How Data and Analytics Can Resolve the Insurance Customer Insight Paradigm

In today’s evolving insurance technology landscape, it is more possible than ever before to obtain critical insight into customer behavior. Because of this, there is now also an opportunity for insurers to predict and tailor their services to meet the needs of each customer as an individual and secure long-term customer loyalty.

At a recent webinar hosted by Insurance Innovators, I joined experts from across the insurance industry to discuss how data and analytics can provide the tools that insurers need to understand their customers and transform their journeys. Paired with a customer-centric approach, this method can also provide the necessary differentiation that is needed for insurers to stand out in today’s competitive industry.

Critical Customer Data Not Easy to Access

In spite of the significant opportunity, panelists at the recent webinar were unanimous in their views that insurers today are struggling to convert the volumes of data they hold across their businesses into valuable insights. This view was also echoed in the findings of a recent study MarkLogic carried out in collaboration with Research in Insurance, which found that while more than 80% of insurance professionals believe data is critical to doing their jobs, only about one in ten find it very easy to access and analyze data across their business.

While it is true that there’s no shortage of data available to established insurance businesses, insurers are still struggling to derive the insight they need to feed downstream applications and to interact with their customers in the right way at the right time. One prominent factor in this widespread challenge is the complexity of legacy IT systems that hold a wealth of data in multiple silos and in varying formats, making it impossible to operationalize the data required for downstream applications.

In many ways, data is the insurance industry’s greatest asset and, when managed correctly, it can provide insurers with a roadmap for their customers. Unfortunately, too many insurers find themselves restricted by legacy IT infrastructure that inhibits timely collation of data from across their business, reduces operational efficiency and prevents them from obtaining the insights they need to deliver optimal service.

Modern Data Hubs Provide Platform for Building Customer-Centric Applications

However, many insurers are now turning to modern data systems to overhaul their IT and unlock the vast potential of their business data to derive value, such as customer insights. Modern data hubs that put data at the center of a business can ingest vast quantities of data, allowing insurers to feed operational and transactional applications, support analysis and deliver data to downstream applications to improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

While the need for a tech-driven approach to customer-centricity was widely acknowledged throughout the webinar discussion, there is also call for an insurance culture shift. Even with the right architecture in place, true customer-centricity will be perpetuated when buy-in is achieved at every level, from the claims teams to the CDO and CEO. Only when insurers whole-heartedly embrace this cultural shift will there be a true transformation across the insurance industry for both insurers and customers alike.

Watch the full webinar here.