Getting to know you – how RDT uses data to build customer relationships

Most important attributes of customer experience compared with performance

Research from Accenture shows that 30 per cent of customers have a negative view of their insurance providers. The figure was quoted in a feature* in Raconteur’s ‘Future of Insurance’ supplement, distributed last month with The Times, and underlines the need for insurers to find out as much as possible about their customers so they can provide a more personal service. 

The feature included a table compiled by KPMG of the most important attributes of customer experience compared with performance. This revealed that insurers are well behind digital exemplars such as Amazon and Google, and must become far more adept at extracting value from the huge amount of data available to financial services providers.

Accessibility, tailoring products and polices to customer needs, and more online access were listed as priorities to improve customer experience. While cost still remains the number one reason for closing or replacing a policy, customers cite poor communication and lack of speed, from quote through to renewals and claims, as the next major bugbear. And when it comes to communication, digital is clearly the preferred channel.

The digitisation of insurance and the growth and analysis of available data using sophisticated tools is developing apace, but insurers are not natural innovators or technology experts. That’s why they need specialists such as RDT to bridge the gap and bring them closer to their customers.

RDT puts detailed information at the heart of an insurer’s business, and is continually researching and developing new ways to apply data for the mutual benefit of insurers and their customers. Put simply: the more you know about customers, their life circumstances, and their habits and preferences, the better you can serve them. This is where data enrichment and dynamic segmentation come in, and it’s something that RDT delivers across its platform as a technology partner and a provider of bespoke solutions.

Effective use of data – particularly big data – leads to more accurate ratings, more tailored products, and a more informed and helpful approach at all touch points with the customer. Through collaboration with RDT, insurers can manage and manipulate data from a wide variety of sources, meeting the increasingly demanding requirements of customers who have come to expect speed of delivery and real-time information as part-and-parcel of the digital age.

Insurers have vast amounts of data to draw on, but lack the resources to gather and analyse it properly. RDT’s technology provides the filter and focus, and by increasing automation at all levels, it also creates more time for advisers to concentrate on the human side of insurance and build stronger relationships with customers.


*Raconteur: Improving Customer Experience in the Insurance Industry