Hub of this article is that customers want choice.
“The industry used to look at this issue in a very binary fashion. It was seen as a binary decision that a customer would either want to be acquired online and go through the entirety of the customer journey in a direct manner, or they would want to go through a broker,” he told Insurance Business. “Thankfully, the industry has evolved in its understanding that policyholders, whether they’re individuals, small businesses, middle-market accounts and so on, want to have options along the spectrum of what we call ‘self-directed to guided’.”
Bethan Moorcraft Insurance Business America 27th March 2019
In any strategy that gives customers that choice it is critical that any digital insurance platforms extend the benefits of better customer experience via the broker to the customer. This means that a single digital record must be transparently shared (redacted where necessary of course) between the insurer and the broker to deliver a friction-less and self-serve customer journey.
Technology partners like 360Globalnethave pioneered this for insurers round the world having now processed over 3.6 million claims digitally.
“Then there’s the effectiveness side of the disintermediation. If you look at the majority of insurtech firms, they’re actually digital MGAs. They’re not full-spec insurance companies. Rather, they’re customer acquisition vehicles like a traditional MGA would be. They might not have all the claims handling, risk management capabilities and other things of that nature that will enable them to fulfil the full frictionless promise – and that’s where the market gets confused. The digital MGAs often pass some of the customer experience on to the insurance companies.”
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