Insurtech Innovation: Data-Driven Strategies to Enhance Cust
We outline key strategies for insurtechs to enhance customer relations with insight from Stephanie N. Blahut, B2Z Insurance co-founder and chief marleting officer. The company provides digital business insurance to small enterprises.
For insurtechs looking to enhance customer relations through digital means, putting the customer at the centre of product design is of utmost importance.
Blahut emphasises the importance of identifying and addressing common pain points in the customer journey.
"By identifying the common touchpoints and locations along the customer journey where the competition falls short, you can also find opportunities to pull ahead," she says.
B2Z Insurance discovered that many policy offerings were cumbersome and incomplete, with irrelevant questions and an inability to complete the process entirely online being major issues for small business owners.
These issues are particularly problematic for small business owners, who often work more than 40 hours per week and fill multiple roles within their organisations.
"This disjointed process left busy entrepreneurs with coverage gaps or uninsured altogether: over 70 percent of small businesses are underinsured, and 40 percent aren't insured at all, " says Blahut.
Insurtechs can tackle this issue through using thoughtful technology to improve the customer experience.
Addressing specific customer pain points
Blahut advocates for the strategic use of technology to solve specific customer pain points.
She cites B2Z's development of Diya, a digital guide to small business insurance, as an example.
"During the application process, Diya chimes in at potentially challenging moments to ensure small business owners quickly secure the right coverage," says Blahut.
This chatbot goes beyond simple FAQ responses, allowing customers to input natural language queries to find relevant information.
The development of Diya was a response to the limitations of existing chatbots in the insurance industry.
"Most insurtech chatbots are equipped to answer simple, formulaic questions you would find in the FAQ section of their website.
“While this type of bot helps shoppers and customers access the right information at the right time, their limited natural language processing capabilities too often means customers must input the exact keywords to get a helpful response," Blahut continues.
Tailoring experiences to customers’ expectations
Blahut stresses the importance of leveraging data to align the customer experience with expectations.
B2Z uses digital intelligence to streamline the insurance experience for small businesses.
"We leverage our digital intelligence to help small businesses quickly identify the right coverage options based on the risks within their industry," says Blahut.
This approach involves using third-party data and algorithms to automatically match businesses to existing underwriting models, reducing the number of questions customers need to answer manually.
"To gauge the right level of coverage for a contractor, we need to know whether their employees regularly work on platforms more than 15 feet off the ground.
“Rather than asking the business owner to provide this information, we leverage third-party data and our algorithms review county records of similar businesses," Blahut continues.
Her insights reflect a broader trend in the insurance industry towards data-driven decision making.
As noted by Innowise, a technology solutions provider, "Data analytics empowers insurers to identify gaps in the market and develop innovative insurance offerings accordingly". This approach allows for more personalised and efficient customer experiences.
The consequences of such data-driven strategies can be significant.
AG2R La Mondiale, a leading French insurance group, implemented an AI-powered chatbot that now handles around 550 different sessions a day.
The chatbot demonstrates the potential for AI and data-driven solutions to significantly improve operational efficiency while enhancing customer experience.
Overcoming data-driven hurdles
The transition to data-driven, digital-first experiences is not without challenges.
"If an insurtech platform delivers a digitised version of a broken process, shoppers may be deterred by the same pain points that they were hoping to avoid by going with the more modern insurer,” says Blahut.
This underscores the need for insurers to carefully consider how new technologies impact the overall customer experience.
The pressure on insurtechs to deliver superior digital experiences is intensifying.
"The Covid-19 pandemic changed behaviours and accelerated customer expectations for entirely digital experiences. In the US, 73% of customers have tried new shopping behaviours since June 2020 and over 75% intend to continue them," says Blahut.
This shift in consumer behaviour presents both a challenge and an opportunity for insurtechs to differentiate themselves through superior digital experiences.
"By taking stock of the competition, implementing new tools that are designed for a specific purpose, and using data to gauge customer expectations (and design to meet them), you can keep your customers at the centre of an increasingly digital experience.”