Change or be changed. Less than a third of insurance customers are satisfied with their current providers. So, it’s no surprise that providers name customer engagement and experience as their top focus. But as a traditional provider, it can be hard to cut through the hype of insurance tech trends for 2019. And it can be even harder to act on those trends with legacy systems and efficiency-obsessed company cultures.
With so much changing in the insurance industry right now, which areas should you be focusing on? And how can you drive digital transformation internally?
Infographic: Top 5 Insurance Tech Trends
1. Omnichannel Insurance
When it comes to insurance, digital native consumers are well-informed and vocal with high expectations. And one of the biggest expectations is personalisation. After all, you’re often with your customers at an emotional and sensitive time.
And during this time, each one of your customers has a unique combination of insurance needs and communication preferences. In recent years, these combinations have only become more digital. With many consumers now using social media to inquire about insurance products.
This is why insurers are taking an omnichannel approach with mobile platforms, self-service websites and wide-scale automation. Compared to these, traditional distribution channels in insurance will soon become inefficient, ineffective and obsolete. Omnichannel insurance offers your customers a more personalised and engaging experience. All while giving you and your carriers valuable sales avenues even in markets where you have no physical channels.
So, it’s no surprise that half of all insurers expect to have a wholly digital sales process within the next three years. With one in four already having this today. How will your insurance distribution channels change over the next three years?
2. Instant Insurance Claims with Artificial Intelligence
In a customer-centric world, speed really matters. Today’s connected consumer is used to everything being instant, after all. The longer it takes to submit a claim and the longer it takes you to process that claim, the less engaged your claimant becomes. In an age where tech-savvy consumers are more likely to consider alternatives than ever before, this is a huge challenge.
But with a well-designed mobile app experience, you can meet this demand and keep your insurance customers engaged. Look at US insurance provider Lemonade’s mobile offering. Submitting a claim in Lemonade’s app takes fewer taps than most tweets! Made possible by eliminating paperwork and using the device camera instead to let claimants record a video statement. It’s no surprise Lemonade broke the record with a pay-out of just three seconds. All thanks to their mobile-first approach and artificial intelligence claims chatbot.
This doesn’t mean that in the future every insurance claim will be automated or rely solely on mobile tech. But for claims like the above (a stolen coat), a streamlined customer experience supported by automation has huge benefits. It filters out simple, low-value claims while forwarding more complicated claims onto your employees for that personal touch. This enhances your CX, engages your customers and empowers your employees. All while driving down your costs. Thanks to instant insurance claims, Lemonade is able to offer prices almost six times less than their competition!
Read our article: Streamlining the Insurance Claims Process
3. Smarter Insurance with the Internet of Things (IoT)
Until relatively recently, the Internet of Things was seen as a futuristic concept. But as we know, the smart home is now a reality. BigTech companies like Amazon and Google are delivering more and more affordable, connected devices. This is a huge opportunity (or threat) to the insurance industry. With benefits ranging from improving risk assessment, proactively engaging policyholders and preventing loss.
So, why are just 36% of insurance companies using insights from new sources like the IoT? Banking and financial services are already at 47%. It’s often hard to cut through the hype of new and emerging technology, so as an insurer how can the IoT benefit you and your customers?
Wearable or personal tech (often referred to as fit tech) can perform blood work, ECGs and even administer drug doses automatically. Vehicular sensors can accurately measure distances, speeds and driving behaviour. While smart sensors can be used in thermostats, alarms and cameras in both the home and workplace. But what does all this mean for you as an insurer?
The Internet of Things has a huge opportunity for loss prevention, using in-home sensors to monitor property damage. Similarly, vehicular sensors can use data to provide proactive warnings of dangerous driving conditions or behaviour. Healthcare tech monitors policyholders’ conditions, letting you build much more accurate risk profiles going forward.
IoT technology and smart things give you a much better overview of your policyholders’ situations. Enabling a much deeper understanding of their risk, allowing you to offer precisely priced policies while eliminating outdated paper-based processes.
4. Gamification in Insurance
Using game elements to engage your policyholders helps you to build long-lasting relationships through memorable experiences. Commonly used gamification elements include progress badges, virtual currency or tokes, unlockable content, custom constraints and micro interactions. Simply put, these techniques motivate people to act whether it’s your customers, policyholders or employees. You can use gamification to encourage exercise, promote savings contributions or boost employee engagement.
Through this method, one UK driving insurer has built a customer base with over 90% being under 21s. A Canadian insurance provider used gamification to make younger policyholders prove they understood investment and retirement planning principles. This boosted customer engagement and added value to the insurer’s offering.
There are clear and tangible benefits of gamification for the insurance industry. One that answers insurance’s customer experience problem. But all great gamification needs a purpose, a goal and a strategy. Just doing it for the sake of doing it won’t bring you ROI. With a well thought out strategy in place, however, you can connect with customers and build your brand awareness. How could you use gamification to achieve this?
Read our article: How to Improve Customer Engagement in Insurance
5. Immersive Experiences with Augmented Reality
Immersive Experiences with Augmented Reality (AR) are easy-to-use and scalable. They’re engaging, memorable and can offer your customers or employees something that’s really tangible. So, it’s no surprise that by 2019, AR, Virtual Reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) will be in use by over 20% of large-enterprise businesses. Of those companies already using AR, 40% found the technology to exceed their expectations. But what do immersive experiences mean for the insurance industry?
To find where augmented reality and immersive experiences can make the biggest difference to your insurance company, you have to start with your customers, claimants or employees’ challenges. Starting with an emerging technology and working backwards won’t provide you with a return on your investment. When it comes to insurance, that could mean addressing roadblocks in your claims process or increasing the number of touchpoints in your customer journey.
For example, experiencing a car accident is an incredibly stressful time for your customers. And straight after, they have to remember to collect a bunch of information from vehicle damage to driver details. But what if you could streamline this process, reduce the amount of stress for your customer and make sure you capture as much information as possible right then and there? By combining AR and image recognition in an intuitive app wizard, you can do exactly that. Take your customers through what they need to take note of while using the device camera and location to automatically record details like damage, licence plates, locations and conditions.
What’s Next?
By now, you should have a good idea of how the top insurance tech trends will impact the future of the industry. But knowing where to start is another matter completely. As a traditional insurance provider, innovation can be elusive. And the bigger the company, the smaller steps you end up taking. This is why we recommend the Lighthouse Project approach to digital transformation. We don’t measure startups by their efficiency, we measure how well they identified and responded to a problem. So, why should you be any different?
We’re Sonin App Development and we’ve worked with multinational companies through highly focused projects and innovation labs. This way, you can take your idea from concept to prototype in a short space of time. Bypassing roadblocks and helping you prove the value of emerging tech or app development to your business.
If you’re interested in a bespoke insurance app, then we would love to hear from you. Give us a call on 01737 45 77 88 or send us a message today.