Rise of the digital omnichannel – Expert view

The world of insurance is undergoing an unprecedented level of change, at a faster pace than we have ever seen before. Customers now demand the same omni-channel experience they receive from other industries, so they can engage with insurance providers in the way that suits them best.

Traditionally the personal lines market focused on aggregators, and in particular the big four price comparison websites. This naturally evolved into a full-cycle customer presence, which required a responsive design for a consistent look and feel across all devices, as well as a My account area where customers could make changes and access their documents.

Now time-poor customers are becoming increasingly frustrated at filling in pages of questions just to get a quote – especially when so much of their information is readily available through a variety of sources.

This stems from mobile being the interface of choice. Whilst the traditional form has been made responsive, the customer journey is simply too long on mobile devices. Customers want to get a quote quickly and easily by answering a couple of questions.

The industry response to this has been twofold:

• · Extreme data enrichment (i.e. SmartQuote): This enables insurers to load in various data sources to prefill much of the question set behind the scenes, so meeting customer demands for a faster journey.

• · The use of chatbots: With Gartner predicting 30% of web browsing will be done without using a screen by 2020, customers will be looking to use chatbots to get their motor or home quotation. Already a study by Nielsen showed that 56% of respondents would rather message a business than call customer service, so insurers need to be able to engage with their customers via this route.

Of course, the occasional customer will still want to speak to someone, which means insurers must continue supporting their contact centres as part of their omni-channel approach.

With the market having changed and changed forever, the growing number of channels falling under an omni-strategy keeps getting larger. In the face of these demands, insurers need a system that enables them to keep pace with the world around them.

That’s why SSP’s digital insurance platform has been developed to support both traditional and emerging channels for a true customer-centric experience, all delivered as a service for low up-front investment, and flexible and low cost of ownership.