It's no secret that property and casualty insurance carriers arefacing new horizons as customers — influenced by the digital offerings from multiple industries —come to expect the same ease of interaction and purchasing fromtheir insurer. Whether you're talking about young digitalnatives, Generation Xers or baby boomers, JD Power (2016) foundthat nearly 75% of shoppers obtain quotes and research insuranceonline.

Can insurers give customers what theywant?

Becoming a digital leader requires a holistic approach.It's not enough to simply implement an online portal or add socialmedia marketing into the mix. Insurers must incorporate digitalshopping and buying channels into a transformative,customer-centered effort or risk losing market share.

In a recent PwC survey (2016), 83% of insurance CEOs cited therapid evolution of technology as a majorconcern to their prospects for growth, as legacy technologyprevents many insurers from achieving their digital distributionvision.

Redefining the insurance customerexperience

Customer service-driven enterprises meet customer expectationson many levels. For insurers, that means offering engagementoptions that allow them to research, quote and purchase coveragethrough the channel of their choice. Legacy systems make offeringthis kind of customer environment difficult, but notimpossible.

Digital strategies overcome legacy challenges by unifying datafrom disparate core systems behind a central console. Centralizingdata enables auto-quoting and underwriting, but also supportscross-channel engagement, giving customers the ability to start aninteraction in one channel and finish it in another— without losing their place or starting over.

Personalizing the insuranceexperience

Customers want insurers to know who they are and provide whatthey need. Analytics inherent to leading-edge digital capabilitiesuse information gathered in customer interactions to identifycoverage gaps and offer real-time product recommendations that willbetter mitigate risk and protect assets.

Analytics allow insurers to customize offerings in a similarway, tapping into information stored in the customer's data torecommend products that could better serve their lifestyle. Forinstance, a customer who drives a limited number of miles a yearmight benefit from a pay-per-mile policy. Through digitaldistribution, insurers can analyze customer data, makerecommendations and even quote, bind and issue the product viatheir channel of choice.

The product conundrum

As multi-generational consumer lifestyles change, so do theirinsurance needs, resulting in an ever-widening array of productrequirements. Pay-as-you-go and flexible term policies are becomingmore common-place and coverage for everything from relationships todrones is emerging.

If digital distribution is to be successful in positioninginsurers as customer-centric institutions, it must provide accessto a broad array of products, allowing carriers to deliver completecoverage to their customers, including products they don't carry,without taking on unnecessary risk. In this way, customers receivethe personalized service they are seeking, and insurers improveacquisition and retention rates by allowing customers toconsolidate their coverage with a single carrier at a price theycan afford.

As technology expands to make lives easier, customers willexpect greater convenience and more personalized services. Improvedaccess to quoting and purchasing across a variety of channels ispart of the equation, but the ability to deliver all of theproducts a customer needs to protect assets and mitigate risk willdetermine the winners in the digital transformation underway.

Insurers with access to the product choice necessary to meetcustomers' requirements will find greater market share, heightenedcustomer loyalty, and improved revenues.

Kathleen Garlasco ([email protected]) is senior vice president ofenterprise marketing for BOLT Solutions, Inc.