How can insurance firms rise to industry challenges?

The insurance sector can face challenges from a multitude of directions and the rise of insurance technology firms, alongside data giants such as Amazon and Google, may ultimately require a change of approach.

A recent roundtable discussion, organised by Insurance Post in association with SAP and its partner MSG, sought to explore current thinking.

Our Head of Marketing, Sam Jordan, was one of those in attendance and she provided her views on several leading industry topics, as we’ll detail here.

The importance of gaining trust

When asked if it is time to diversify revenue streams and to offer added value service propositions that go beyond insurance, she explained that there is “scope to do more”, although “price is not the only issue”.

Sam highlighted the need to build trust with customers by offering support and services that can help meet their requirements.

“Trust also means making customers feel like they are an individual,” she explained. “You can offer a chat facility but also have someone at the end of the phone. It’s about having the conversation about issues that affect customers, so you are a trusted source.”

Questor Insurance also provide customers the opportunity to review their claims experience. Orchard Administration (the claims handlers for Questor Insurance) invite claimants to leave Trustpilot reviews following their claim.  Sam described the move as “really effective” for developing trust with customers, adding that “there is no reason to hide” if the company is providing a good service.

Adding customer value 

Sam also spoke of the “need to look at behaviours” and customer trends to ensure that “flexible and appropriate products” are offered.

From Questor Insurance’s perspective, that means reaching out to travellers who are not intending to hire a car, or to independent travellers who will have different requirements to others.

“It’s about creating products that suit different generations,” she explained.

The impact of regulations 

Regulation requires that UK insurance policies are accompanied with relevant product information to inform the customer and to enhance their knowledge. IPIDs (Insurance Product Information Documents) were introduced as a pre-contractual document containing such information to ensure customers are fully informed at the point of purchase. To remain fully compliant, Questor Insurance also give customers the option of receiving a hard copy of this document when purchasing a policy.

Changes to the General Data Protection Regulations have also played their part, inhibiting the collection of customer data that historically, although anonymised, would have provided insight into buying behaviour.

Such changes provide further challenges for those operating in the insurance industry. With increasing competition on the horizon in the form of data giants like Amazon and with regulations becoming stricter over time, the need to adopt a more customer-centric approach is becoming increasingly apparent.

For further reading, the full roundtable discussion can be found on the Insurance Post website.

Date Created: 12/12/2018