In this special edition of Shop Talk we will explore how mobile technologies are transforming the insurance industry. The “anytime, anywhere” interactions that mobile enables are allowing a new level of intimacy in the insurer-policyholder relationship with the potential to change the insurance game. This special report explores how insurers can become trusted partners who provide valuable new services that help policyholders identify and assess risks as well as gain protection tailored to their individual needs.
About Mobile: Why the Industry is Behind
Insurers have long struggled with many advances in “customer experience” for the simple reason that their touchpoints with policyholders tend to be few and far between. While consumers may interact with their banks several times a week, they may contact their insurer only occasionally—to purchase a policy, to pay their premium and, potentially, to file a claim.
According to a survey of 1,827 insurance and banking customers polled late 2014, more than half deal with their insurer once a year or less often. When they do connect, the interaction rarely takes place on a mobile device.
Only 26% of consumers have ever connected with their insurer via mobile.
When they do interact with their insurer on mobile, the reason is convenience—just as it is for banking. Mobile lets them communicate with their insurer any time they want (60%) without having to wait (41%) or make a trip to meet with an agent (37%).
Consumers Wary of Sharing
Consumers are especially wary about sharing private data with their insurer, including data generated by mobile devices and sensors. Seven of 10 policyholders (70%) say they would be strongly or moderately concerned about their insurer collecting and using their personal information to personalize products and services. Almost as many (67%) would feel the same way about insurers collecting personal data to discourage risky behavior. Interestingly, when the question is stated slightly differently—collecting personal information to encourage healthy behavior—the level of high-to-moderate concern drops to 62%.
The Takeaway: Insurers that move ahead without getting their policyholders on board by explaining the benefits offered and the privacy protections guaranteed may be putting themselves at risk of backlash.
Consumers Likely to Share if There are Benefits
Although insurers and consumers are somewhat at odds in their attitudes towards data collection (much of which will be generated by mobile devices), their attitudes may soon converge.
Consumers may be reluctant to share their data, but they want to benefit from the aggregate data that insurers collect to get a better understanding of how to manage health, property and lifestyle risks. About one-quarter of respondents say they have viewed their driving history (25%) and fire and surveillance data (24%) and gotten advice about managing risks and premiums, while more than half would like to do so.
Consumers may be more likely to share data as they see the benefits in gaining a new understanding of how to manage their health, property and lifestyle risks. These findings set the stage for a breakthrough in the insurer-customer relationship enabled by the unique capabilities of mobile.
More than three-quarters (77%) of policyholders would exchange personal information for lower premiums, according to an October 2014 global study by Accenture.
For example, through sensors and location-based services, mobile empowers insurers to collect data that correlates with risk and enables the delivery of custom offerings. Policyholders can inventory property, document damage and file claims with their devices. Now, with smartphones, insurers can offer an even higher quality of services, some through the traditional navigator and others from applications downloaded to mobile devices.
Designing The Experience
It will be a challenge for companies to initiate and complete service within a single channel, let alone begin in one and end in another. But customer experience must be designed in a way that channels complement each other to support better service.
While policyholders’ current use of mobile technology is modest, it remains a valuable channel for something that both they and their insurers expect to be a rare occurrence: an insurance claim. Most insurers are using mobile for this today, but not much else beyond that.
Mobile capabilities are also vital for insurers seeking to serve customers in the channel of their choice, beyond claims- whether for research, purchases, supplying policy information changes or handling billing and payment issues.
Mobile for Working with Agents
Similar considerations apply to insurers’ relationships with business partners. Even as the unique power of mobile brings insurers closer to customers, it is also the next frontier in competing for agents and other partners’ attention by making it easier to do business.
Conclusion
For consumers, agents, and prospects mobile is rapidly becoming the channel of choice. It is emerging as the premier communication and transaction channel as well as an important driver of new efficiencies for customers and insurance operations.
But the most profound implications of mobile reside in the quality of the user experience. In the short term, this means a vastly improved customer and partner experience. In the longer term, the user experience will drive a significant improvement in the insurer-customer relationship, which some insurers are already demonstrating.
Mobile and other remote technologies are enabling insurers to be their customers’ constant companion in assessing and mitigating risks and to take on the role of a trusted advisor. Insurers who grasp this potential will be the leaders in a rapidly transforming industry.
Read on for More on Mobile:
The Changing Insurer-Agent Relationship
Insurer Success Stories: Using Mobile Efficiently
Can Mobile Reduce Attrition Rates?
With reporting from The Economist.