Insurance companies who are still faltering after a period of largely stalling profit are heading into 2022 with expectations of major industry growth. Just as survival over the past two years has relied on forward-thinking approaches, this growth curve largely looks set to be indicative of industry changes.
Unfortunately, as is always the case with major disruptions following difficult periods, investment into the future can be daunting. To ensure spending in the right places, and ROI that makes that spending manageable, insurers must consider current trends and their profit potential. Here, we look at just a few of the trends that are quickly emerging as essential focuses for the future of insurance in general.
While automation has been a standard focus in most industries for years now, the cautious and heavily-regulated insurance industry was still largely cemented in manual handling pre-pandemic. Now, consumers who expect far faster handling of claims and beyond, as well as insurance companies who increasingly need to free workforces to focus on additional innovations, are realizing the benefits of automation across at least crucial claims handling processes.
Robotic process automation in insurance is especially making it possible to more easily manage a range of labor-intensive processes across insurance companies. Optimization is particularly possible in the form of claims processing that’s now manageable in hours instead of days. Furthermore, automated benefits that remove large amounts of previously manual tasks make it far easier for insurers to redistribute teams who are better able to face additional areas of innovation head-on for success in even a changing market.
Casual marketing approaches have largely been left out of an insurance industry that still very much relies on a formal outlook and consumer approach in general, but the fact that 72% of industry leaders in a recent IBM survey reported actively using social media to engage new audiences suggests that this is changing.
The ability to reach directly to the customer of the future has especially fuelled insurance-led social media campaigns like the winning Facebook strategies currently implemented by top US insurers including Nationwide and GEICO. The ability to better learn from and listen to consumers is especially helping insurers to keep their offerings updated despite a fast-changing landscape, while private messages and in-person replies provide a much-needed personal approach to an industry that, for some reason, has always kept a distance from its consumers in the past.
Perhaps even more substantially, many insurers are also finding that reassessing offerings in themselves is the best way to stay ahead of current competition. In a way, this ties in with the need to better appeal to the consumer of the future, but reinventing core services to better address specific consumer needs is also a focus worth highlighting in its own right.
Of course, basic insurance packages should still be made available to consumers who prefer these, but companies are also finding that consumers are increasingly calling for extended and personalized services. Service adjustments that tie in with external partner collaborations are especially coming out on top in this sense for providing consumers with everything in one simple package, while insurance as service offerings that replace traditional fixed terms are also landing well with consumers who are still skeptical of long-term financial arrangements in a largely uncertain time of life.
As every insurance provider attempts to diversify and succeed, it’s also worth noting that watching competitors more closely is becoming increasingly essential for both growing business in this field in the first place, and ensuring offerings that are competitive and cutting-edge enough to secure market leadership positions.
Luckily, moves towards social media as mentioned mean that this goal is easier to achieve than ever. Of course, insurers can’t simply follow in their competitor’s footsteps due to the latest social media upload, but being able to see how other industry leaders are choosing to approach this time of change can provide fantastic motivation for the development of strategies that are always competitive, and always on the cutting-edge.
Insurance is still an industry in flux, and even companies who have survived until now face significant challenges before they can enjoy notable profits once more. Understanding industry changes and how to implement them is set to play a crucial role within that and, as more insurers adopt strategies like these, they’ll increasingly become crucial indicators of success and industry norms that no one can afford to overlook.
