IE always has time for some data from Altus. Now you might think that the Digital Bar sounds like a relaxing summer house/WFH Chill zone in a leafy back garden, where the WiFi enabled fridge streams Led Zep’s Kashmir as you select another cold beverage.
That’s a great idea, one worth exploring for Friday afternoon team-building sessions perhaps. But in fact the Altus Digital Bar gathers feedback on how much tech is actually being used by insurance brands. It’s like ADAS for cars; you might have wet weather driving mode which cuts peak power and boosts traction control, but do you use it? Do you even know which dropdown menu it might be located in?
Here’s the word from Altus on tech adoption across insurance and yes, chatbots are replacing human call handlers, but the quote and buy digital journey still has a few big planters blocking the road ahead.
Altus Consulting, a leading specialist Management Consultancy, has released the latest version of its Digital Bar data set. The Digital Bar is a ten-year research programme which analyses trends in technology use among insurers.
The latest data set shows that digital processes are embedded throughout the insurance customer journey, and this includes the adoption of the chatbot as a core piece of technology. In fact:
- Over 98% of leading UK insurers offer the ability to purchase their products through digital channels
- More than half of leading UK insurers have implemented an AI chatbot to improve efficiency in customer operations functions
- Around half of leading motor insurers have scored very high in the Digital Bar’s UX assessment, but this is reduced in Home insurance, where less than a third score very high (>80%).
However, the latest Digital Bar data also highlights the fact that since the jump in online support during Covid, there has been a lack of further evolution in customer journeys online. Even the top performing Insurers in the research still have some way to go to provide a truly digitalised experience. In spite of design facelifts, especially on direct ‘quote & buy’ journeys, where over half of the leading car insurers in the Digital Bar research scored over 80% on Altus’s bespoke UX assessment, supported by an increased use of automation in the back office; the fundamental journey that a policyholder takes has not changed.
Mark McDonald, General Insurance Practice Director at Altus Consulting commented “Since we started this research nearly ten years ago, we have seen an increasing number of insurers embracing digital channels for more than just quote and buy, up from 75% in 2015 to over 98% now. Yet, there has not been a substantially noticeable difference in the digital experiences’ customers had 5 years ago compared to now.”
“Looking outside insurance into other verticals, such as retail, entertainment, and banking, we are seeing increasingly digital-first experiences for the end consumer, tailored around the consumer’s needs. But insurance customer journeys are still broadly the same.”
“The challenge is to embrace AI, use it as a tool across the insurance industry, and reinvent the value chains that underpin our organisations. At its most basic, insurers should use it to augment existing processes, driving efficiencies, crunch large volumes of data and provide customers’ immediate support needs. This would see immediate benefits the customer journey, whilst building a longer-term ROI through improvements across the insurer operating model. Ultimately, this will drive both back-end process improvements and enhanced customer experience, increasing retention and improving operational performance.”
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