Motor insurers trailing other sectors for digital personalisation

Motor insurers are trailing other sectors for marketing and digital personalisation and risk losing market share to more innovative competitors. 

That was according to consultancy BearingPoint, which said that its study showed there are motor insurers unable to keep up with customer expectations surrounding journey tracking.

This includes not remembering previous visits to their website or providing real-time personalised recommendations and add-ons.

Some insurers have also failed to follow up a car insurance quote with a personalised email communication, BearingPoint said.

Tony Farnfield, partner at BearingPoint, said: ”While the industry is undergoing significant transformation due to continually evolving consumer expectations, regulatory changes and market dynamics, our study has found that investment in personalisation appears to be limited across the UK’s motor insurance industry, with the majority at the early stages of offering a seamless and personalised customer journey compared to industries such as retail and automotive.

”Our study shows motor insurers are trailing other sectors in areas such as journey tracking, where previous visits to an insurer’s website should be remembered and personal recommendations or add-ons provided to the customer as they navigate through the site.”

Top performer

All motor insurers were assessed by BearingPoint against a pre-defined framework, which covered the customer journey of buying motor insurance from consideration through to customer service support.

The ability to provide a personalised customer journey was evaluated through a scoring system ranging from “no personalisation” to “excellent personalisation” across all 11 touchpoints. 

LV= was the top performing motor insurer across consideration, evaluation, experience and support.

BearingPoint said its findings also show that there is an opportunity for motor insurers to land some ”quick wins to attract and retain customers through more effective marketing and digital personalisation”.  

“Although some motor insurers have started to work on their omni-channel experience by thinking about search, web and email experiences for customers, there is still progress to be made,” Farnfield said.

”It is also critical that motor insurers bring together online and off-line channels, as customers that start their journey digitally, often must repeat information to contact centre agents as data and information that should be readily available to contact centre agents is not.”