The stakes around digital transformation are high and choosing to hold may affect a company’s long-term solvency. Some insurance leaders think that in the future, “most existing insurers will not survive, at least in their current form.”
Even if you’re lagging behind, it’s not too late for your firm to break away from the pack and embrace digital transformation and disruptive technology. However, being a leader, or even a fast follower, is not for the faint of heart. It requires a top-level commitment — and resources — to become a digital-first and data-driven organization.
If you want to move away from the pack, try these three digital transformation strategies first.
Build a Future-Proof Digital Experience
Insurers are actively expanding their digital infrastructure and contemplating what the ideal insurance experience will be in the future. According to a survey conducted by FRISS, 69 percent of insurers currently work with an online distribution channel and nearly 70 percent have adopted mobile apps. But true digital transformation extends far beyond isolated forays into the digital space.
For real, lasting success, you need to focus on an overall digital framework that meets anticipated needs and also accounts for unexpected changes in the future. To this end, carriers are prioritizing emerging technology and partnering with technical platform providers for support.
The growing push for a “digital-first” mindset among carriers, with customers at the center, has led to an emergence off-the-shelf technology that meets the most pressing digital technology needs. However, this leads to a new challenge for organizations, particularly larger, global, teams: disparate, unconnected pools of marketing, business development, and sales data. Enter enterprise relationship management.
Commonly referred to as ERMs, Enterprise Relationship Management platforms analyze prospect and customer contact data (and automate it, in Introhive’s case) to give organizations a better understanding of their business relationships.
A good ERM platform also works in tandem with your existing, and potentially far-flung tech stack. So it’s not only a balm for global business growing pains, but it also supports growth, cost reduction, and risk management.
Improve Backend Process Efficiency with AI
Most carriers have updated legacy systems to incorporate basic digital communications, paperless documents, online data entry, and mobile applications. However, optimization of back-end processes needs to remain central to long-term digital transformation.
Through improved efficiency, carriers will be able to shift human and financial resources to more meaningful activities. To this end, carriers are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, with some insurers saying they believe AI will transform their role in the future.
One way AI can help is by automating routine, repetitive and rule-driven tasks such as CRM data entry with CRM data automation, which can save employees so much time.
Another area of focus is predictive modeling, which carriers are increasingly using for pricing, underwriting, fraud detection, and risk mitigation.
Prioritize the Customer Experience
The digital revolution has forever changed the business landscape. This is decidedly evident when it comes to customer experience. As soon as next year, the customer experience is expected to officially overtake product and price as the key brand differentiator.
More than ever before, customers are demanding a consistent experience across channels. In fact, companies believe that personalization has a profound impact on success but over half of companies indicate that data quality remains an issue.
To improve the end-to-end customer experience, insurance carriers are embracing data transformation and big data technologies to translate data into insights. Relationship intelligence automation is also playing a critical role, expanding and correcting contact information and, at the same time, alerting carriers concerning relationship trends with valuable customers.
Carriers are also looking to new technologies to transform the customer experience. The Internet of Things (IoT) is being evaluated as a possible area for digital transformation and some insurers believe IoT can drive changes in consumer behavior. However, data and a clear strategy for IoT implementation remain obstacles for many companies.
Take the Lead in Digital Transformation and Relationships
Digital transformation will continue to be a defining trend for insurance carriers over the next decade. Being a leader or a fast follower can set your firm up for long-term success. But the key will be creating a flexible framework that allows your firm to shift focus onto revenue-generating partnerships, invest in technologies to improve the customer experience, and build-out the backend for long-term scalability.
Relationship intelligence automation improves the efficiency of backend processes while providing insurance carriers improved relationship data, which allows you to better serve your current and future customers.
