verify that signatures have been affixed
in all the requisite places on lengthy
forms. E-signature technology has also
transformed fraud detection and legal
discovery by providing a digital trail and
capturing and bronzing identity markers.
Clear and concise communications
A more positive online customer experience can have a significant impact on
business, as one life insurance carrier
discovered when examining user interactions with its online direct-life application. Customers paused slightly where
the application asked for “daytime” and
“evening” phone numbers, perhaps trying to decide where their mobile phone
fit in or if they were likely to be at an
office number enough to make it worth
entering. A simple switch to “primary”
and “secondary” numbers led to an 18
percent increase in leads.
Managing
Policy issuance
Digital technologies can transform and
simplify policy issuance by harnessing e-delivery facilities to transmit all
policy documentation, endorsements
and disclosures. Superior data analytics
and business rules can provide targeted messaging to the customer, and
rules-engine technology and electronic
content repositories ensure that only the
latest revisions and editions of forms and
artifacts are used.
Ongoing and transactional
correspondence
Insurers should resist a piecemeal
approach to customer communications,
using a series of unrelated technologies
and processes, and instead aspire to
create a common platform for all digital
communications, including customer
documents, correspondence, statements
and billing. A comprehensive approach
enables the efficient creation, compliance,
delivery and receipt of the highest-quality
digital communications, along with core
processing systems integration, audited
workflow and business insights.
Cross-selling
Digital analytics can provide a holistic
and comprehensive view of the customer, creating opportunities to cross-sell
and upsell. For example, when a customer adds a new vehicle to an existing
auto policy, sales representatives can use
data analytics that combine internal and
external sources of data to determine
whether the customer owns
a home, and accordingly
offer a homeowner policy
and bundled discount.
Likewise, the sale of an annuity product could trigger
the offer of a complementary long-term care (LTC)
rider. This big-picture view
of the customer’s profile
across all lines of business,
when combined with
extensive information from
marketing database providers, results in personalized
interaction, higher customer satisfaction
and improved retention.
Leveraging wearable technology
Life insurers can further leverage data
analytics by extending applications used
in the property and casualty (P&C)
space, which has begun using advanced
tracking technology to monitor and
record unprecedented levels of information about customers’ driving habits via
telematics. Conventional rating systems
depend heavily on historical records of
realized losses and the records of drivers
with similar characteristics, such as age
and geographic location. But usage-based
plans rely on actual driving data when
evaluating the risk of insuring a driver.
Similar to telematics in cars, life
insurers can now extend this model to
include data gathered from wearable
technology, such as smart watches or
fitness trackers. Wearable tech prod-
ucts have made significant advances in
detecting their customers’ physical activ-
ities and biometrics, and these capabili-
ties are expected to continue advancing
at a rapid pace. Life insurers can leverage
the extensive amount of data gathered
to make richer risk assessments using
ongoing data for longer-term health
indicators, such as changes in weight or
body mass, blood pressure, and blood
sugar and cholesterol levels.
Carriers could move away from
broader historical rate models and
integrate user-specific data
to develop more accurate
underwriting models and
potentially customize pre-
miums. In Asia, AIA Group
Limited has begun offering
its customers a wellness pro-
gram named Vitality, which
provides rewards points
or premium discounts
for improving behaviors,
such as quitting smoking,
increasing physical activity
and adopting healthy eating
habits, all while integrating
data from fitness trackers. These strategies
can have significant impacts across the
life, health and group benefits markets.
Wearable technology devices allow
health indicators to be continuously
monitored and could award either
premium discounts or other customer
incentives, such as redeemable points, to
customers who have shown long-term
commitment toward healthier behavior.
Paying
Billing and payments
Life insurers made progress over a decade ago by adding online options to pay
via credit card or directly from a bank
account, but they haven’t been adopted
as much as expected. Many life insurance
customers still send physical checks into
a maze of different remittance addresses. When a customer loses a statement,
it can be difficult to determine which
P.O. Box to send a payment to, and it
may require a call to the contact center,
resulting in a suboptimal user experi-
Insurers Transform Customer service
Through Digital Innovation
Frank Memmo Jr.
