“The system was broken and something had to be done, and that’s why I left to create So-Sure,” says Dylan Bourguignon, CEO of the London-based social insurance company that lets policyholders connect with their friends and earn money back when they don’t claim.
The So-Sure model allows users to connect to friends, earning a reward for each friend that takes up a policy, and ultimately to get up to 80% of the value of their premium back each year if no-one claims.
But whilst Bourguignon sees the company as “definitely” part of the insurtech community, the idea for So-Sure was borne more out of a desire to change the insurance industry’s mindset than driven by technological ambitions.
“It feels to me that there really needs to be a much deeper rethink of insurance than what the insurance companies at the moment are doing,” Bourguignon told
Insurance Business, pointing to the poor reputation of the industry among consumers, and a disappointing customer experience.
The experience that customers have when trying to buy insurance online is “abysmal” according to Bourguignon, and many companies don’t want to be transparent about terms and conditions: “that for me is where it needs addressing,” he explained.
“That’s why we’re an MGA, to ensure that we can control the customer experience from start to finish,” – which includes everything from sales to claims handling – “and that’s fundamental because if we were to leave any of those segments to the industry, it’s just a very poor customer experience.”
So-Sure, which is currently only available for mobile phones, can be up to 40% cheaper than network offerings and provides 24/7 claims support he claims.
“It’s about making the process so that you feel that you are a customer and not a thief when claiming,” Bourguignon explained.
While the friends-based model is a modern, Facebook-esque concept, Bourguignon says the idea is actually a traditional one: “It’s a return to the roots of insurance… we’ve got a 21st century version of the 17th century mutual.”
And while insurance needs to embrace technology and become more forward-thinking, the primary concern should still be improving the customer experience, Bourguignon believes.
“All those things are all great if they are actually applied to a fundamentally appropriate insurance model… but if you’re not making the customer experience better, you’re not actually addressing the issues that customers have around insurance,” he explained.
So where should innovation in the industry take place?
“It’s about rethinking entirely the customer experience, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said.
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