ROUNDTABLEQUOTE CONVERSION
AND RETENTION

Sponsored by

Where are the biggest pain points
for potential or returning insurance
customers on their purchase journey andhow can these be addressed?

Improving quote conversion,
retention and profitability inthe personal lines market
Adding online payments and ensuring consistent service could be a key differentiator
for insurers in winning new business and retaining existing customers. Our expert panel
discuss the need for simplicity and an intuitive customer journey; ensuring consistency
across devices and distribution channels; and using technology that allows for choice andflexibility at all points in the policy lifecycle

Alex Cross,product &proposition
director, SagaWilliamJames, headof technicalunderwriting,Markerstudy

16 | Insurance Post | November 2021

Nika Lee, chief
underwriting
officer UK, Aioi
Nissay Dowa
EuropeMatt Moores,
UK enterprisesales manager,
PaypalColin MossDavies, head ofenterprise sales,Paypal

Phil Ost, head ofpersonal lines,
Zurich UK

Matt Walton: Our biggest challenge isdesigning a simple, seamless journey forcustomers that’s intuitive enough for themto want to engage and convert. To ensure that
contextual help is available to customers at
any point throughout the customer journey,
we have user tested these hundreds of times,
because you can’t second guess every single
customer’s wants, needs and headspace atevery moment in time.
All your content should be polished andwritten in plain English and we have to keep
simplifying and shortening digital journeys.
These should be as simple as ordering drinks
on the Wetherspoons app, which is spot on.
You need to ensure that shifting
between channels is also a hassle-freeexperience for customers and that they
don’t have to restart the conversation eachtime they switch.
Phil Ost: I’m also a fan of the simple stuff
like web flow, the question set, the order, thelayout, and that these are responsive acrossdifferent devices.
Simplicity and not overengineering are
key. Crucially, don’t disappoint at the end
when it comes to payment. If customers dropout there more than once, they will nevercome back. If you can use face ID or PayPal
that’s great – the simpler better.
Pritpal Powar: It is surprising how often
integration between channels is lacking.
With price comparison being such a big andgrowing channel across most personal lines
products, consistency in terms of productselection, add-ons, and prices, through to thepurchase journey is so important. One pain
point arises when prices of different productselections differ for various channels. ThisDavid Pearce,head of new
business trading– personal lines,
Aviva

Pritpal Powar,
head of pet,
Admiralcreates confusion and customers need toreconfirm the information.
And then in terms of the question sets,
insurers should ask only the necessary
questions and explain why the customer
should give them any additional information.
If it is valuable, they should give customers
something in return to add value rather thanjust creating pain.
William James: At the start of the journey,
customers just want to explore quotes and get
an idea of what is on offer. But there is often
a lack of continuity moving from a pricecomparison website. They shouldn’t haveto restart that conversation by providing
personal details and information about theirvehicle at that stage. It should be a simple
transition and people should be able to fill inthe details later.
Also, there should be cadenced payment
options, so that customers aren’t affronted
with the requirement to apply for credit andshare all their personal data to make a smallmonthly payment. They shouldn’t haveto worry about having something on their
credit record; it’s not as if they are applying
for a mortgage.

pandemic more and more customers who
were not traditionally on online or digital
distribution channels started moving
towards those. Given these changes, we arerethinking our customer journey, and simple
customer journeys are key here too.
Alex Cross: Absolutely; simplicity iskey. I also echo the point about properly
positioning around value, which conversion
is extremely sensitive to.
In terms of choice, many of us will havemultiple cover levels on our products and wemust explain the differences to customers
and give them the confidence to choose theright one for their needs and circumstances.

