In today’s rapidly evolving world, insurers face an influx of rising costs, disruptive startups, and pressure to find new revenue streams. At the same time, customer expectations grow as people are drawn toward high quality, personalised experiences across all channels and touchpoints.
Understand the Challenges
It’s fair to say that insurance wouldn’t be mistaken for an industry with a history of adopting new technologies early. In fact, many traditional insurance companies still remain tethered to a range of outdated processes.
Unfortunately for them, this has allowed smaller, agile, firms embracing “insurtech” to proliferate. In the second quarter of 2018, funding for insurtech hit $5 billion. At the same time, increasing insurance costs resulting from a rise in global natural disasters continues to drive up premiums.
In order to get ahead, today’s insurers must invest in digital transformation. Many are struggling to keep up with the pace of change even on the most basic levels, like developing a mobile-first approach and ensuring consistent messaging across all touchpoints. Failure to establish a seamless digital experience compromises your relationship with both existing and prospective customers – as they are actively disrupted by new insurtech.
Another significant challenge to the industry is rising skepticism over the way corporations are using personal data. As a result, consumers may be inundated with communications that are out of context, irrelevant, or otherwise inappropriate. This can add to mounting distrust of banking, insurance, and retail financial institutions generally. Dubious behavior from bad players led to the establishment of stringent policies like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. These protocols are limiting the way brands may engage with consumers, while also pushing them to identify new ways to do so.
Focus On Mobile-First Strategies
By 2020, there will be 11.6 billion mobile connected devices in the world, surpassing the expected global population of 7.8 million. Many of these mobile phones belong to ‘Millennials’ – and as they increasingly begin to buy cars and homes, insurers must provide the digital experiences they expect to remain relevant. Building a high functioning mobile presence, either through an optimised website or standalone app, is now more essential than ever as younger generations start to seek out insurance products.
Most importantly, insurers need to recognise that no matter how complicated their business when navigating policy documents and managing back-end processes, developing an efficient mobile strategy is paramount. Beyond building a strong mobile experience, offerings like virtual agents and chatbots that answer consumer questions in real-time are becoming more accepted, and in fact expected, each day. Acquia can help identify these needs while also maintaining an optimal user experience focused on acquiring and retaining prospects.
Build Consumer Trust
According to a recent Accenture study, an estimated 75 percent of consumers said they are very cautious about the privacy of their personal data. For the average consumer, data security breaches are the second-biggest concern after prices when it comes to their bank and insurance provider. Today’s insurers must ensure protection of sensitive data and share their policies with clients in a transparent fashion.
While mounting distrust among consumers may seem like an uphill battle, it can ultimately serve as an opportunity. By communicating with consumers in an appropriate manner — by not spamming, sharing misleading information, or sending unsuitable marketing — companies can gain a leg-up above competitors. Acquia has worked with a number of global companies to identify the best strategy to deliver the right content on the right channel at the right time.
Personalise The Digital Experience
Despite reservations over privacy, the same Accenture study found that six in ten consumers are willing to share significant personal information, including lifestyle preferences and location data, in exchange for lower prices on financial and insurance products. Acquia looks closely at industry-wide consumer insight to build a more intuitive, personalised, digital experience, while gaining better control of brand assets and effectively using analytics. In a society that is increasingly obsessed with cloud-based information management, consumers want personalised experiences that are consistent across all touchpoints.
Conclusion
Looking to the future, insurance companies must offer optimised experiences that are consistent however the consumer wishes to interact with the brand. The impact of technology is providing both the biggest challenges and the greatest opportunities. By developing mobile-first strategies, building consumer trust and strategically personalising communications, insurers can prevent falling behind.
Insurers need technology that can reliably handle the unprecedented shifts upending the long-standing status quo. The ability to offer what customers and prospects expect will be essential for companies to survive and thrive against competitors. Read more about how Acquia can help address these challenges in our latest eBook, “Catching Up With Transforming Customer Expectations.”
