Innovation Overhaul in General Insurance Companies Long Overdue

Innovation overhaul in General Insurance Companies long overdue.

The insurance industry both locally and across the globe is fast shifting with the disruption being primarily driven by innovation, technology, and the use of predictive analytics. These changes have necessitated those in the insurance business to change tact and move towards personalizing customer interactions to match the emerging trends and meet their customer’s sophisticated requirements.

The General Insurance industry, particularly motor insurance in Kenya is witnessing tremendous changes. Statistics from the Insurance Regulatory Authority indicate that in the first quarter of 2017, premiums rose by 14.4% to Sh67.2 billion. Of the Sh67.2 billion collected in premiums in the first quarter of 2017, general business contributed 65.7% while long-term business initiatives contributed 34.3%.

In an industry with many players and new entrants in the market, how then does one stay ahead? Forward-thinking.. tech, rethinking the business models, new products, one size fits all approach will not work.. it needs to be tailored to the customer

Research has shown that 6 out of 10 people who look for insurance-related material online, search for motor insurance, with 3 out of the 6 people purchasing a motor insurance cover online with an insurance company located in Kenya.

An agile and responsive organization will therefore seek to understand what their customers want and innovate continuously to ensure that they meet these needs. It’s all about convenience and by employing the right technology, they can take service delivery a step closer to the customers.

Innovative and transformative about how positioning themselves to be market leaders in the future or at least cement their leadership positions.For example, Jubilee Insurance launched a motor insurance app in 2016. The app is designed to be used by agents to make quotes for customers and renew existing policies.

This takes service delivery one step closer to the customer in the sense that customers don’t need to physically be present at our offices to get a quote or to renew insurance covers for their vehicles.
Data collected from the app by the company is used to streamline services and smoothen operations. This gives actuaries in the company a chance to deploy predictive analytics to know what the customers want, what they are most interested in, and what they actually don’t need.