Once upon a time, the majority of consumers would have shiedaway from buying financial products online. But in an increasinglydigital world, today's consumers are growing ever more comfortablewith buying anything and everything online, and as a result, theirexpectations of customer service arerising.

It is a challenge that the insurance industry has to step up to,to ensure we communicate with consumers in a way that meets theirpreferences and expectations. It is time, then, to ensure yourorganization has a strong multichannel communications strategy witha clear focus on digital touchpoints.

Related: Customer expectations: 4 digital technologyimplications for insurers

Helping agents, brokers, customers

The benefits of having this in place are huge. Having a clear multichannel view of customerbehavior and interactions can help brokers make more relevantand informed suggestions, make the most of cross-sell and up-sellopportunities, and increase sales. For the customer of course, thismeans they benefit from receiving better offers and communications,such as timely reminders for renewals or useful add-ons to theirpolicies.

Research also shows that consumers are certainly more likely tospend their money online. The National Retail Federation predictsthat online retail will grow 8-12% this year in the U.S.,suggesting ecommerce sales of between $427 billion and $443billion.

So with more dollars spent online every quarter, insurers needto learn to leverage digital if they are to capitalize on this.Agents expect user-friendly and intelligent interfaces online, andparticularly where screens are shared with customers, tools thatenable brokers to come up with potential scenarios or to customisepolicies need to be set up in an way that is intuitive as well asvisually appealing to both.

Related: Today's connected insurance consumers expectconvenience

Mobile is a must

A strong mobile offering is also becoming increasinglyimportant. Many retailers already report that up to 70%-80% ofwebsite browsing occurs through customers using mobile devices, andaccording to the Centre for Retail Research, 33.9% of online spendwas via mobile in the U.S. in 2016.

We in the insurance sector need to remain ahead of the curve onthis channel by monitoring ever-changing customer behaviors andadapting our offering to fit. And, with mobile so big a part ofconsumers' lives, this includes providing mobile optimised sitesand apps, which are particularly suited to delivering valuableadd-on services such as 'find my nearest' tools for car glassrepairs, renewal reminders and support for reporting a claim.

People also like to do their own research. This, as we all knowfrom our own experience as consumers, often starts on one channel,such as a mobile phone, and finishes with a purchase on anotherchannel such as the telephone or web.

Related: 22 ways to make insurance customers feelvalued

Technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied tochatbots is also popular for asking questions and soundingcompanies out before making a purchase (or not).

Mobile communications now shape the customer servicelandscape. (Photo: iStock)

Tweet, and repeat

Social media is also becoming increasinglyimportant with the likes of Facebook Messenger becoming auseful communication channel. Meanwhile Facebook, Twitter, LinkedInand other social platforms can be hugely valuable channels forinteracting with consumers.

Related: 8 tools for using social media to fight insurancefraud

However, it's not enough just to offer these channels: achievinga true multichannel communications strategy means tying themtogether to integrate all of the data they provide into a singlecustomer view. Put a broker in front of a client without this andit is very inefficient to access all of the policies the client hastaken out, which makes it impossible to promptly provide them withrelevant offers.

The market may be moving to a model that requires this real-timeoverview of the customer but with customer information in back-endsystems, usually legacy systems, generally held in different siloesfor the use of single departments, it involves time and money tocollect all of this information into a single database to enablethis single customer view.

Related: 3 insurance technology trends for building customerrelationships

But it is worth it

Creating new modern front-ends and integrating them with thedifferent back-ends allows you to collect and pool all types ofstructured and unstructured data from various systems into oneplace more easily. Add in your organisation's daily influx of BigData including the information gained from using AI chatbots andyou have a database full of information that will help you improvestrategy and decision making across your business.

Once you are using these levels of data and technology, they will onlyget more useful. In the future for example, AI is expected toprovide far more than simple chatbot automation, such as systemsthat help identify cross-selling or up-selling opportunities bysuggesting which groups of clients to target with an offer for thebest results, for instance, enabling insurers to identify areaswhere there are lower environmental risks to target with low-riskoffers, or that automatically respond with an action to specifictrigger behavior by consumers.

For those that deliver on digital, the opportunities areendless, but of course innovating through digital even at a basiclevel can be time consuming and not every organisation has theresources to make this happen by themselves. For this reason, itcan be far more cost effective to outsource such a project to athird-party consultant who can help you work out how best toimprove your user experience with digital as well as implement theprocess.

Insurance, as we all know, is a highly competitive market, andwhile newer entrants may have entered it with a strong digitaloffer, many of the older players are still stalling, but thisbrings the very real risks of missing out to better-equippedcompetition. Delivering on digital may be a challenge but asconsumer online expectations continue to rise, failing to engage issimply not an option.

Giuliano Altamura is Financial Services Business Unitmanager at Fincons Group. He can be reached via LinkedIn, or by sending emailto [email protected].

The opinions expressed here are the writer'sown.

See also:

The risks and rewards of socialmedia

'Winter is coming' for traditional insuranceindustry call centers