Do or die: Why insurers must go digital

7 business-critical reasons to embrace digital-first insurance

Customer expectations and complex compliance are putting pressure on insurers to accelerate digital-first transformation.

Customer expectations are high in the 2020s; tech giants have set the bar for seamless everyday digital experiences. As challenger insurance brands and early movers shift to digital-first relationships, digital demand from customers and suppliers is driving transformation at scale in a traditionally slow-moving sector.

Insurance is the grumpy relative of the financial family  

Insurance is traditionally set in its ways and unchallenged, but as the insurance decision-makers shift to a digital-first demographic, research supports taking a fresh look at consumer digital strategies and preferences across generations.   

Digital disruption drivers

1. An ageing population will make way for the digital-first customer (and decision-maker).
2. CX is a competitive differentiator; expectations are up, and loyalty may not survive.
3. Supply chain management to meet compliance burdens.

Insurance is built on paper-based, manual processes — a profitable model the industry hasn’t been in a hurry to change. But the systems in the back end need to keep up, and disruption of the monolith architecture style is here in the form of modular and extension-based architecture that scales on-demand.

It's a perfect time to disrupt the insurance sector with speed, transparency and customer-first experience. Here are seven reasons why insurers need to accelerate the pace of digital transformation.

1. Create a partnership ecosystem

First movers in insurance who are digital natives online have an opportunity to own the customer in a partnership with other brands. With the right tech ecosystem, insurers can act as a broker to a connected marketplace, offering a menu of insurance, banking, superannuation and financial services for a seamless digital-first customer experience.

Those types of partnerships need a shared tech ecosystem that meets security and compliance demands for all parties: the transfer of information is critical to creating digital experiences.

2. Meet expectations for an omnichannel experience

Insurance is not immune from consumer trends, behaviours and expectations — customers expect to have seamless access to services across platforms and devices for a consistent omnichannel experience. Mobile, web, app, socials, in-store — all these channels align as part of an omnichannel approach where customers can pick up your journey anytime, anywhere, on the channel they choose.

3. Drive security from the top down

Insurance suppliers might range from a 5-member trade team to a national construction company. Most smaller companies don't understand what security means for them — and even smaller insurers themselves may not see the value in a pure private cloud offering with dedicated infrastructure and databases.

Insurers have an opportunity to drive security from the top down by establishing supply chain conditions based on digital-first security standards. Some insurers in the market are already moving towards supplier security accreditation in line with requirements like GDPR and APRA’s CPG 234 Information Security standard.

4. Compliance by default

Insurance generates a lot of data and private customer information; it’s an industry known for red tape and layers of protection for confidential information — the security and compliance burden is real.

Digital claims processes unlock custom compliance settings adaptable to compliance by sector, location or asset type. Baking compliance settings into claims systems reduces opportunities for compliance breaches.

5. Built-in transparency

The demand for transparency may be one of the most significant changes to insurance in a decade; transparency throughout the supply chain is key to faster, smarter decisions for insurers.

Consumers are moving past the traditional once a year policy comparison — and getting wiser to the concentration of key players and what that means for genuine choice in the market.

The market is moving towards a more transparent future where pricing and inclusions are clearer and less complex: here’s what you are covered for and what you get for your money.

6. Get to market first

Speed is everything in the digital-first experience. Getting to market first and fast with a new product or package can make or break the launch.

A tool like Crunchwork creates a framework that empowers you to iterate rapidly and take an agile approach to developing new experiences. For example, a recent Crunchwork consultation project supported a client to pull together a compulsory COVID-19 survey for customers making a claim. The application framework was already there with foundation settings like two-factor authentication, custom workflow and security policies, and paths to get that information to the right part of the right insurer. The entire project took two weeks from start to finish instead of several months.

7. Boost productivity and scale on demand

When a single new claim comes in from a customer, most insurers still rely on human intervention — even just 3-minutes of their time. If you're getting 5,000 claims an hour in a category event like a hailstorm, those three minutes per claim add up fast.

Automated workflows can have a massive effect on productivity. They start with pulling data sources into a single location, and that starts with digital-first transformation.

The time for digital transformation of your claims process is now.

Digital-first insurance starts with a single project. Get ready for change, one digital-first goal at a time.

Talk to our team about a quick win to kick off your digital transformation.