The report found that there is strong consumer support for insurers to use social media and IoT data revealing information about their behavior and lifestyle in return for a more personalized service and lower premiums. Furthermore, it revealed that many insurers are struggling to provide a connected experience.
Among the key results of the survey:
Nearly half of consumers give insurers the thumbs-up to use more data for personalization
• Nearly half of consumers (44 percent) would be happy for insurance providers to utilize third-party data from the likes of Facebook and/or collect data about them from health monitoring apps and smart home devices, if it meant they were provided with a more personalized service and lower premiums.
• Younger generations (18-34-year-olds) were particularly open to this concept, with 62 percent saying they’d be happy for insurance providers to use social media and IoT data in this way.
• Geographically, consumers in Singapore (63 percent) and the US (49 percent) were the happiest to for insurers to use this data, while those in the UK (36 percent) were the least open to the concept.
The disconnected insurance experience
The report also found that insurers are struggling to provide a connected experience (i.e. knowing customers’ preferences across all channels and providing access to the information they need within a timely manner).
• 58 percent of consumers believe insurers provide a disconnected experience.
• 56 percent would consider changing insurer as the result of receiving a disconnected experience, rising to 62 percent amongst 18-34-year-olds. Consumers in Australia (67 percent) and Singapore (63 percent) are most likely to consider changing insurance provider after a disconnected experience.
• Nearly a third (30 percent) of consumers have given up on an activity or a request when interacting with insurers as information sharing was too difficult.
“Today consumers share a wealth of information about their behavior and lifestyle online, through social media and connected devices. The research highlights that nearly half of consumers would be open to insurers using this information to enhance their services and gain a competitive edge by providing more personalized offerings. If such data is made readily available by social media sites to insurance providers, the industry should work with regulators to ensure processes are put in place to enable customers to indicate whether they want these additional data sources to be used to calculate a more personalized premium,” said Jerome Bugnet, EMEA client architect, office of the CTO, MuleSoft. “However, insurers are already struggling to deliver a connected experience before even considering how they bring all these new data sources into the equation. Those that are unable to overcome this challenge risk damaging customer loyalty and falling behind the more innovative insurance providers.”
Inefficient processes cause frustration
The research further revealed that insurers could do a lot more to improve their existing processes to make them more efficient and customer-centric.
• Almost half (46 percent) of consumers believe that applying for an insurance policy should take no longer than one hour.
• 56 percent said the process of renewing an insurance policy should take no longer than an hour.
• At least a quarter of consumers that have had to re-submit or re-state information they’d previously provided had to do so when applying for an insurance policy (27 percent), making an insurance claim (26 percent) or renewing an insurance policy (25 percent).
New communication channels
The research reveals that insurers can’t just concentrate on the here and now, as new technology is rapidly increasing consumer experience expectations.
• Nearly half (45 percent) of consumers would like to use popular messaging services such as WhatsApp, Viber, iMessage or Facebook Messenger to securely interact with insurers. Again, this number is even higher (54 percent) amongst 18-34-year-olds.
• 22 percent of consumers have engaged with a chatbot when contacting an insurer over the last 12 months. However, the UK was the least advanced in this regard, with just 14 percent of consumers having engaged with a chatbot when contacting their insurance provider during the last year.
“The insurance industry is facing major upheaval and disruption with the prevalence of online aggregators and more recent rise of insurtech companies. If they want to remain relevant, insurers need to be ready to engage on their customers’ terms, using modern channels and technologies such as messaging platforms and chatbots. They also need to find new and innovative ways to create more personalized offerings that drive better experiences for their customers,” continued Bugnet. “One way to achieve this is for insurers to become part of a wider value chain that drives more specific, personalized experiences for customers, rather than trying to retain sole ownership of a generic customer journey. Insurers should therefore build an ‘insurance as a platform’ environment, where they can collaborate with internal teams, insurtech companies and other partners. To enable this, they’ll need to build an application network, which connects applications, data and devices using APIs, so insurers can innovate faster and provide connected experiences.”
|
