In the past two years, the insurance industry has experienced a period of unknown risk and a rise in health concerns. This led to more people scrambling to purchase insurance, but were insurers ready to serve these customers?
Moussalam Dalati, General Manager of Liferay Middle East, has listed recent trends supported by statistics.
Traditional operating models have also metamorphosed, driving insurance leaders to re-evaluate their core business.
The proliferation of advanced digital tools in the insurance market has resulted in customers seeking swift and rapid service from insurers.
According to a report issued by KPMG International, 85% of insurance CEOs said that Covid-19 has accelerated the digitalization of their operations.
The Middle East as well is a growing region with the emergence of a more mature and sophisticated regional insurance sector. Top players in the region such as Gulf Insurance Group-Kuwait, Tawuniya Saudi Arabia and AXA Egypt are innovating across the value chain by deploying new technologies and increasing spending on AI, IoT, Cloud technology, DXP, CRM, data-analytics and more, all to generate more value in the market to positively impact customer experiences and journeys – from policy sign-ups to claims processing.
Insurance Customer Experience Statistics
Insurers aren’t really selling products, they’re selling experiences. The segment is about providing seamless journeys for customers and enhancing experiences as a major priority for Middle East’s insurance providers.
Less than one-third (29%) of insurance customers are satisfied with their current providers.
How can insurers then ensure they get the customer experience right when the product they sell is intangible, complicated, and is seen as a necessary evil?
People over the past couple of years have started to re-assess their priorities when it comes to insurance cover. This forced the need for insurers to digitally transform their business so that customer interactions are no longer slow and frustrating, but rather simple and helpful.
Customers have grown used to excellent digital experiences and often compare them with the ones delivered by their insurance providers:
41% of consumers say they are likely or more likely to switch providers due to a lack of digital capabilities.
Almost 75% of customers who attempted to purchase insurance online reported problems.
88% of consumers demand more personalized insurance products. 21% of insurance customers say that providers do not tailor their customer experiences at all.
It’s not enough to simply catch up to customer expectations, insurers also need to be ahead of new trends and technologies that can continue to improve these experiences.
By 2025, 95% of customer interactions will be powered by chatbots.
By 2025, it’s estimated that the number of connected, smart devices will have reached more than 50 billion.
69% of consumers would be willing to have a sensor attached to their car if it would lower their premiums.
67% of insurance CIOs said that SaaS would transform the industry in five years or less.
Insurance Employment Statistics:
Customers are not the only ones who have had their expectations raised by digital. Employee engagement and experience is just as important as customer experience and follows the same approach, especially after the rise of work-from-home options where employees want flexible work schedules, even as offices are rapidly opening up.
The success of a business majorly depends on its workforce and companies seem to be continually competing for skilled employees. In any segment and in the insurance too, it is not about whether employees are good enough to work, but rather about whether the company is good enough for them.
This is an underlying perspective that insurance companies are following to drive seamless employee experiences. New-age employees or millennials want to do meaningful work which has to align with their values and beliefs.
Employees nowadays expect a personalized experience and one that drives them to do purposeful work. Hence an efficient employee experience platform to drive the future of digital employee experiences is essential for every organization.
A survey conducted by IDC however does state that insurers expect work-from-home to drop to 0%. Which leads us to ask, is this the most accurate assumption of talent requirements? Especially considering that:
The number of insurance professionals aged 55 and older have increased 74% in the last ten years.
90% of Millenial and Gen Z workers do not want to return to work full-time, instead preferring some kind of hybrid model.
Research from Citrix shows that young workers can drive an extra $1.9 trillion in corporate profits if given support to adapt to new realities of work.
Looking ahead and ensuring success in 2022:
According to research firm Statista.com, the insurance penetration rate in the GCC is expected to remain far below the global average of 7.4 percent until 2026. Having said that, growth in the segment is still expected given the rising awareness levels of financial and health risks among the larger population.
The market size of the GCC insurance industry is expected to increase from $26.5 billion in 2021, to $31.1 billion in 2026.
In this expected growth, companies across the sector will put digital transformation into turbo drive, with digital strategies sitting at the top of every insurance executive’s agenda to continue to meet evolving customer expectations and deliver best-in-class digital experiences. Digital transformation will not go away; if anything, it’s going to prove more important for insurers that want to continue to serve their policyholders.
