Agile insurers are transforming the industry with prioritized initiatives to streamline entire business processes and improve the customer experience, directly increasing their top line.

For instance, insurers implementing robust eSignature platforms are seeing efficiencies that directly impact revenue growth and customer retention within the first year. One auto insurer saw a more than 15 percent increase in sales and a five percent increase in customer retention within one year of implementing eSignatures to transact their policies.

Such immediate results demonstrate the necessity for CIOs to be aware of prioritized initiatives among top P&C insurers. Traditionally, top P&C insurer State Farm is especially popular in small towns. Now?

“State Farm is sitting at the crossroads of the internet and Main Street,” according to Michael Boyle, former SVP and CIO of Allstate Financial and Aflac.

Without customer-focused initiatives to improve operations in 2013, some insurers may not have a place in the 2014 market. The following insights detail why.

1) Top Insurers are Investing in Customer Experience Initiatives

Traditionally behind other industries with regards to customer experience, top P&C insurers are prioritizing customer experience initiatives to change this perception.

Overall, however, insurers continue the tradition of poor customer experience ratings, as confirmed in the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings in which the industry scored poorly relative to other industries. No insurance company was among the top-25 ranked companies, which included grocery stores and online retailers.

Poor performance relative to other industries is important to note because insurance customers are not just comparing their experience across insurers. They expect the same ease to complete transactions they find when purchasing shoes online with Zappos.

A significant opportunity therefore exists for insurers to differentiate their offerings around an improved customer experience, particularly with regards to claims.

Traditionally, a time-consuming, labor-intensive process, claims operations involve multiple systems, outdated technologies, and distributed business units. The resulting slow turnaround time is an average 13.9 day lapse between first notice of loss and payment to auto claimants in fourth quarter 2012, according to a study.

A claim is a customer's moment of need, an opportunity for insurers to validate years of premium payments and crucial to customer retention. Further, the Geico and Progressive-driven models of instant online quotes make it easier to switch upon a poor claims experience.

Right now there is a huge push in the insurance industry for web- and mobile-enablement to replace antiquated, legacy systems.

2) Breaking Down Technology Silos Improves Customer Retention

Poor customer experience can be partly attributed to product silos within the insurance industry. Different technologies are often used for home, car, and boat policies. This lack of an integrated system across products means agents do not have a good view of their customers.

Hindering an agent's ability to cross sell products, the lack of a comprehensive customer view is detrimental to retention. Customer retention increases with each additional policy from a single insurer. Effective cross selling requires access to all relevant customer data. Traditionally, requirements related to data ownership have been a roadblock to mobile accessibility.

The most enlightened in the industry are no longer concerned with a need to have possession of the data, just accessibility to it, according to Ed Higgins, vice president of Thousand Islands Agency. Moving the data to the cloud was the first step, now agents need easy accessibility to the data from their mobile devices.

3) Mobility is the Glue that Holds the Agent-Customer Ecosystem Together

A significant driver for eSignature implementation in the insurance industry with impressive metrics—and a direct impact on customer experience—is improving the mobile agent workflow. Innovative insurance companies are leveraging legally-binding eSignatures to make it easier and faster for their agents to do business with carriers and customers while on the go.

It is important to note the necessity for agent workflows to be optimized for mobile devices. Field agents are not sitting at their desk; they are on the road and working from clients' homes or offices.

“Agents need to be able to put the agency in their back pocket and leave the office with it,” according to Higgins.

Walking into an initial meeting toting a printer and fax machine is not putting their best foot forward. Instead, walking into such environments with a tablet containing all necessary documentation and the ability to complete the entire transaction during that initial conversation has been proven to increase the signing rate.

Further, mobilizing a paperless agent workflow requires less of the agent's time to complete internal agent/carrier processes. This not only increases top line revenue for the carrier, but also means an increased hourly rate for the agent. Think about it. Less time spent processing paperwork means a shortened time to transact business, creating speed to coverage for the customer, and speed to sale for the agent.

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