Individualisation is the future of the insurance customer experience

The insurance customer experience is protracted and often painful – we’ve all been through the process of filling out countless fields in submission forms when we look to buy or renew or compare our car or home insurance. 

Often, this is no fault of the insurer themselves: the industry is heavily regulated, filled with arcane terminology. Plus, a lot of information is needed in order to engage reliably with our customers. Net impact: consumers can struggle to muddle their way through it all.

To get a better sense of our customers, we can always ask for more information – but data protection laws are increasingly stringent, and customers aren’t always keen or willing to engage by giving more personal data away; especially post the Cambridge Analytica furore, and GDPR.

However, there are already fragmented pools of data available; across social data, browsing data, customer records, call and chat history data, and so on.

Creating a predictive model around these data; aggregating them and extrapolating information accordingly, can take insurers beyond personalisation – they’ll be able to truly tailor propositions and digital experiences to individuals. 

Imagine if your digital customer experience with an insurer reliably drew upon data you had previously submitted, or had discussed on social media, etc., if you gave the insurer consent to draw on this information to do so? It would be a win-win.

Given the intensely competitive nature of the market and the impact the internet has on shopping around and switching for consumers, an individualised digital experience will have transformative impact. 

Helped by these types of content, promotions and services, your customers will not only be better equipped to make purchasing decisions, they’ll become more loyal and trusting.

Pretending these opportunities aren’t there is like burying your head in the sand. GDPR or no GDPR, every consumer wants to be offered something they want when they walk into a shop, in the real world or virtually. 

For savvy insurers, delivering this individualised experience is today an opportunity for differentiation – in the future, it’ll become the norm.