We can’t forget who we serve … and why.
As we contemplate the meaningful lessons to be learned from tech giants like Amazon, Google, Netflix, et al., the perspective for our contemplation should be the industry in which we work. We’re not selling consumer goods or web services like Amazon. We’re not selling access to the world’s information like Google. And we’re not selling entertainment like Netflix.
We’re selling the promise (the policy) of protection from loss (the claim).
The Big Four
Part 1 of this series presented the important distinction between insurers’ having access to their prospects and policyholder vs. insurers’ giving access to those same constituents. Because having and giving are distinct from each other, insurers must provide these four things to their constituents:
- Choice. Insurers need to understand the importance of making choices available to policyholders and prospects — products, coverage limits, rates, deductibles, inclusions, exclusions, riders, payment options, and more.
- Responsiveness. If policyholders and prospects choose it, insurers need to minimize cycle times. Less might be more, but faster is better.
- Communications Options. Since we can’t predict whether policyholders and customers will want access via phone, computer, mobile device, or whatever comes along next, insurers have to master all of them.
- User Experience. If you build it, they will come. If they don’t enjoy it, they will leave. Insurers must make sure the experiences of their policyholders and prospects are easy, engaging, easy, reasonably intuitive, easy, simply navigable, easy, relatively brief, and easy.
That’s It
The hardest part isn’t learning from the tech giants. The hardest part is learning the right things from the tech giants. If our criteria are right — choice, responsiveness, communications options, and user experience — we’ll learn the right lessons. And we’ll earn happy insurance clients along the way.
Our promise to insurers is to help them keep their promises to their policyholders.
Would you like to join in the conversation? The European Cookhouse Pop-Up Lab will open its doors for the second time this fall in Munich. The September event will give insurers the chance to develop innovations in a lab environment and get them ready for market innovations they would not be able to realize with their own resources alone. Click here for more information.