Change Management Driven by Consumer-Centricity

This is the 2nd article in a 3-part series on change management within the insurance industry.

Cultural change often comes as a result of digitization. Those within your organization must become comfortable with the impact that digitization has upon their daily operations, and embrace how it helps them perform their job better. In a traditional industry such as life insurance, this can be particularly challenging.

According to a report by KPMG on the top ten InsurTech trends in 2019, the two biggest changes insurance companies can expect to come from the digital revolution are a shift in their structure and organization.

As your company adopts InsurTech into each business segment, you’ll begin to organize around the consumer.

The focus will be less on products and more on the customer experience and outcomes. I’ll dive more into building for the consumer in my next series, but for now, let’s focus on the importance of the consumer in pushing change management forward.

It’s become fairly obvious to us at Breathe Life that consumers today require personalized experiences. When shopping for insurance, they want to browse, compare, do things on their own terms, and they definitely don’t want to pay for what they don’t need.

InsurTech disruptor Lemonade entered the renter’s insurance market with an online-only presence, an application process that takes just 90 seconds, and claims are paid out in three minutes. Their entire business model appeals to the instant gratification and digital generation, including offering a la carte policies where customers pick and choose what they need.

In 2018, its second year in business, Lemonade wrote $57 million premiums. Their success clearly illustrates the importance of meeting market demand for a personalized and yet simplified experience. Building their company around the consumer has paid off for them, and existing insurance players would be wise to pay attention.

Customers who feel seen and heard, and who have a positive buying experience, develop brand loyalty.

44% of customers in one buying survey indicated that they would repeat a purchase or stick with the company after a personalized buying experience.

For many stakeholders, shifting from a standardized product model to a personalized model can be a significant change. This often means implementing external technological solutions like Breathe Life that are built to prioritize the consumer experience. And implementing these creates a variety of internal challenges.

One of the challenges that we have witnessed first hand when implementing our platform in a large organization is the need to become fully connected. This means that it is more important than ever that all business lines communicate and work closely with each other. However, we have seen that bringing in our solution really facilitates this as all departments naturally begin working closer than ever to ensure the right products are being created with the right marketing materials and that the advisors are familiar with new distribution tools.

A fully connected organization leads to better communication and decision-making as information flows freely between departments. Experts predict that this “inter-connected network partnership of complementary services will begin to deliver levels of insurance customer experience excellence approaching those provided by established ecosystems” such as Amazon.com as everyone begins to talk to each other.

Everyone in your organization will be working together to focus on providing a consumer-focused experience which in turn generates revenue that leads to job security.

In next week’s article, I’ll discuss the importance of getting your advisors on board when going through a transformational change.