It goes without saying that 2020 has been – dare we say it – an ‘unprecedented’ time. As employees around the world adapted to ‘WFH Status’ almost overnight, technology was evolving faster than people could dream about it. New insurance products are launching to market and those customers have particularly high standards – they want very specific coverage and they want it now.
So, how will this fast-tracked movement towards digitization impact the industry?
Here are three key trends we expect to see expand into 2021:
1.Increased Transparency
Given the way technology has led to mass innovation across a variety of industries, it’s now giving providers a chance to specialise and provide more tailored niche service solutions. As a result, we are seeing an increasing number of smaller business providers entering the market. With these increased offerings come increased competition, meaning clients are facing the challenge of getting reliable information from service providers on contracts, and processes.
As smaller businesses have emerged, there have been calls for a shift in the way larger providers reveal information pertaining to their policies, contracts and prices. Consequently, this creates opportunities for business innovation and better investment options given their greater access to information.
Calls for transparency are also becoming increasingly important due to government intervention. The UK Government, for example, stated they will be implementing steps to enforce transparency policies for outsourced services following a number of requests for information. More countries are expected to follow suit, enforcing more rules and regulations surrounding transparency policies which will undoubtedly change how the industry operates over the next few years.
2.Cloud Computing
Cloud computing has already changed the game with data storage and data sharing in the outsourcing industry, making data retrieval and sharing faster, easier, and more secure. Cloud platforms are also creating opportunities for businesses to stay competitive by eliminating unused space and storage, creating a more cost-effective system.
Cloud storage has the capacity to reduce IT spend, saving businesses space and maintenance costs. It is expected that as this technology continues to develop, it will increase service outputs by encouraging data sharing between clients and providers.
Although it already exists, we expect to see businesses increasingly integrating the cloud system into their data management practices as it becomes industry standard.
3.Platform Diversification
As social media continues to dominate more of our lives, it is expected that the customer’s preferred communication channel for engaging their insurer may change. Mobile applications and social media alike can facilitate near-instant communication between the provider and customers for solutions or queries, creating a more positive and productive experience. This will change customer management practices in the industry going forward, with businesses likely to develop social-media specific taskforces and teams offering services outside of standard business hours to satisfy customer demands for multi-channel, instantaneous support.
Moving forward, we expect to see updates in the insurance industry that change how we communicate with both our clients and their customers, as well as how we manage our data and data sharing practices. As technology and customer demands evolve, we look forward to seeing how we can adjust to these growing new practices.
Read more about post-pandemic insurance and how you should prepare going in to 2021 and beyond.
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