Sneak Peek Into The Future of Life Insurance

Ten years from now, the life insurance industry is going to look different to today. As the demand for mortality protection continues to rise, companies need to adapt to rising customer expectations and streamline the customer journey in order to increase retention and engagement.

Insurance firms of today face a critical opportunity to set themselves up for success. With customer experience at the forefront of all decision making, insurers are focused on modernizing their policy administration systems and outdated sales and service solutions.

Check out this list for the top 3 priorities insurers need to focus on in order to prepare for the customer of 2030:

1. Customers of 2030 will expect a highly personalized service and customer journey?

When it comes to customer retention and elevating the customer journey, engaging with customers is everything. The current business model doesn’t allow for the same constant engagement we see in banking or other industries, as insurers and customers only need to interact when filing claims or processing customer service requests. The growth of connected devices and wearables presents a huge opportunity for insurers to tailor their product offering to individuals and maintain communication with customers. As the wearables industry continues to grow, access to data on lifestyle and health will enable life insurers to provide personalized reminders surrounding health-care management, diet, and lifestyle as well as adjust premiums to suit individuals.

2. By 2030, a superior customer experience will become the norm

Having existed for decades, insurers face the challenge of modernizing their age-old legacy systems. Unlike companies born in the digital era that were built with a foundation of modern technology, insurers struggle with managing policies on decades old core systems that are neither flexible nor capable of sharing data with modern CX solutions in real time. Irrespective of the challenge at hand, insurers must modernize core systems like policy administration in order to deliver the seamless digital customer experience customers have grown accustomed to.

Ten years from now, the expectation for a seamless customer journey will become the norm. This will include expectations of a simple, straightforward digital underwriting and claims processing experience. In order to reach a point where insurers can provide a one-touch, non-intrusive underwriting and on-demand claims processing, digital transformation initiatives must already be underway.?

3. Insurers will need to find the right balance between digital and physical interactions with customers

Finding the right balance between technological advancement and human interaction is crucial for insurers. This is true for both internal operations and enhancing the consumer experience.

Internally, digitalizing the appropriate processes to empower staff is important. Experienced and expert staff in performing critical functions will be even more important to the sector in ten years. Insurance companies must make the appropriate technology investments to get to a place where employee capabilities are being used to their maximum potential.

To create a seamless client journey, insurers must also strike the correct mix between physical and digital encounters. Wherever possible, encounters that require little effort and little attention should be digitalized and automated. However, the capacity of an adviser to empathize and support a client through a trying period can tremendously should not be taken lightly. Some activities such as complicated insurance + retirement planning or death benefit claims require emotional engagement with customers.?

Conclusion

How can the insurer of 2023 prepare for the customer of 2030? It’s important to prepare for future expectations and trends. The main way to remain on track is to start your digital transformation journey as soon as possible. While a big bang approach may appear intimidating, the need for modernization is unavoidable. Start small, and more importantly, start making changes that customers will recognize and appreciate. Where to begin? Insurance companies of today will be able to meet the rising demands of their customers by upgrading outdated systems, implementing eApps, and speeding up underwriting.