Insurtech : everyone after a piece of the action

With the worldwide insurance market worth nearly £4trillion, and £2.1billion invested in insurtech last year alone, it’s not surprising that there’s a feeding frenzy going on among service providers. Because, as the latest Future of Insurance publication from Raconteur clearly reveals, everything is up for grabs.

Right across the value chain, from law firms and big data specialists, to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and fintech pathfinders, there is no shortage of hungry businesses ready and able to move into the insurance space – a fact clearly reflected in the advertisements in the Raconteur paper. Our analysis of its contents (see graphic above) reveals the wide range of players and the main areas of focus for insurtech. Consultancy services, software solutions and customer experience dominate, with a large number of new entrants and technology providers highlighting their skills as risk managers and data specialists. All are poised to disrupt the industry in the same way that fintech transformed banking.

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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.