How insurance can be kept ‘relevant’ amid raised consumer expectations – Aviva

Insurance firms must use data analytics more to stay “relevant” to consumers, according to Aviva’s head of customer experience and insight Ellie Shepherd.

Shepherd told Insurance Times that the bar had been raised by consumers, with a variety of options having increased their expectations.

She explained that in the past, customers used to rely on specific companies or services for their insurance, banking and retail needs.

However, Shepherd said that customers were “expecting more because they don’t just compare insurers to other insurers, or even to other financial services providers”.

“They compare us to every other brand that they interact with, digitally and non-digitally, in terms of what it is that we can offer,” she added.

However, she said that the amount of data and insight available “can enable [the industry] to act quickly”.

“As an insurance industry, we need to do [this] because we don’t want to get to a point where we are irrelevant for customers.

“We’ve got so much information in terms of insight from what our customers tell us they want and need from us.

“So, [we] need to keep insurance relevant and using [consumer’s] insight and data [can] help us to do so”.

‘Keep up’

This came after Shepherd said last month (15 June 2023) that the shift to digital “really changed” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

For example, it was noted that the pandemic had fast-tracked touchless claims – a claim filed with very little contact from a human via an app – during a roundtable hosted by Future Processing in the same month.

Bill Brower, vice president of industry relations at Solera, explained that prior to the pandemic, consumer adoption for touchless claims was “pretty slow” with a 10% uptake.

However, he said lockdowns made this type of claims processing a necessity.

Shepherd explained that Aviva was looking to keep up with evolving demands by gathering and utilising information.

“We are just one of the brands that [consumers] interact with,” she said.

“So, their expectations are up there and as insures we’re sort of make trying to make sure we take the information to keep up with that pace”.