Customer Centricity for insurers

Customised journeys for maximum customer satisfaction

The customer is in the centre...

...and therefore in the way, is an old saying that often seems to be true

The insurance industry faces numerous challenges when it comes to aligning products and processes with customer needs: Complex IT architectures, systems that are sometimes decades old and reliable, but not as flexible as is expected today. And then, of course, the realisation that there is no such thing as "THE customer" - different types, generations and expectations lead to different requirements for the customer experience.

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How insurers approach the topic of customer centricity

The adesso Digital Commerce Study Finance shows: There is still a lot of untapped potential in the digital space. In addition to "Digital First", many insurance customers also want to be able to switch flexibly between online (information) and offline (purchase).

Four central topics

But what is the best place for insurance companies to start if they want to align their marketing and sales model in a customer-centred way? An important success factor is to approach the project holistically and strategically. Four areas need to be analysed and developed to form the basis for the next steps.

Corporate Strategy

Customer Analytics

Customer Journey: custom-oriented processes

Effects on the IT architecture

In addition to the pure collection and use of data, changes to processes and a clear commitment to customer centricity, the insurer must weigh up and position itself:

How should customer centricity be measured? Is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) the all-important value? Are there other key performance indicators (KPIs) that are measured?
How should customers with a low customer value be treated? Does the company want to part with them for the foreseeable future, or should it endeavour to develop them into customers with a high customer value?
A similar consideration can also be made for the probability of cancellation. Some products an insurer does not want to continue, so that a customer with such a contract and a high cancellation probability may even be encouraged to cancel the contract.

These are just the first examples that show that a balance often has to be struck between a high degree of customer centricity and economic interests. This balancing act must take place BEFORE the processes are adapted. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help to improve analytical data on the one hand and to maintain the balance between customer centricity and profitability on the other.

From the questions posed, it can be seen that the current database (customer and contract data) is probably not sufficient for most insurers to respond better to customers. This requires an ongoing analysis of customer behaviour and the determination of various values based on the available data. The most important values to be analysed include:

Customer value, which indicates the value contribution made by the customer to the insurer's result. The further development of this, the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), also allows conclusions to be drawn about the future development of the business relationship.
Probability of cancellation, which indicates per contract or customer relationship how likely the customer is to cancel contracts.
Scoring models: show how high the probability of a contract being concluded for a particular product is.
Customer satisfaction: Usually determined through surveys or "star surveys", which directly indicate the current satisfaction of a customer. This value is often open to interpretation, as customers are understandably dissatisfied after a claim has been rejected, for example.

Customer-centred processes are business processes that are geared towards the needs, requirements and expectations of customers. The implementation of such processes helps to better understand customers and increase their satisfaction. This can ultimately lead to greater customer loyalty and a competitive advantage.

The following steps are necessary for implementation and are only fully effective as a whole:

1. Understanding customer needs: What do my customers want? What are their expectations? And as an insurer, can and do I want to align myself with them?
2. Process evaluation: To what extent are the processes already aligned with customer needs? Which ones are important but not yet at the necessary level of customer centricity?
3. Process changes: Which processes does the insurer need and want to adapt to customer expectations? And which ones do not? And what needs to be created as a basis in order to be able to change these processes at all?
4. Implementation of feedback loops: Should continuous work be done to improve processes? And how do insurance companies know which processes still need to be improved?
5. Training and change management: How should employees be taken along on the journey? How can they not only be trained, but how can their attitude be guided towards customer centricity?

Traditional IT architectures present insurers with several challenges when implementing customer-centred processes:

Data integration: In order to implement customer-centred processes, data from various sources such as sales, marketing, customer service and other systems must be brought together. One challenge here is that this data is often available in different formats and standards, which makes data integration more difficult.
Data quality: The quality of the data is a decisive factor for the effectiveness of a customer-centred architecture. One challenge is to ensure that the data is clean, complete, up-to-date and correct in order to perform meaningful analyses and create personalised offers.
Scalability: A customer-centric architecture must be able to process and analyse large volumes of data in order to create personalised offers in real time. One challenge is to ensure that the IT architecture is scalable and can grow with increasing data volumes and requirements.
Data security and data protection: Processing and analysing customer data harbours a risk of data breaches. One challenge is to ensure that the IT architecture complies with data protection regulations and that sufficient security measures are implemented to protect the data from unauthorised access.
Complexity: A customer-centred architecture often requires a complex IT architecture with various components such as databases, analysis tools, APIs and other systems. One challenge is to manage the complexity and ensure that the various components can work together seamlessly and exchange data in real time.

What we offer

With so many challenges, the overview can sometimes be lost. What is the best course of action? Where are the pitfalls lurking and where can you perhaps find quick wins?

adesso helps you in your way to customer centricity:

We will determine the Status Quo with you.
We analyze the customer journeys to determine their contribution to customer satisfaction.
We find the quick wins.
We help you define and operationalize your customer centricity strategy.
Together with you, we find standard systems that help implement the strategy or plan the construction of new systems.
We check the IT architecture for its future viability and derive necessary measures.
We implement all of this agilely or using classic methods.

You will benefit from our interdisciplinary team of insurance experts, specialists in customer journeys, user experience, customer analytics, CRM systems and IT architecture.

Do you have any questions?

There is no website or brochure which can replace a personal meeting to talk about your goals and topics. We are looking forward to an appointment on site.