While the majority of insurers (91 percent) believe future growth depends on providing a special customer experience, most insurers surveyed by Accenture do not currently see themselves as providing differentiated products and levels of service. Accenture interviewed 119 insurers for a global survey.

The survey reveals that more than three-fourths of respondents (79 percent) rated themselves as "average" or "among the weakest in the industry" in their ability to provide their customers with multi-channel access to their services, including through mobile devices. More than two-thirds (70 percent) rated themselves as "average" or "weak" in their ability to tailor products and services to customers' needs and almost two-thirds (64 percent) gave themselves similar ratings in their ability to provide innovative products and services.

"To pursue profitable growth, insurers need to achieve the kind of differentiation that allows organizations like Apple to charge a premium while building customer loyalty," says Thomas Meyer, managing director of Accenture's Insurance practice for Europe, Africa and Latin America. "And as Apple has shown, the answer is consumer-driven innovation that creates an exceptional user experience."

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