Spotlight: Apps & The Insurance Industry

16 December 2020 | Geoff, Traditional Insurance

Technology is transforming the insurance industry. Join us as we look at some of the ways insurers have started using apps to get customers more engaged, improve their services, and in some cases to transform their offering altogether.

Insurance has always had a part to play in our most exciting stories.

We’re not being tongue-in-cheek. People first started distributing risk around 5,000 years ago, when Chinese merchants had the bright idea to mutually protect their business by spreading their goods across each other’s ships when navigating treacherous rivers.

More recently, marine insurance oiled the wheels of empire; and underwriting has helped countless small businesses to blossom.

Today, this ancient industry is once again finding its place at the head of the curve – and it’s doing so by embracing apps.

How apps are transforming the insurance industry

When we say “apps are transforming the insurance industry”, we really mean it.

They are changing the very services insurers offer, and how they are provided.

Cuvva – provides car insurance by the hour

Cuvva app users get instant access to by-the-hour cover for any car. This makes it much easier to car-share with friends and family.

Trov – on-demand contents insurance

The Trov app provides on-demand contents insurance on an item-by-item basis. It automatically logs the user’s IoT devices, which provides both ease-of-use for the customer and reliable data for the insurer.

Jamii – cheaper health insurance through automation

Jamii has made health insurance affordable to thousands of Tanzanians, by using an automated system to slash the company’s operating costs. You can read more about Jamii in our article on digital engagement.

How app services
can change public
perceptions of insurance

It’s nothing personal, but as things stand the average person doesn’t particularly enjoy the experience of buying insurance. For many, it’s a grudge purchase.

But by adding engaging, expedient and life-enhancing features to their apps, insurers can quickly see a drastic change in how they are perceived. Suddenly they’re no longer an expensive annual obligation – they’re a clever and constant helper.

The benefit insurers can yield from regular engagement is utterly transformative:

  1. It keeps the insurer’s brand in the customer’s life, year-round. This reinforces the notion that insurance services play an important role.
  2. It keeps the insurer’s app on the customer’s phone. Alongside the boost this brings in terms of brand visibility, engaging customers with digital channels is also an essential part of the digital transformation process. Getting customers to go digital can reduce your operating costs, and also provides a more up-to-date user experience.
  3. More data = smarter marketing. Every time a customer uses digital services, the service provider can learn more things about them. For example, in certain services, if the customer logs into an app at home, the service provider can see which other devices are using the same wi-fi. This enables them to offer to directly offer quotes for insurance on the devices identified, via the app.

There’s a shift underway in how people use insurance. Instead of huffing and puffing their way to an annual renewal of service, customers can now use dynamic app features like those described above to make their insurance more personalised, more useful and better suited to their budget.

Not just doing better;
doing more

Insurance companies can further satisfy and engage their customers by adding engagement features and adjacent services that complement the underlying insurance itself.

Pairing an app with a suitable tools and services can greatly increase app engagement, and in some cases may redefine a brand’s strategic position.

Think of Orange and Orange Wednesdays. Now we can achieve the same effect with an app.

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