Bringing customer-centric insurance to life
Insurance is undergoing its largest transformation since the advent of comparison sites in the 1990s. Insurtech companies are driving improvements in the customer experience that are long overdue.
I previously spoke with InsurTech Rising 365 about how Bought By Many uses online search and social media data to identify the insurance products and features consumers are searching for, and how this data shapes our product design. As a follow-up, I’d like to round up the opportunities to improve the customer experience of buying and using insurance.
One area ripe for innovation is the quote journey and how it functions on mobile devices.
Most insurers ask similar questions in the same tick-box format. They are a chore for consumers and none of them stand out. Getting a quote might be the first proper interaction someone has with your company so it’s vital the experience leaves a good impression if they’re still shopping around.
Online search and social media data indicates people are struggling to use quote forms on mobile devices; many do not use responsive web design so text can be hard to read or answer boxes do not load properly.
Natural language quote forms are an alternative to the standard insurance data capture process. They ask customers to complete a series of simple sentences and are easy to understand, look good and are fun to use.
Most companies ask customers to leave a review immediately after purchasing so an impressive quote journey can have a significant impact on the public feedback that people leave.
Policy wording is another feature that is overlooked and standardised across the industry. Documents can be difficult to understand, which results in confusion around what is and isn’t covered.
Strip out complex legal terms and focus on making the policy wording as clear as possible. A bit of creative design can help documents stand out and adds brand recognition.
Fairer Finance can assess the clarity and reading age of policy wording and it awards a “Clear and Simple Mark” to documents that are easy to understand.
Modern insurance companies should be dynamically generating policy wording and removing sections that are not applicable to the cover purchased (e.g. if a customer purchases a single pet policy, don’t include the multi-pet wording). This will significantly reduce the size of the document and confusion about what is/isn’t covered.
Claims are another industry pain point – you only have to look at commentary on social media to see how frustrated customers are with the process. Common gripes include the amount of information required to submit a claim, not being able to claim online, not being kept up to date with the status of a claim, the length of the process, or claims not being paid out at all.
It doesn’t take rocket science to fix some of these issues.
First, look at your claim form. How much of the information do you already know? I think you’ll be surprised by the results. Why not only ask for the information you absolutely need?
For instance, for a pet insurance claim you might only need to ask for the nature of the claim (accident, sickness etc), how much the claim is for, and the details of the vet used for treatment. Why not move these questions online and give claimants the opportunity to upload photos of receipts to speed up the process?
Another frustration is having to regularly call the insurer to get an update on the status of a claim. This can be solved by automatically updating your customer via text message or email as the claim progresses.
Finally, engage with your customers via the channels they use. Telephone and email can be fine for some people but companies will need to start engaging via live chat, Facebook Messenger and whatever comes next.
Make it easy for people to buy your products, use your services and contact you, and you will immediately move the needle on customer satisfaction.
Check out the Bought By Many website to see the above examples being used in practise and see how many are referenced in thousands of 5-star reviews from our customers.
By Dr. Steve Long, head of international, Bought by Many
