John Milliken and Sam Leonard-Williams: Consumer trust pays dividends

From browsing the Yellow Pages and loading up comparison sites, to asking artificial intelligence (AI) to search the web, the way consumers research products has changed considerably in a short amount of time.

For providers too, the landscape has changed. Data moats are being filled, advanced analysis is becoming more democratic and tech solutions are no longer limited to big firms that can afford the talent to implement them.

So, what can companies do to stand out from the crowd?

Insurance Times sat down with market intelligence firm Defaqto’s chief executive John Milliken and product director Sam Leonard-Williams to discuss the answer to that question – and how consumers stand to benefit from it.

Defaqto’s products focus around four main areas – consumer-focused support and advisory tools, market insight and intelligence tools – such as flagship platform Matrix 360 – for product providers, a technology stack aimed at helping financial intermediaries run their businesses and finally the monetisation of their distribution portfolio, which links intermediaries and distributors.

But beyond the org charts and architecture diagrams, Milliken says that the fundamental objective of the company has always simply been to “give everybody the confidence to make smarter financial decisions”.

Historically, he explains, this mission was achieved with a passive “the data tells us this, the data tells us that, but you need to come to your own conclusions” approach. However, more recently, the firm has decided to take a front-foot approach to presenting the expertise of its insights team with authority.

“We’ve got hundreds of genuine UK experts in their particular fields,” Milliken says.

“If you want someone that knows more about garden insurance, or someone that knows more about short-term car insurance, we can point you to an individual within the team that’s got that specialism. That purpose is held very dearly by the team.”

Standing out

The purpose of this change in tack? To stand out from the crowd in an era where big data and advanced analytics are the norm, while becoming a market leader in a new type of competitive capital – trust.

An important word in a world where AI is changing how consumers behave.

Milliken explains: “It’s like what happened to department stores – they used to aggregate the sales environment. You could go to a department store and find pretty much anything you wanted, but the internet destroyed that whole model and retail became much more specialist.

“AI is going to take things to the next level down – instead of being able to aggregate by brand level, you’re going to be able to aggregate down to product level. It will point you to exactly where you need to be otherwise it’s not adding value.

“We want to play alongside those types of engines by being able to give credibility to the results you’re going to get out from your AI agents. I think the best way we can play in that space is by running the agents ourselves, or in partnership with our financial services partners.

“Defaqto prides itself on providing a full picture of quite a narrow area. We’re experts in helping you find the right financial services product and that’s the area we want to play in, whether it’s alongside a large language model (LLM), or something else.”

Competitive pressure

While consumers may struggle with the glut of information that is now available to them, one happy side effect has been that the added visibility has also spurred providers into honing their products and improving their offerings, especially in already competitive markets.

Leonard-Williams explains: “Motor and home insurance are the two markets that have all the big guys in them, have the most products and probably have the least margin per product.

“That means they’re looking for tiny slithers of percents in terms of changes they can make that will make their products better. Those types of providers show the most engagement and interest in gaining any edge they can to make their products just that little bit better and that little bit different.”

He continues: “The reality is everything is getting more competitive. Everyone is making everyone else step up their game. All of the technology that’s coming into the market, this ability for consumers to research in different ways – ten years ago it would have been who you see on TV, then it was the price comparison websites, now it’s all of these other [AI] tools.

“You have people like [Defaqto] who are trying to give different lenses and different views on the market. Our proposition is that pincer attack of really high quality, vetted, reliable, trustworthy data, with products that can help you maximise your insight out of that with a really low barrier to entry.”