What might be holding you back or what
are the barriers that might prevent you
from doing what you need or want to do?
Niraj Shah: The big players in the market still
have legacy tech stacks and are slow to ripthese up and start fresh. It’s a regulated market,
but without that burden, you can move much
faster and change the customer journey fromone minute to the next. Tech departments of
insurance companies need fresh thinking toovercome this barrier – maybe from outside“At the start of the journey, customers just want to
explore quotes and get an idea of what is on offer.
But there is often a lack of continuity moving from aprice comparison website.” William James
Nika Lee: As most of our customers arecoming from price comparison websites,
they frequently drop out because we can’t
have the competitor price on the screen.
Unfortunately, price is the main thing here,
so we can’t ignore it.
We also have a distribution channel
through a dealer network. During theNiraj Shah,managing
director –insurance, Zego

Matt Walton,
digitaltransformation
lead, Direct LineGroup

insurance where amazing customer journeys
have been developed.
Powar: I agree that legacy tech is a barrier
to innovation integrations. Many insurers
look to implement extensive transformation
programmes. New technology should be
broken down into more component parts, so
the pace of change is quicker, and benefits arerealised at a much faster rate.
David Pearce: As regulated companies we doimportant jobs for our customers and whenthings go wrong, we must put those things
right very quickly. In terms of mindsets,management information reporting can help
us understand what we’ve done wrong andgives us the confidence to react more quickly
and take the risks in stride. You also needtechnology that enables flexibility of change.
Lee: Simple customer journeys are not easy
for insurers to provide because there is so
November 2021 | Insurance Post | 17

ROUNDTABLEQUOTE CONVERSION
AND RETENTION

much complexity in our products. So, weneed the flexibility to allow for a longer
customer journey for whatever reason.
James: More and more insurers have changed
technologies for their pricing engines and how
they interact with customers. They need to beable to integrate new technologies quite easily
in a modular way to augment the customer
journey. They can leave the existing policy
admin systems in place – but build on themto create the interfaces to switch and havealternate distribution channels.
Ost: We sometimes forget that claims
handling, or reimbursing customers is theultimate proof point of any proposition.
There is so much potential in claims toimprove at digitally tracking and handlingcustomers and using the claims proposition
to drive loyalty in such a competitive market.
Lee: I agree, claims are the moment of truth.
We have worked hard to improve on using
telematics to understand the circumstancesof accidents. This allows us to guide ourcustomers through the right processes,
including fast tracking and rapid settlement.
This is when our customers see the value ofthe product they purchased, which influences
whether they renew or continue with us asa brand. So, we should not forget the claims
journey, which should be considered as part ofthe customer journey.
Powar: More insurers are taking thecustomer’s admin burden onto themselves
to make it easier for them to register a claim.
This means eliminating unnecessary barriers
such as the need to log in to a portal or reachout to third parties for information. They arealso offering more value-add products, suchas round-the-clock video vet access in the petspace. This builds out great claims propositions
and lends itself to a great customer experienceand ultimately, customer retention.
Cross: In terms of customer choice ofchannel and the ability to go offline to online
seamlessly and vice versa; a significant
proportion of customers still want extra
support, especially at point of claim and thisis critical to retaining customers.

Matt Moores: I agree, we’ve been working
with our telephony partners to create theseexperiences where customers can instantly
receive a quote or their claim. But if they’reconfused, an agent can come on and in realtime, help them through the entire flow.
In terms of instant payments, the insurer
should be able to echo that seamless frontend experience on the claims side too. Toooften they are limited by the bacs network.

Obviously having the money in the bankcan be great, but some customers mightwant access to an insurer-approved supplierrather than sourcing one and spending themoney themselves. Do customers reallywant automatic, online payments, or dothey just want to talk to somebody?
Pearce: Recently we have been offering
immediate cash payment. Customers have
loved it and it also drove of better indemnity
outcomes for us. We also gave other choices tocustomers we knew this wouldn’t work for andthis was received well, especially by vulnerable
customers. So, it’s important to use technologythat allows you to offer choices.
Lee: The challenge for us is making it easier forour younger new drivers to purchase insurance
on premium finance. Typically, this is for 12months, but vehicle finance is three years,
and we know they struggle in that first year.
So, I wonder if there are any digital or online
payment methods to help our customers.
James: In the crossover between telematics
and fleet or leasing, the distribution ofinsurance can be linked to the financingof the vehicle. When someone takes out athree-year contract on purchasing theirvehicle, they’ve already provided all
the financial information critical to theprocess of selling the insurance. A partner
can link that into a seamless process toadd the product on. More and more fleet
operators are looking at mobility solutions
for businesses and that could extend to thewider public. So, perhaps the telematics ofthe future will link insurance with those
new distribution channels.

