Digital Insurance and the Customer: Mind the Gap!

Let’s play Jeopardy together! If the most frequently given answer from a panel of insurance customers is “Don’t know,” what was the question?

It was: “Which UK insurer do you think is the most innovative?”

For those who think that is an exaggeration of the common opinion that the insurance industry is not innovative at all, let me tell you that the second most frequently given answer was “None.”

As Jo Hind - Industry Head, Finance at Google - explained during the first presentation of the Digital Insurance and the Customer: Mind the Gap! event Celent organized in collaboration with Google, the pace of change is accelerating. More and more people are using digital communication means to get information about financial products, including insurance policies, and among others mobile devices are getting great traction. To pave the ground for the rest of the event, Jo left the audience with simple but relevant questions to insurers: How important is mobile to the insurance business? Are insurers optimizing and planning for the four-screen world (computers, TVs, pads, and smartphones)? How can insurers engage better with their customers? Are products offered by insurers meeting consumer expectations?

When Craig Beattie followed Jo’ s final interrogations with the Celent views on the customer, Google, and UK car insurance based on research he and Catherine Stagg-Macey published recently, we - in the audience - could not anticipate that the phlegmatic British analyst would provide the audience with such an insightful and dynamic analysis of the reasons for and consequences of the changing behaviour of insurance online shoppers. After this moment of brilliance, it was time for people to take their breath and enjoy the networking break to exchange about what had just been exposed to them by Google and Celent.

The audience had opportunities to share their thoughts during the discussion panel session which ended the whole event. Ian Morgan – Industry Leader Financial Services at Google – moderated the session, which saw Jem Eskenazi – CIO of Groupama Insurances, Ollie Holden – Solution Delivery Director at LV=, Catherine Stagg-Macey – Head of EMEA Celent insurance, and Jo Hind debate about mobile and digital insurance predictions. The audience was asked to provide its opinion on these predictions before they were discussed in more detail with the panelists.

Let’s play Jeopardy again! What question related to the Celent event summarized above will result in the following answer? “Certainly.” It is: “Are insurers who were present in the audience going to view digital insurance and the customer differently from now on?”