Small life insurer transformation challenged by limited resources and aging systems, new research revealed
Equisoft and the Life Insurers Council (LIC) conducted research to help small and mid-sized insurers identify opportunities for creating improved customer experience and engagement.
New research from Equisoft, a leading global digital solutions provider to the financial services industry, reveals that customer experience (CX) is the main driver for digital transformation efforts within small and medium-sized insurers, yet 54% of organizations support just one or two communication channels for customer support. 34% of respondents also cited staff interactions with clients as being both a strength and a potential concern as client-facing processes still involve manual steps in many cases, making them less efficient and hindering the creation of great client experiences.
The research, conducted in partnership with the LIC — a networking forum for small to midsized life insurance company members of LIMRA and LOMA —surveyed one-third of LIC members on current CX concerns, challenges, technology adoption, and future priorities to gain valuable insights into the current state of CX and digital transformation for small- to medium-sized carriers in the life insurance industry. The goal of the research is to help these growing insurers identify opportunities to create superior CX, build strategies and blueprints for capitalizing on those opportunities, and implement strong technology and process foundations that will support a new enterprise approach to client engagement.
“Life insurance carriers want to deliver on their original mission of protecting and enriching customers’ lives, and they want that mission to thrive in the 21st century. There are a lot of opportunities to boost customer experience and engagement, but limited resources can, understandably, make it difficult to roll out large-scale programs,” said Mark DePhillips, Senior Vice President, USA at Equisoft. “This research is just the beginning of an ongoing process to help small- and mid-sized insurers create robust CX plans, modernize legacy technology and data foundations and implement CX technology that will streamline and enhance customer experiences across all channels.”
“LIC is pleased to partner in this research and deliver real actionable value to our members. LIC carriers are committed to their customers and to continually working to enhance every interaction for greater engagement. The challenges they face are significant, however. Budget constraints are real, aging legacy systems present roadblocks in many cases and data foundations need to evolve,” said Dean Lambert, Executive Director at LIC. “LIC is committed to working with our members to advance CX in our market. And this research is a great first step in identifying the current state of CX amongst our member companies, revealing priorities for investment over the next two years and highlighting the critical challenges that we will have to overcome.”
Other key findings from the report include:
- 34% of respondents felt that simplifying and standardizing application forms would have the most beneficial impact on reducing policy application times, closely followed by automating data collection and validation (32%).
- 38% of respondents cite legacy IT systems lacking automation capabilities as the primary challenge in expediting underwriting decisions.
- 45% of respondents perceive self-service tools to brokers and agents as the digital transformation initiative with the most significant impact on underwriting speed.
Download the full report to uncover small and medium-sized insurers’ current CX concerns, challenges, technology adoption, and future priorities.
Equisoft will also be holding a webinar on June 19 at 12pm ET, “How CX Technology Transforms Small and Mid-sized Life Insurance Carriers,” in which CX experts and LIC members will reveal solutions and priorities for enhancing CX delivery. Register for it here.
Originally posted: EQUISOFT