Turning a challenge into an opportunity for the insurance industry

No one needs to be reminded of the severity of this pandemic. We are bombarded with information on the ways COVID-19 is changing how we go about our daily lives and how we conduct business. The rapidly changing landscape can create anxiety as we face a world that seems out of control. Mental health professionals suggest finding ways to minimize anxiety by taking back some control.

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For businesses, taking back control means finding ways to continue to conduct business. It means finding a way to address the changing landscape rather than reacting to it proactively. How actively a company responds may have a lot to do with how far it is along a path to digital transformation. It is much easier to adapt to change in the digital world than in a physical world where person-to-person contact is required.

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Major carriers are moving to a work-from-home model. Governments are making policy changes. And both the NAIC and EIOPA are updating their sites with the latest information on COVID-19 and its impact on the insurance industry.

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Amid the chaos, insurers are still issuing policies, processing claims, assessing risk, and adapting to the new normal.

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The challenge

The insurance sector was struggling with its digital transformation long before the COVID-19 pandemic. As an industry, insurers were slow to embrace the central component of transformation — how to use technology to change operations to deliver more value to the customer fundamentally. Insurers were willing to adopt technology that reduced back-office paperwork and condensed workflows. Still, they were less enthusiastic about integrating digital solutions throughout the enterprise to deliver an exceptional customer experience from beginning to end.

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Part of that hesitancy was based on existing legacy systems that did not play well with current technologies. The legacy systems represented a significant investment, and replacing them translated into an even more considerable investment. In fact, a 2019 report found that complex legacy systems and inefficient processes were restricting the industry’s ability to transform and achieve a single customer view digitally.

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Single customer view

Creating a single customer view (SCV) for an insurer is not just about giving employees the ability to sell and service customers. It is also about meeting customer expectations. Today, customer expectations go beyond a competitive price for a quality product. A PwC study found that digital technologies are already reshaping buying habits and consumer expectations. For example, 70% perform online research before buying insurance, and about 25% have purchased a policy online.

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The same study found that customers want companies to develop personalized recommendations for products and services. For insurers, that means knowing when a customer is moving or a business is expanding. It means recommending a product or service before customers know they want it. That is a rigid expectation of meeting if you don’t have a comprehensive view of your customers.

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The opportunity for rapid digital transformation

Insurers may have a disaster recovery or business continuity plans, but few envisioned using them for a pandemic. Most plans were designed for short-term interruptions caused by a natural disaster or security breach. As a result, companies are scrambling to find ways to operate indefinitely in the digital world. Now is the perfect time to fast-track a digital transformation for sustained growth.

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The opportunity

Insurers may have a disaster recovery or business continuity plans, but few envisioned using them for a pandemic. Most plans were designed for short-term interruptions caused by a natural disaster or security breach. As a result, companies are scrambling to find ways to operate indefinitely in the digital world. Now is the perfect time to fast-track a digital transformation for sustained growth.

The advantages of no-code platforms for agile development

For many companies, digital transformation means IT departments, programmers, and long lead times. But there are other options such as no-code platforms that allow non-technical people to create digital solutions. Using purpose-specific templates, non-technical employees can quickly build forms or other applications. By dropping and dragging components onto a template, data-collection forms can be designed and delivered in hours rather than days without involving IT personnel.

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Agility

Creating an agile environment is part of transforming into an innovative organization that is constantly evolving. No code solutions are becoming a part of the digital landscape because they create an agile environment. Maybe your company needs an event-specific form in hours. Pulling IT personnel off of more important projects such as increasing security for remote workers is not an option.

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With no-code platforms, non-technical staff can create event-specific materials in hours. This capability can make your business first to market with time-sensitive materials. As fast as the work is changing, agile is the only way to survive.

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Customization

Before no-code, customizing existing code meant long lead times and more expense. Now, changing the length of a field or the placement of a checkbox can be completed in minutes by non-IT staff. For example, if a business sells across government jurisdictions, a generic form can be developed and then customized for each instance.

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Customizing is personalizing. If insurers want to meet customer expectations, they need to tailor their interaction to the consumer. That means creating group-specific forms that eliminate non-applicable fields. From a consumer’s perspective, asking for information that doesn’t apply to them means a company doesn’t really know them, or worse, a company doesn’t care enough to change the form.

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Gartner predicted that no-code platforms would be one of the top ten technology trends in 2020. They considered no-code to be one of the ways individuals could employ technology without extensive training. It could allow “citizen access” to help deploy technologies that would fast-track a digital transformation. Given the current economic environment, companies need to use all possible resources to sustain growth.

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Single customer view

Obviously, people’s focus changes when faced with a worldwide health crisis, but that doesn’t mean consumers’ expectations will change or disappear. They may not have the same priority in the short term, but that change of focus provides companies with an opportunity to accelerate their digital transformation. When consumers return to their pre-COVID-19 expectations, insurers who take advantage of today’s opportunities will be in a better position to deliver that single customer view. Why not request a demo to see how no-code solutions can fast-track your company’s digital transformation?