It is an understatement to say that insurance firms face various obstacles now more than ever, such as the health and socioeconomic ramifications of COVID-19. On top of all these, though, is the added challenge of staying competitive. Given the fast-paced modernization of the industry and the many carriers and types of policies available, choosing a provider can be overwhelming for customers. What does it take for an insurance company to be top of mind? What will compel a new customer to choose one insurance provider over their competitors? And what will convince an old customer to renew their policy and not jump ship to another carrier?
There’s one solution that can help your company sort through these problems: overhauling your current system to better accommodate new digital insurance technologies. Consider upgrading to a core insurance system with advanced technological features, such as automation, wide-ranging analytics capabilities, and integration with related third-party services. Though widespread digitization of your insurance system shouldn’t be looked at as a cure-all for every single one of your business ailments, it can do a lot to keep your insurance business competitive. It will also help you distinguish your brand among many others like it.
Here’s an overview of how upgrading your insurance platform will grant you a valuable competitive edge. This is definitely something you want for your company as you strive to do business in the digital age.
It Can Help You Navigate the World of Digital Insurance
One of the best reasons to overhaul your platform is to become better prepared for the golden age of digital insurance. Indeed, many carriers think the same way and are now relying heavily on digitization. That’s because the digital insurance model promises even greater safety, speed, and efficiency to customers. Though customers have fewer opportunities to meet with their insurers face-to-face, they will still expect a standard of service that includes all of these qualities.
Thus, the sooner you revamp your platform to cater to digital insurance trends, the better it will be for your firm in the coming future. This will allow you to adapt just as quickly, if not more quickly, than your current competitors.
It Will Give You Room to Revamp Your Insurance Products and Services
Upgrading will also give you an advantage in your product development, as some of your insurance products may need a facelift to be more relevant in current times. A new insurance platform will help you streamline and manage separate products in a nimble manner.
With this, it’ll be less stressful to launch and monitor the success of brand-new insurance products, even if you’ll be releasing them for the first time. You may also get the opportunity to decouple your existing all-in-one insurance programs and parse them into separate, more affordable products. In the end, that added ability to re-envision your insurance products and services will help your brand stand out. Your customers will acknowledge the freshness and adaptability of your product lineup by patronizing your company over others.
It Will Allow You to Be More Flexible with Your Pricing
Insurers often worry about keeping prices low because doing so may adversely affect their finances. But with a revamped digital platform, the cost of offering insurance policies at lower prices won’t be as steep. If anything, the investment may result in lower costs for doing business, which serves to cushion insurance carriers. They can be more confident about keeping prices low because they’ve already saved money from better business efficiency.
If you use a digital platform to deliver insurance, it’ll be easier for you to offer your products at lower prices than your competitors. This will allow you to get the attention of new customers as well as maintain high retention rates for your old customers.
It Will Help You Capitalize on Your Customer Experiences
Another benefit of revamping your core insurance system is that it will allow you to focus on your customer experience. There’s a clamor among this generation of customers for more insurance options that are relevant to their life stages. They veer towards personalized insurance programs instead of the catch-all insurance programs that may have appealed to their parents. They also favor digital experiences and the ability to take care of several insurance processes all in one place. Although such customers may be difficult to please at first, they will be the most loyal and rewarding long-term clients to insurance carriers.
With a digital platform, you’ll have many opportunities to improve your customer experiences. For one, you can use your upgraded data management and analytics capabilities to run customer portals. Such portals can consolidate customers’ insurance data and minimize their need to enter the same information over and over for different processes. You can also oversee more efficient bills payment and straight-through claims processing thanks to automation and the use of APIs. Your customers will be able to enjoy 24/7, cross-platform insurance delivery from end to end, from quotations to premium payments. If this is something they can look forward to when they sign up for your insurance program, they are likely to choose it over others.
Conclusion
What insurance firms need to remember about staying competitive is that it isn’t just a race against other companies—it’s also a race against time. Your company needs to innovate quickly so that it doesn’t fall behind the times and become obsolete to the next generation.
To gain a competitive edge in this industry, you have to know what exactly you’re competing for. In this context, you have two goals: to be the insurance carrier of choice for many, and to solidify your position as an industry leader. A new digital platform may help you achieve both, so consider pushing through on such an investment.
