The Customer-centric. Insurer in the Digital Era. What it takes to succeed in a connected, always-on world | Andrea Moneta. Published by Accenture (@Accenture)

Info: Accenture

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Customer Centricity. The New Axis of High Performance | Accenture (@Accenture)

The journey from products to customer-centricity. Digital Disruption. By Ammad Butt and Jostein Damminger, Accenture.

«Contents

Introduction

1. The New Context

1.1 What’s new in customer-centricity

1.2 The new insurance customer

1.3 The insurer at a cross-road

2. Customer-centricity

2.1 The foundations of customer-centricity

2.2 The digital enablers

2.3 Competition, value at stake and value creation

3. The Journey

3.1 The conceptual challenges

3.2 The execution challenges

3.3 Approach to the customer-centricity journey

Final Remarks

»Customer-centricity

»What is customer-centricity? While difficult to describe, it is very evident when it is lacking.

»Until recently large corporations, especially in regulated and quasimonopolistic industries, could overlook their customers, who had few choices, little influence on the success of the corporation, and no united voice. Executives tended to devote their attention to internal issues such as production and costs, rather than look outwards at customer needs and preferences.

»There is no shortage of anecdotes that typify the bias. A memorable one tells of a large retailer that installed revolving doors at the entrance to its stores to reduce heating costs. When shoppers (many with carts or pushchairs) complained, the solution was to install loudspeakers instructing customers on how to use the revolving doors. The view was that since the engineers and accountants liked the solution, shoppers would just have to accept it.

»Needless to say, customer traffic and revenues declined, forcing the retailer to acknowledge its series of mistakes, apologize, and re-install the larger doors which its customers preferred. This took place prior to the advent of online social networks, which meant the retailer had the leeway to survive, learn from its lesson and recover. Today it might not be so fortunate.

»Insurers were among the group of large corporations in regulated industries, together with telecommunication providers, utilities and banks. While most of their peers have adapted to the new reality, the majority of insurers still have a predominantly internal focus.

»Why? Among the reasons are their embedded enterprise-centricity, their love-hate relationship with risk27, the myth that being in a regulated industry protects them from external threats, the argument that insurance is a complex business that customers cannot understand, the notion that customerrelated matters pertain to brokers and agents, and the belief that, in any case, customers have few requests, little choice, and no effective voice.

»As we have seen in the section above, in the digital era customers do indeed have choices, and they have many different ways to combine their voices and make them heard. This has forced consumer firms in all industries to rethink the role of the customer. Even, eventually, insurers. But what does it take to become customer-centric?

»Digital technologies are a prerequisite, but are not sufficient on their own.

»The real challenge of customer-centricity is to develop the corporate ability to truly understand the customer’s stated and tacit needs, and to address them by providing highly personalized and remarkable experiences that are relevant to each individual’s preferences, circumstances and point in time.

»In today’s world, Digital + Customer Experience = Customer centricity.

»A customer-centric insurer should think and build its strategy, products, distribution channels and operations around its customers. It should clearly define its vision and develop new business and operating models capable of delivering these kinds of experiences, and of significantly increasing the value of every targeted customer and of the company as a whole.

»At its best, customer-centricity means having each current and prospective customer at the center of the business and operating models.»