2023-07-11 09:10:39
Integrated insurance to date has focused on the technology requirements for insurers to achieve a prominent place in this space and the architecture needed to integrate their products. From Accenture they have published an article in which they take the pulse of the evolution of these insurances, leaving their more austere ‘versions’ on the table to end with a special mention of the role of insurance agents.
To see how integrated insurance is now, the consultant starts from the definition of what is “integrated”. “We define integrated insurance as any insurance that can be purchased within the commercial transaction of another product or service. Integrated insurance is not a new innovation. Buying life insurance at the airport before a flight was the “version 1.0” of integrated insurancea model that became an incredibly profitable business”, they detail.
After this first step, consumers began to buy more and more expensive items, “here we come to the ‘Version 2.0’ of integrated insurance, in which customers could seamlessly add insurance while making a physical purchase”, they remark.
With the evolution of technology and online commerce, we reached “version 2.5”. This version allows customers to buy insurance alongside “digital” products, such as concert or plane tickets. More recently, this version of the embedded also offers customers the ability to purchase car insurance through sites such as Credit Karma, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vehicle parts insurance, or through online car sales sites. .
The next step according to the query is the ‘version 3.0‘: For example, Coverager has designed products such as Volvo’s electric vehicle insurance in collaboration with Allianz or Spot’s injury insurance included in ski passes. “We believe that it is a new paradigm of protection in which the consumer does not have the possibility to choose his company, the level of protection or the cost. Customers need to have a high degree of confidence that the provider is offering them the right coverage and the right offer.”
Where agents fit into an integrated insurance experience
According to him analysis carried out by Accenture In his article, customers are increasingly comfortable learning about insurance and comparing options online, but are often not ready to make a purchase before consulting with a human agent. Most customers still call a call center. According to him Insurance Consumer Study from Accenture, 85% of consumers prefer to interact with a human being when asking for advice on products or offers and only 15% make their purchase solely online.
“If consumers are looking for human touch points when purchasing a single insurance product, they need more guidance when bundling multiple, more complex products. As the risk of being wrong about the type of coverage they need multiplies, clients want to be able to rely on a single source of truth to help them classify their exposure and figure out how to be adequately covered,” he says. Scott Stice, main director and Strategy Insurance of the consultancy.
“We are confident that agents continue to have an important role to play, even as some products move towards 3.0 integration. Specific, We believe that role includes helping clients understand their risk profile and how the coverages and products they purchase cover them. explicitly or implicitly, including where there may be overlaps in coverage”, adds the expert.
For all these reasons, Accenture affirms that insurers must pay attention to the relationship between agent and integrated, and also to the implications for insurers, agents and integrated distributors.
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