The major themes were technology, customer experience, and C-Suite approvals.
Rather than launching in with my key takeaways, I wanted to highlight a series of “pain points” that I heard again and again from attendees and speakers alike.
Long story short, if your claims data isn’t frictionless and impactful, then customers will go to another provider; it’s that simple!
However, what I heard over and over publicly and privately, is that getting IT to change to adapt was a huge pain point. Proper transformation isn’t all about the technology, it was about connecting the desired results with an effective change management journey that the company can stand behind.
In many cases, IT viewed modernization as a threat to their careers because they are responsible for sustaining legacy systems.
This is just one of many anecdotes, stories, and struggles that I heard over the past two days. But I also heard a lot of successes from the trenches of those who powered through to make their CX awesome. There are 4 major recurring themes that stood out to me during the past 2 days.
This is my bucket list of what I heard it takes to create an awesome insurance CX strategy – one that turns strangers into customers and improves profitability every time.
Time and again in the short span of 2 days at Connected Claims I spoke with insurance CxOs who lamented the lack of access to accurate, timely, relevant, and reliable information throughout organizations. One executive who had been in the industry three decades said it this way: “I’ve had countless meetings, demos, and dog and pony shows over the years, you name it, but we just can’t settle on a long-term data strategy because of data constraints and roadblocks.
Today’s progressive insurance companies require data platforms that offer real-time, AI delivered insights that can manage underwriting, sales & management, claims, and distribution all within one platform.
Based on several conversations, the advice is the same: Start small with your data platform. Pick a use case, and implement it. Provide value to the organization and then work on a major rollout, one use case at a time.
What I learned at the conference is that analytics isn’t always the magic pill for most C-Suite initiatives, however, it is still valued as a method to make faster decisions in the medium to long-term.
Predictive analytics is one of the most talked about and powerful tools in the insurance industry today. It’s admittingly not the easiest technology to deploy, but if leveraged correctly is the fastest way to create actionable insights; improve communication with customers, vendors, and employees; transform customer experience; and enhance business efficiency.
Research suggests that as many as two-thirds of all insurers are already using predictive models in some way, shape, or fashion to improve their business. Here are the most popular ways:
For almost a decade, auto insurers have been using telematics devices to optimize and transform the industry. I have also leveraged usage-based insurance for a couple of years and have noticed my premium pricing drop on average 10-15%.
This is becoming an extremely popular option; I recently read that the total number of telematics-based insurance policies will increase to 90 million by 2020.
Telematics not only helps adjust pricing for safe driving but can also add value in the event of a crash. Detection technologies help to begin the claims processing immediately after an accident and lead to more control, better customer service, as well as fraud and cost reduction. These real-time optimizations are very powerful for customers already dealing with the stress of an accident.
Transformation is lengthy in terms of time and expense. Companies can’t do everything all at once, so they must be hyper-focused on targeted areas of the platform that gives the biggest impact on the customer experience that will achieve business outcomes quicker, so investments keep flowing.
