Insurance is a non-tangible product, and therefore one that customers should be able to obtain instantly - however, according to one broker, insurance is still not nearly as accessible as it should be.
Frank Risk Management director and senior broker Rene Swindley says the industry needs to fundamentally change its buying and selling processes, and this means clever utilisation of new technology, but also understanding your customers on a deep, personal level. He says the way insurance is sold in the future will be based around the customers themselves - not their assets, businesses, or the insurable possessions inside their homes.
“We need to change insurance in order to make it more accessible,” Swindley commented. “For a product that doesn’t sit on a shelf, has no physical logistics associated with it, and in many cases, has no supply issues - Wellington aside - insurance is lagging way behind in people’s expectations when it comes to obtaining an intangible service. It is nowhere near as accessible as it should be.”
“We need to adapt to the buying patterns of the next generation, which means on-demand insurance that aligns intricately with the way the customer works, eats, lives and plays,” he explained.
“What I’m proposing is an insurance policy of the future, one which wraps around the customer specifically, not what they own. At the moment we have this fragmented approach towards insuring people’s things and businesses, but let’s look at them and the way they’ve actually built their asset base, where they work, what they’ve qualified in, and wrap our offering around the customer that way.”
Swindley says one of the main hurdles to insurance accessibility is still the “human factor,” which insurers and brokers can sometimes mistake for personalisation. He says identifying areas where technology can do the job better is crucial to keeping up with your customers’ needs.
“I totally agree that we need a human factor in many cases, especially when it comes to advice,” Swindley said.
“But let’s get smarter, and use computing power instead of humans to do the soul-destroying processing work for non-complex things. It may feel like you’re personalising things, but in fact, it’s just putting a handbrake on the process. This is where I think insurance is heading.”
