Zurich chief executive Ian Stuart has urged the industry to challenge public perceptions of a complex insurance market by using marketing staff to develop customer understanding.
Stuart told Insurance Times that industry leaders should become "more user-friendly and customer-centric" to enable customers to better understand insurance.
He said: "Insurance continues to be seen by many as complicated, difficult to understand and plagued by small print. Strategically placing marketing staff at the top end of companies would create an understanding of the customer."
Stuart argued that employing marketing staff "really adds value to an organisation". Staff that focus on the customer, he said, "remind the actuaries and the technical people who the customers are and what they need".
He added: "While technical expertise is essential to all insurance professionals, an understanding of customers, the way they think and speak is equally important."
Stuart said putting the customer experience at the heart of business had a positive impact on retention rates.
