This piece is by Sam Jayes, Head of Client Services, Sagacity
For most insurers, customer engagement is an uphill battle. Policyholders typically interact with their provider just once a year – at renewal – when their main focus is getting the best deal. This transactional relationship leaves insurers at the mercy of price comparison sites, struggling to build long-term loyalty. But what if insurers could change this dynamic?
According to Forrester, businesses that will thrive in the coming years will be those that are truly ‘customer obsessed’. This means going beyond a transactional relationship to build “profound customer understanding, engagement, and empowerment”. As such, many forward thinking insurers are looking to gamification to foster stronger connections with their customers.
Initiatives like MetLife’s mental well-being challenge and Zurich’s Flood Resilience game are great examples – showing how insurers can use gamification to create ongoing touchpoints that encourage frequent engagement, keeping insurance front of mind in everyday life and reducing the risk of churn.
But gamification isn’t just about engagement – it also provides a treasure trove of coveted first party data. By harnessing this data, insurers can refine their risk models, personalise offerings, generate customer loyalty and ultimately drive greater profitability.
Injecting speed and personalisation into sales to drive longer-term customer loyalty
Acquiring new customers is expensive – more than $500 per policy in health insurance alone – so retention is a top priority across the industry. To maximise Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), insurers are increasingly adopting a hyper-personalised approach. According to McKinsey, more than three quarters of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases from companies that take a personalised approach.
Unlike static surveys or self-reported data, gamification reveals actual customer behaviours in real-time, eliminating guesswork and assumptions and capturing insights traditional data sources often miss. It can tell you much more about how customers feel, think and act in response to different situations – things you can’t really get from a survey. This provides the foundations for supercharged personalisation.
Rather than relying on generic email campaigns, insurers can use gamification insights to deliver real-time, highly relevant offers. For example, a user engaging with pet-related games could receive an exclusive pet insurance discount, while someone frequently participating in hiking challenges might be nudged towards adventure travel coverage.
And the beauty is, by delivering these personalised offers via an insurer’s own app, providers can strike while the iron is hot – because they have the context and speed to react. If a customer interacts with a home safety challenge, for instance, a push notification offering a discount on smart security devices could appear immediately. Harvard Business Review found that contacting a lead within one hour meant sales teams were seven times more likely to qualify it compared to a later follow up. Clearly, timing is everything when it comes to conversion and retention.
When insurers extend gamification to prospects, they can also use insights gathered to drive the sales process. For instance, sales teams may be able to understand when the lead is likely to be free for a phone call, for instance if they are playing a game. With the right tools, they can even use this data to automate the first few steps of engagement, keeping the drain on human resources low and enabling them to advance a high volume of leads as quickly as possible.
Gamification data also streamlines and enhances the sales process – not just for existing customers, but for prospects too. By analysing engagement patterns, sales teams can predict optimal contact windows – for instance, knowing when a lead is likely to be available based on their in-game activity. With the right automation tools, insurers can even initiate engagement at the ideal moment, reducing manual effort while accelerating the lead conversion process at scale. By combining speed, relevance, and automation, insurers can transform sales and retention strategies, making interactions more engaging, timely, and profitable.
Give your business a boost through smarter decision making
The race is on. Accenture has warned that insurers must move towards personalised underwriting to stay competitive, as outsiders entering the market are already taking this approach to steal market share. By integrating gamification data into underwriting models, they can enhance risk assessment, tailor premiums more accurately, and maintain their competitive edge.
Real-world insights into policyholder behaviour can make underwriting more accurate than ever. Traditionally, insurers have relied on static data from application forms – an approach that leaves room for mistakes and inaccuracies. But with gamification, insurers can tap into real behavioural data, such as driving habits or physical activity levels, to refine risk assessment and create more accurate, dynamic pricing models.
Beyond underwriting, gamification data can also fuel strategic decision-making. Insurers who can interrogate their data can spot emerging trends, identify market gaps and develop new products to meet their customers’ needs. McKinsey argues that businesses should use a significant amount of data to inform product innovation – and gamification should be a part of the mix.
With better insights into customer behaviour, insurers can develop on-demand, hyper-relevant policies that meet evolving needs, strengthening loyalty in the process. After all, customers are far more likely to stick with an insurer that offers policies designed to suit them and their lives.
Playing to win
Insurers need to make the most of the opportunity presented by gamification. First and foremost, by introducing challenges, rewards, and interactive content, insurers create more reasons for customers to return and increase retention rates. The data generated can then unlock new avenues for fraud prevention, underwriting accuracy, and business growth. Ultimately, gamification is no longer just an engagement tool – it’s a marketing and retention powerhouse. Insurers that embrace it now will build stronger customer relationships, drive sustainable growth, and lead the next era of insurance. Those that hesitate risk being left behind.
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