Most of us are caught up in the everyday duties of our job and fail to spend much time detailing a strategy for the future. We know that being strategic is imperative to determine the course we are headed, but determining that direction and taking the steps to reach that point don't always co-exist.

Change is one of the few things that we can rely on in the insurance industry today and a leading insurance technology professional believes the direction his company is headed involves how they deal with consumers.

"The most exciting thing [about the future] in my mind is creating customer experience that is substantially better than anything we've done in the past," says Peter Settel, senior vice president and CIO of Homesite Insurance. "Customers are going to judge us not based on who is the best insurance company or who creates the best experience, but if customers are working with Google products, or Apple products, or Amazon products, they are going to look at what those companies are creating to achieve the best customer experience overall."

What do those companies have to do with insurance? Nothing right now, but haven't we learned enough in the last decade that nothing stays the same—including insurance.

An analyst I spoke with some time ago brought up an interesting point: What if a company like Amazon, with its deep knowledge of customer service and marketing, decided to get into the insurance business?

He had no reason to believe such a thing would happen, but as we have seen large insurance companies using a direct model for personal auto products, how hard is it to imagine a world where one-stop shopping goes beyond clothing, books, and music to include insurance.

Tomorrow's customers won't be locked into the traditions that have been built up over decades—or even centuries—by insurance carriers.

"I think we are in a position to create fantastic customer experiences, whether it is sales, how you pay your bill or how you settle a claim," says Settel. "As that power shifts to the consumer and their ability to select the company that they want to work with, I think we'll benefit."

We'll find out if he's right and the answer might come sooner than many of us care to think.

Special Reports /

Customer Experience and the Future of Insurance Technology

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