How Insurers Are Leveraging Tech To Meet Customer Demands

Most people become loyal customers to brands and products that not only meet their needs, but also enhance pleasantries and solutions that already feature in their lives. This means that the brands have to offer differentiated and relevant experiences to a variety of people at once to retain their market share. 

With the world increasingly adopting a more digital and tech influenced approach to so much of our daily lives, it only makes sense for companies to advance their tech offerings to competitive levels accepted by the market, and sync them with customers’ constantly evolving tech needs.

Car insurance, as an example, has evolved over the years and is now at a point where tech is a prerequisite for competitiveness, and non-negotiable at the least – with the different advancements being the differentiators between products and the brands. With the influx of information and choices available to the modern customer, insurers have to leverage tech to meet their customer’s needs and constantly keep upgrading their products. This is how insurers use tech to meet your demands and improve your overall customer experience as an individual:

The convenience of telematics

Digitally-based car insurance involves connecting you, the car and the insurer through telematics. A device involving a GPS system, a SIM card, motion sensors and analytics software is fitted into your car and, through an app on your phone, this technology reads the driving speed and distances, as well as location and time. This tech advancement is a vital cog in the wheel that makes digitally-based car insurance work, and it also enhances the customer experience further.

Head of digitally-based car insurer MiWay Blink, Keletso Mpisane explains, “This technology comes with its own benefits and opportunities. For example, using a smartphone-based telematics solution, the insurer is able to detect car crashes via the MiWay Blink App installed on clients’ phones. The App sends a crash alert to our emergency call centre, which makes contact with the client immediately to arrange for assistance. This safety aspect is a potential lifesaver and adds a lot of value to the customer experience.”

A convenient app is more control in your hands!

By synching all the features of your car insurance digitally, your insurer gives you more control over your cover and makes it more convenient for you. Having a seamless app saves you time, money and effort when periodically adjusting your cover according to your personal growth.

Mpisane adds, “With us, for example, the technology is also seamless and quick, bringing down the time spent in for the sign-up process – which typically would take a long time phone call by phone – to around 3-5 minutes.”

Tech enables a personalised customer service, and experience

The synergy between the technologies mentioned above allows for cover and premiums to be adjusted according to the customer’s driving habits and experience over time.

“For example, telematics tech makes it possible for mileage-based premiums where the customer pays less if they drive less in that month. This offers a more personalised customer experience in that the cost of insurance decreases in months when the customer drives less.”

Infusing AI in the end-to-end process request protection

The customers who use these products, and have their data online,  are protected by the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act – owing to the accountability required from the insurer’s side. In short, the POPI Act is a comprehensive data protection law that regulates the processing of personal information in South Africa. It’s designed to protect people from data breaches and cybercrime, and to prevent intrusive marketing practices as well as abuse of data by the holders of the information – in this case, the insurers.