Plenty of room for improvementexists among insurers looking to maximize their customers’experience and gain new business, according to a new survey.

Insurers that individually invested $30 million, on average, inanalytics and mobile capabilities over the past three years stillbelieve they should be doing more to win over customers, accordingto the survey by Accenture.

Accenture gathered data from 119 major insurance companiesaround the world—equally divided between life andproperty-and-casualty carriers—in 24 countries. The survey wasconducted by market-research firm Kadence Ltd. from Februarythrough May of this year.

The findings suggest an industry that recognizes its customers’needs but falls short in best serving the consumer.

For example, while the vast majority of insurers (91 percent)believe future growth depends on providing a special customerexperience, most of them do not currently see themselves asproviding differentiated products and levels of service.

More than three-quarters of the respondents (79 percent) ratethemselves as “average” or “among the weakest in the industry” intheir ability to provide customers with multichannel access totheir services—including through mobile devices.

More than two-thirds (70 percent) rate themselves as “average”or “weak” in their ability to tailor products and services tocustomers’ needs—and almost two-thirds (64 percent) gave themselvessimilar suboptimal ratings in their ability to provide innovativeproducts and services.

“To pursue profitable growth, insurers need to achieve the kindof differentiation that allows organizations like Apple to charge apremium while building customer loyalty,” Thomas Meyer, managingdirector of Accenture’s insurance practice for Europe, Africa andLatin America, said in a statement.

Among the survey’s findings:

• More than two-thirds (68 percent) of insurers say they willincrease spending on analytics capabilities over the next threeyears, up from an average of $21 million (per insurer) over thepast three years.
• Half (50 percent) of the respondents leverage data aboutcustomers’ lifestyles (such as hobbies and interests) to analyzetheir needs and expectations, but just 37 percent of them leverageusage patterns, such as driving habits and personal needs, to doso.
• Only 16 percent of insurers use external data such as socialmedia “to a great extent” to supplement customer informationavailable internally.

The findings also revealed that insurers recognize the potentialof mobile, even if they admit they’re behind the curve in utilizingthat platform.

Only 15 percent of insurers, on average, provide services gearedfor mobile devices, such as information about products sold,quotations and account management, while more than half (54percent) offer these services online. More than half (58 percent)of respondents, on average, said they will offer these servicesthrough mobile devices in the next three years.

More than four-fifths (81 percent) of insurers said they willincrease their investment in mobile applications over the nextthree years, up from an average of $9 million (per insurer) overthe past three years.

Insurers, Meyer said, should explore the possibilities that amobile ecosystem offers: “By partnering with other key players,such as a bank or online payment service, a retailer, or atelecommunication operator, the insurer becomes part of a mobileinitiative that gains wide adoption more quickly, offers greaterfunctionality, and opens doors to large numbers of newcustomers.”