Insurance industries are rapidly evolving.
Property and Casualty (P&C) insurance technology is just one piece to the puzzle carriers must quickly put in place. In a shifting cultural and technological landscape, the relationship between customers and carriers brings both opportunities and challenges.
WaterStreet Company is here to help lead carriers towards the right solution for 2023 while facing many never-before-seen disruptions.
How are P&C insurance offerings changing?
The assets people seek to cover today are unlike the assets of yesterday. With a more data-driven method of segmenting, better individualized plans are made possible.
P&C insurance solutions help to collect and manage this data while connecting with third party solutions for robust modeling. Businesses are able to view sales data for measuring performance based on policies issued, premiums earned and more per individual agencies, among many other reporting features. These solutions are built to fit the workflows of various individual end-users, from insurance agents and underwriters to accountants and CFOs.
In an even greater context, P&C insurance customers are quickly changing. The insurance industry must act fast to craft and offer plans for new types of emerging customers. P&C solutions support this growth as an accessible and reliable tool through the industry’s transformation.
5 Opportunities for 2023
Here’s a look at 5 of the top opportunities for P&C insurance carriers in 2023 and beyond.
1. Data-driven underwriting offers better qualitative judgements.
One of the greatest advancements in the P&C insurance industry today is towards solutions that can support advanced reporting. While technology is excellent for setting benchmarks, it remains important for underwriters and actuaries to keep a hands-on approach rather than relying on the data for “one size fits all” strategies. Those with experience and good instincts will make the most of insurance technology today by understanding the context the data is given.
What carriers need to know: Your data is only as good as the people who use it. Empower underwriters and actuaries with effective technology they can use to both gather historical data and make predictions on where that data is headed. As a carrier, seek solutions that make reporting easiest and have capabilities to connect to Business Intelligence (BI) tools. Actuaries receive the greatest benefit from robust BI tools, and given the right data, underwriters can also begin to draw new trends for measuring risk in qualitative ways.
2. Cloud technology opens a wide door towards fast adoption.
Cloud technology has become a must-know buzzword across all modern industries. As more data is collected, insurance technology can make even more connections between offerings. Cloud storage allows companies to access their data from anywhere, bridging the gaps between employees in various locations, and frees up many companies from storing and managing this data themselves. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an example of how assets can directly report to cloud storage for compiling swaths of unique data.
What carriers need to know: Collaboration, efficiency and adaptability lie in cloud technology. While many companies today feel bootstrapped by legacy systems, those that can break out into safe cloud environments can act much faster to capitalize on growing warehouses of data and new features for managing plans.
3. The new gig economy calls for unique insurance plans.
Today’s growing gig economy is full of freelance and contract work. Many people who earn income this way use insurable assets for their jobs. Auto insurance and ride sharing is one example where the insured requires new liability insurance to cover themselves and their riders. Guest rentals, such as with AirBnB, also require homeowners to reconsider how they insure their homes in order to protect themselves from risk. This challenge applies to many areas of the gig economy where carriers can craft group offerings that aren’t currently available, allowing policyholders to identify offerings unique to their needs.
What carriers need to know: The relationship between employees and employers is shifting quickly in the gig economy. Keep the needs of your customers in mind by offering plans that address insurance in new groupings rather than previous segments, such as with liability insurance and life insurance.
4. Identifying top talent to strategize and communicate new offerings to customers.
The insurance industry has a dated image while taking on complex technological challenges. For many companies, sourcing the right talent is critical in 2023. Identifying the right people to connect with customers in a more mobile-friendly world means allowing new voices in leadership to help the company evolve to the next level of offerings.
What carriers need to know: To connect with your next generation of customers means adapting to a new data-driven world. Be clear when giving your employees direction on how to best put the data to work and reward those who share a fresh perspective with your company.
5. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology is moving towards text chat functionality to better serve customers.
IVR systems include voice answering to guide customers towards what they are looking for. This advancement has been adopted by many carriers across the globe and continues to evolve to better serve customer service needs in mobile-friendly formats. The next generation of this technology builds on a tremendous amount of data to offer fast answers and keep customers engaged before they can speak with an agent or broker.
What carriers need to know: Customers today live in an easily distracted environment. Empower customer service representatives and agents with methods of communication that help cut down on long wait times and give the policyholder exactly what they are looking for. Young adults today prefer text chat services that allow them to communicate at their own pace, and so IVR is adapting to this demand for better consumer-first solutions.
Reach out to WaterStreet Company today to request a consultation and demo.