Expert View: Mobility is key in a changing consumer landscape

The ecosystem around travel and mobility is changing rapidly. This is being driven by a large number of convergent factors, all of which are pointing to consumers’ need for choice, transparency and ease of access.

Congestion and air quality top the public and private sector transport agendas. This is driving interest in autonomous vehicles, electric cars and Clean Air Zones (CAZ) as well as solutions for replacing older, more polluting vehicles.

Major advances in technology have shifted service expectations. Cars now form part of a broader Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) offering alongside every other mode of transport. Apps are helping to make multi-modal travel more convenient, cheaper and sometimes even faster as users can select the best option for each part of their journey.

These transformations also impact consumer expectations of the motor claims experience.

Mobility

One of a policyholders’ primary concerns during a claim is mobility. Consumers expect options and not just a replacement for their own vehicle. A customer’s car only services a portion of their mobility needs.

Customers may want a hybrid or electric vehicle one day, to ensure emissions comply with CAZ standards, then access to other forms of transport another time. They want immediate access to various mobility options whenever and wherever they need it, 24/7/365.

As the market evolves, everyone involved in mobility provision has to evolve with it. We all need to understand how customers will behave today, next year and 10 years from now, so as to meet consumers’ ever-evolving service expectations.

Enterprise has been developing its capacity as a total transportation provider, integrating our on-street car club with our daily rental branch operations.  We have introduced tablet technology to extend the branch service to any location and developed new booking platforms to enable multi-modal bookings.

We are also participating in a number of MaaS pilots. These are the type of services that will deliver of the best motor claims experience to the tech-savvy 21^st century customer. If they want a range of mobility options at the touch of a button, we’ll have to offer this to them.