Why customer-centricity drives insurance innovation

Q: Lasith, why is customer-centricity the most important driver of innovation in the insurance industry?

I believe that everything starts and ends with the customer. Today’s customer is tech-savvy and wants an on-demand, personal, digital experience - from initial searching to policy purchase, loss prevention and claims. Customer-centricity is about constantly solving problems for them.

Q: How can the industry become more customer-centric?

There are many ways, but I will focus on the top three.

Be curious about the customer

Gather feedback with research, data and analytics to help understand customer needs, and tailor your offering to meet those needs. Get into the mind of the customer and try to understand how they interact with, and engage in, the insurance process.

Make it easy for the customer

Ultimately it’s about creating offerings that make it easy for the customer to do business in their preferred channels. For example, if a customer is purchasing a credit card, they might also be looking for some degree of identity theft insurance coverage at that precise point of purchase.

Another way is to design the right type of product for similar customer groups or archetypes. This moves us away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach. An example would be to offer a specialized product for a segment of accountants vs restaurateurs.

Communicate with the customer

Make it easy for customers to understand coverages and benefits and be transparent about products, services and the claims processes.

Typical insurance language is difficult for the average consumer to understand. We now live in a world where customers are able to purchase insurance through non-traditional channels. So it’s important to simplify language and provide a better user experience throughout the entire insurance journey.