Personalisation: The Future Of Insurance Marketing
Insurance industry is at the cutting edge of innovation and the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the digital journey in insurance space by leaps and bounds. Pandemic has pushed digital adoption in common masses, this brings lots of opportunities for insurance companies in the form of personalisation.
Personalisation means offering customers tailored experiences that keep them engaged. “One size fit all” approach is being replaced by 360 degree view - what they shop for, when they shop, how much they spend, what they view or click on—and target them with highly personalized offers based on that data of the customer.
Right Prospecting
Insurance is known as the hardest selling product in the world. Using the combined power of predictive analytics, and AI in the insurance industry, agents can gain access to the full profile of customers and prospects. This data can be further analysed to generate mature insight, accurate predictions on customer preferences and what exact products or offers should be added in their marketing activities. This way insurers can move towards need based selling.
Fairer Premiums
Earlier, motor insurance premiums were decided on the basis of year of manufacturing of car, claim history etc but now, insurers can charge premiums on the basis of “Pay as you go” as well as “Pay as you drive “ with the help of telematics. Telematics helps in understanding the driving behaviour of customers and accordingly premiums can be charged.
With the help of wearables, health insurers can analyse the real data and accordingly pricing can be done. People are encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyle and are given discounts on doing so. People with healthy lifestyle can be rewarded as well, by giving discounts on gym memberships etc.
Customised Products
Insurers can customise products as per the needs and paying capacity of the customers. Sachet products can help in meeting specific needs of the customers with very low premiums. If a person is going for adventurous sports like river rafting, sky diving etc, a personal accident policy can be given for the duration of that activity only. Although, these products are not the substitute of comprehensive coverages, but this can still help in increasing the insurance penetration in a country like India with very low disposable income.
As per the report of BCG group, people working in gig economy in India is going to triple in the next 3-4 years to 24 million from existing 8 million. The gig economy workers don’t have employment benefit schemes and hence it is a big opportunity for insurers to make plans as per the needs of these gig workers.
Policy Servicing
Insurance terminologies, jargons, lengthy documents, complex policies create a phobia towards insurance products leaving customers confused. Chatbots, which are human like interactions, help in solving the customers queries and serve as a virtual assistant in messaging apps on customers’ devices
Customers can either type or use their voice to communicate their concerns pertaining to different policies which chatbots can process to deliver personalized solutions. Starting with fundamental questions related to claims, chatbots can do a lot more such as product recommendations, promotions, lead generation or customer retention. These bots can be integrated with the insurance company website or social media apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. to guide customers with quotes, policy explanations and purchase of insurance covers.
Automated Claim Support
Simple claims can be processed with the help of artificial intelligence. Touchless insurance claim process can remove excessive human intervention and can report the claim, capture damage, update the system, and communicate with the customer all by itself. Such effortless process will have customers filing their claims without much hassle.
Covid 19 has pushed customers towards online channels and companies have also responded in turn. This should be taken as a blessing in disguise and insurance companies shouldn’t leave any stone unturned in utilising this opportunity. As per the “Insurance Customer Study 2021” conducted by Accenture, millennial and younger customers prefer personalised offerings. The insurance companies must include innovative personalised offerings which would help them in engaging customers and maintaining profitable relationships with them.
The author is Pallavi Seth, Faculty, Amity University, Noida
