For insurers, premium customer experiences are a digital transformation away
Buying a new car. Going on your honeymoon. Protecting your family’s financial future. Preparing for retirement. What do these all have in common? Firstly, they’re all memorable and meaningful life moments. Secondly, they’re all protected by insurance.
Taking out insurance is no longer just about buying a product that’s required by law or ‘common sense’ to have. It’s about having an extra layer of protection for you, your assets, and your business as your personal and professional circumstances evolve, many of them unpredictable.
For insurers, this means there’s a real opportunity to forge an emotional connection with their customers, one that’s flexible, built on an understanding of their needs, and designed to put their well-being first. That’s why improving customer experience and retention are key drivers of digital transformation for 74% of insurance firms.
Accenture sums up this aspirational relationship between insurers and their customers perfectly:
“Insurers must not think of a person’s life as disconnected fragments of events. Instead, they should think of risk holistically as spanning the physical, emotional and financial well-being of the customer—what we call the sphere of trust.”
From taking out a policy to adding new products to their insurance portfolio to submitting a claim, insurers need to learn how to drive value for their customers throughout their lifecycle. And, if they’re looking to the rest of the financial services industry to lead by example, the solution is obvious: it’s time to achieve true customer-centricity through data-led, digital experiences.
End-to-end digital processes for good-to-great customer experiences
Many tech-led brands are already revolutionizing the insurance market, creating the kind of seamless, real-time experiences that customers want without compromising on emotional connectivity or operational agility.
Proof of this comes from the rapidly expanding market for digital insurance platforms (DIPs), which highlights the potential of digital for the wider insurance sector. Forrester predicted an almost $10 billion growth in the investment of DIPs between 2020 and 2021, and this year, funding for this market is at its strongest yet.
Confidence in the growing digital insurance market speaks for itself, and the customer appeal for DIPs is obvious. By accelerating time-to-market for new products and services, combining disparate systems, and bringing in third-party functionalities, DIPs allow customers more control over their insurance portfolio. They also enable the orchestration of less static, more flexible journeys that give customers the support they need during those all-important life moments.
Data-led transformations for real customer trust
There’s a clear demand for end-to-end digital and omnichannel processes and conversations. When it comes to car insurance, for example, being able to file claims digitally and track their status online are two of the most sought-after digital capabilities.
Currently, many traditional insurers are hindered by fragmented data sets and cross-department communication siloes, keeping 1-to-1 personalization, omnichannel conversations, and opportunities for cross- and up-selling out of reach. And, although DIPs may open the door to more fluid and frequent customer conversations, the real value from these engagements relies on the ability to leverage insights for more personalized experiences.
By investing in smarter infrastructure – i.e. an advanced customer data platform (CDP) – traditional providers and digital-first brands have an opportunity to transform complex data into unified customer profiles and actionable insights, and ultimately orchestrate conversations that drive real value for the customer.
But, being reactive to customers’ changing needs with better digital experiences is only part of the challenge. Proactivity must be a priority for insurers if they’re to prove their value in customers’ moments, now and in the future. Whether by promoting a new policy based on behavioral changes or offering risk management advice based on external factors, such as extreme weather conditions, insurers have an opportunity to become trusted advisors to their customers.
Generate value with data across the value chain
Rich insights are the crucial ingredient for personalized customer experiences, and for insurers who are data-savvy, offering usage- and behavior-based insurance products (such as vehicle telematics solutions) is an effective starting point.
There are also commercial benefits for the insurers who can aggregate data into a more holistic view of their customers and share this information with brokers. Direct-to-consumer experiences may be the aspiration, but brokers still have their place – and equipping them with the insights needed to connect customers to the perfect product ensures benefits all around.
For traditional insurance companies, integrating an advanced CDP – such as NGDATA’s Intelligent Engagement Platform – can facilitate a digital transformation that evolves with customers’ needs and realities. From being able to respond to applications or claims in real-time, to determining the next best experiences based on holistic customer profiles, our Intelligent Engagement Platform will help insurers keep customers’ well-being at their core.
The Intelligent Engagement Platform: Insurers’ protection against a competitive market
With customer journey orchestration and real-time interaction management (RTIM) capabilities, our Intelligent Engagement Platform empowers insurers to create scalable customer experiences that are consistently relevant, personalized, and omnichannel.
Always optimized Customer DNA™, equips insurers with the most detailed view of their customer – including their policy preferences, needs, and intentions. With this information at their fingertips, insurance companies can target customers with the offer or engagement that best suits their circumstances as they change over time, and increase their revenue streams by providing brokers with more detailed customer insights
Unified profiles help identify the most appropriate cross- and up-sell opportunities, with next best experience decision-making allowing insurers to keep their customers’ emotional and financial well-being at the heart of every strategy.
Want to learn more about the Intelligent Engagement Platform and our tailor-made CDP solutions for insurance providers? Book a free demo here or get in touch.
