Whether it is recommendations from Google or an online retailer, personalisation has permeated all aspects of modern life and insurance should be no different.
As an industry with a rich history of data use and segmentation, insurance is well-placed to utilise new technologies and data enrichment tools to offer uniquely personalised services as society comes to demand more specificity, according to an expert.
Kevin Gaut, chief technology officer at
SSP, said that the industry will need to utilise personalisation as consumers come to expect it as it features in the majority of transactions.
“I think everything else is becoming personalised,” Gaut told
Insurance Business. “Society is now expecting a level of personalisation that our insurers are going to have to deliver.”
Gaut highlighted a solution that SSP has worked on with UK-based insurer Direct Line, which sees the firm target small businesses with a simple series of questions tailored to specific market segments. The first iteration has targeted hair salons and Gaut said that personalisation to specific industries and specific clients will only increase.
For brokers and the wider industry, a move toward technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) will provide more opportunities to personalise cover in both commercial and personal lines.
Technology costs have dropped as it becomes more widely available and Gaut said that the best advice for those looking to boost their technology for consumers is to start small as the traditional insurance market undergoes drastic change.
“What we would say is start small and understand what your own customers want,” Gaut said. “It might be that you start off by delivering capabilities for customers to see their documents online through a secure portal and from there you might start to push messages or get them to do certain product lines that they can self-serve.”
Technology providers, such as SSP, are also working on personalisation as platforms allow for more tailoring by individual businesses to get the most out of industry technology.
With SSP hitting the headlines for major broker blackouts in New Zealand and other parts of the world, Gaut said that the company has taken steps to protect their broker customers from similar disruptions.
“Specifically for New Zealand brokers, we’ve moved them all to hosting our data in Australia,” Gaut continued. “Data segregation is important but we felt that for our brokers, we could offer them a better service and also help with data protection by moving it to a local data centre.”
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