“There is so much potential in claims to improve atdigitally tracking and handling customers and using
the claims proposition to drive loyalty in such acompetitive market.” Phil Ost
18 | Insurance Post | November 2021

Sponsored by“The customer may drop off for a myriad of personalreasons and pick up on several devices at different
times. Some brokers and insurers struggle to capture
and track that.” Matt Moores
Shah: Most people nowadays are not buying
cars, they’re leasing them. And if insurance
is sold at the start of a lease, it will completely
disrupt insurance claims. There are alreadyplayers doing that outside the UK at scale. For
example, ALD is doing this as part of the second
largest leasing company in the world. Thisis eating our cake and we should look at thecustomer journeys being offered, because thetraditional journey could disappear quickly.

How does the use of multiple devices– including tablets and mobiles – toclose an insurance sale complicate theonline quote and buy journey? And what
are your experiences in terms of theconfusion created for customers when
you use a broker or aggregator?
James: We need to change the way we’redistributing and selling and there’s a big
piece around data privacy; who owns thedata; what is fair; and what customers expect.
We’re now working with aggregators whocollect a certain amount of data and present
products to insurance companies. But interms of going cross-platform to find quotes
for customers, they need to have a trusted
relationship with customers to be able tohold their personal and financial data. Taking
out a lease or getting financing requires oneof those trusted relationships. So, there is arole to play as stewards of data, but whoever
does that on behalf of the customer can moreeasily fill in all the blanks when going fromone platform to another.
Moores: For a typical personal lines quoteto-buy process, around 2.4 devices are usedon average. The customer may drop off fora myriad of personal reasons and pick up
on several devices at different times. Somebrokers and insurers struggle to capture
and track that, but we can do this quite
successfully as a trusted third party because
we are platform independent. It would begood to know how others are addressing thisand how we can build this capability.
Lee: Typically, customers will start theirinitial search and quote on mobile or tablet,

but when it comes to purchasing, move todesktop. There is a data privacy piece andwhat customers are comfortable with, but it
will be interesting to see the developments
and whether any insurers are using social
media logins for example.
Pearce: A lot of people say they are doing
everything ‘mobile first’ but that’s not how
customers interact with us. It might be theirchannel of choice for many transactions, butthey transition between different devices orchannels a lot. And those devices and how wetransact with customers will both change.
Walton: Agreed, and I find the term ‘mobile
first’ slightly annoying; it should be ‘customer
first’. You need an experience designed foreach device, which is consistent when thecustomers moves between them.

Do you think insurers can increase crossselling opportunities if they make theircustomer journey a USP?
James: There are serious data privacy anddata stewardship issues in the regulatedindustries because we’re protecting people’slives and livelihoods. The longer-term
outlook for insurance companies is tobecome trusted data stewards for theirclients. But currently there isn’t a space tostore customer data in this way and mostcompanies don’t have ways of being able tovalidate data for use elsewhere.

Are any of you using PSD2 compliant
two factor authentication and do you
think it could help reduce fraud?
Pearce: It’s a really live debate. It’s abrilliant use of technology to increase fraud
prevention. However, it creates an extra stepin our processes. And any step that creates
friction can give you drop out, so we need totest and trial this with third parties to makesure it works well.
James: I think it only works in conjunction
with services when it’s worth setting up witha data steward. Customers don’t want to haveto do this every time they buy a product orhave a contract with someone. nNovember 2021 | Insurance Post | 19