requirements has been met, take rainfall for crop insurance, for example. Integrating electronic payment platforms into the customer claims journey, whether it’s Google Pay or Apple Pay, or another automated option, can only improve the customer experience as it reduces stress for customers.

4 – Integrating into the larger ecosystem

Ultimately, where insurers win is by creating a more streamlined approach to access for customers across industries. This will require a review of existing systems, and integration across verticals, businesses, and networks.

In some highly profitable areas – like automotive – insurers may seek to take a larger piece of ownership within the ecosystem. The automotive industry already has a host of ecosystems – fuel, breakdown, service, warranties, repairs – which provide touchpoints for insurers to use their customer data to embed services as is appropriate for end users. Alternatively, insurers may opt to partner with larger industry players who can operate credibly on their own.

Whichever approach insurers take, integration will be key to thriving in the digital economy, as consumers look for a onestop-shop marketplace for their needs.

Conclusion

As consumers continue to look for easily accessible options across their digital journeys, now is the time for insurers to shift focus from pricing to value-add. By placing greater emphasis on the client experience, the development of supporting data and technology, and the repositioning of insurance as something more than a basic risk exchange, insurers can reposition themselves as personalised, UX focused, integrated providers to ultimately better align with being seen as a benefit for purchase, rather than a ‘grudge’.

As the digital economy continues to become a network of options for users, the need to operate in this space will only intensify so that consumers are able to buy what they need, when they need it.