Consumer brands are changing policyholder expectations,and carriers are using technology to improve the customerexperience. (Photo: Shutterstock)

One of the hottest topics in P&C technology today iscustomer experience — and how digital engagement can put carrierson equal footing with the consumer brands that have fundamentallychanged customer expectations. However, too often I hear vague,general discussions about customer experience rather than a focuson specific customer expectations.

To create digital customer experiences that provide realsolutions, we need to be thinking in terms of each customer'spersona or role. In our world, this comes down to individualconsumers, business clients and brokers.

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User intuition

There has been much progress made on the mechanics of theconsumer experience, such as giving insureds the ability topre-populate all the details about their cars by simply enteringtheir license plate number into a quoting app. Intuitive userinterfaces are becoming the new normal with the use of chatbots onthe rise and the abundance of mobile applications.

User experience and support for brokers is an area that has seensignificant global evolution. One good example is Ztrade by ZurichUK, an online portal that reduced broker quoting time to 60seconds. It allows brokers to provide rapid indicative quotes,process new business and make mid-term adjustments withoutinvolving Zurich where product underwriting rules allow, andincludes excellent online support.

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Improving business support

One group ripe for improvement involves business clients, userslooking for more self-service — especially in small- andmedium-sized enterprises. Possible advances could be similar to theones highlighted in the Ztrade example. More work can and should bedone to streamline data exchange between businesses and brokers;carriers treating corporate insureds more like individual consumerswill go a long way toward winning and retaining commercial linesbusiness.

While consumers, businesses and brokers are a good start,increasingly segmented and refined user types are clearly a futurefocus. Accenture published a study last year on various customer segmentsand their expectations of insurers. From this research, Accentureidentified three primary customer types:

Nomads: A highly digitally active group, readyfor a new model of delivery.

• They want flexible, personalized models.
• They are ready to transition to a new digital model.
• They want to do more on their own, with agents involved laterin the buying process.
• They want insurers to go beyond indemnification and offer morevalue.
• They will readily migrate to non-traditional insurance firmsand models.

Hunters: Value-oriented customers searching forthe best deal on price.

• They want to use specialist insurers.
• They are primarily driven to seek maximum value for theirmoney
• They believe that human advice is vital at key stages.
• They search for carriers that add value through data.

Quality seekers: Loyal to insurers that deliveron brand integrity and service excellence.

• They are driven by service and trust.
• They will share more personal data, but only on their ownterms.
• They are open to computer-generated advice if it enhances theirinsurance buying experience.

Starting with a high-level understanding of the differencesbetween users you serve is a good first step towards transformingyour digital presence, but drilling deeper to identify more precisepersonas provides a much more detailed view into the wants andneeds of potential customers.

The more understanding a company has about its customers, thebetter positioned it is to inform the development of its productsand the design of its customer experiences. As carriers use morefully-developed personas to inform their digital transformations,expect to see exciting developments at every user touch point.

Johan Nelis is regional director, APAC at Duck CreekTechnologies. Contact him at [email protected].