What Is the Future of
Insurance Agencies Market?
With growing economic insecurity in today’s risk society, overall anxiety over the safety of people’s property and assets is on the rise. Managing said risks with insurance policies seems like a viable option for an increasing number of people. What can the insurance market expect of its prospects in the coming years, and how can insurers stay competitive? Here are a few key insights regarding the ever-changing market and its customers.
Apps and Smartphone Dependency
Nearly 90% of Americans now own smartphones, and on average, adults spend 3 hours and 43 minutes a day on their mobile devices. Responsiveness has therefore become one of the top priorities for most insurers. Insurers build their websites with responsiveness in mind, making it easy to navigate offers and updates from a smartphone. Additionally, companies with an understanding of people’s smartphone habits have already rolled out insurance apps. Anything you want, from chatting with a team member and requesting quotes, to making payments, tracking home inventory, or submitting an auto claim is available via an app. Companies such as PathwayPort offer all of these functionalities via user-friendly apps along with cancellation notices and renewal reminders. Another aspect of this trend is to look out for it the way customer expectations from apps have skyrocketed. People are used to flawless user interface along with perfect year-round, 24/7 online experience offered by giants such as Amazon and Bestbuy. As around 74% of insurance agencies now allow policyholders to manage their claims and important information in-app, the pressure to impress users is huge.
Digital Disruption
The traditional vision of an insurance broker offering policies, usually with a prepared speech on potential risks and benefits is a thing of the past. A huge number of people pick their insurance company the way they pick most other services – based on their ranking on a comparison site. Much of an insurer’s online visibility has become dependant on lists such as Top 10 or Top 20 Private Insurance Companies. The first couple of results on the first page of Google compare insurers according to user reviews, app quality, and price. Competitive prices require insurers to expand their coverage and lower their prices. The same goes for both private and business insurance alike. To stay relevant in prospects’ eyes, insurance companies have to cooperate with comparison sites to fill a slot. Another aspect of digital disruption is automation. Being that nearly every policy has to be adjusted to factors such as a person’s past history, credit score, and net worth, the onboarding process can be tedious. As a result, anything from making payments to filling in forms and delivering documentation can pretty much be done in-app, without human intervention. This is another aspect of the overall theme of digital disruption – replacing non-digital processes with digital ones.
Using One Insurance Agency for Multiple Policies
Policyholders’ desire to insure as many property items and assets for as low a price as possible gave rise to another trend – bundling policies together. Getting multiple insurance coverages from the same company has its pros and cons, but eventually, the convenience of it was the winning factor. Checking the state of every policy as well as additional coverage deals such as flood insurance in a single smartphone app is an integral part of a positive customer experience. Additionally, bundling policies often results in discounts and flexible compensation costs. On the insures’ side, another advantage arises having to do with data analysis. When a single insurer operates with data on each person’s home, car, pets, assets, health, and travel plans, it becomes possible to provide a hyper-personalized approach to customer satisfaction. The opportunities for upsells and cross-sells increase exponentially.
People’s expectations of what a perfect online user experience should look like are on the rise, and insurance companies struggle to keep up. The ones who succeed still need to compete with lowered policy prices and changing marketing landscape dominated by comparison sites. Still, more and more people opt for insuring as many property items and assets as possible in the same company, realizing that they are living in uncertain times. The trends above resulted in a rise in automated insurance services, making unnecessarily complex and repetitive processes easier to manage, to the benefit of both insurance agencies, and policyholders.
