Insurance companies need to give their e-initiatives a radical
makeover as their present inward focus is driving customers
away
Recent surveys investigating the uptake of e-business in the
insurance industry have painted a mixed picture. Figures published
in one report show that consumers have embraced online financial
services faster than any other. While a second survey revealed that
the industry is suffering from a serious case of 'navel-gazing',
focusing on its own needs rather than customers' and business
partners' priorities.
Positive news came in the shape of the Embracing Technology report
published earlier this month by Mori and Internet bank Egg, which
showed that consumer Internet usage had matured significantly,
particularly with regard to managing finances online. It found that
of the 22 million Internet users in the UK, about 34% had either
bought or applied for a financial product online. One of the most
popular products was insurance, which had been bought by about 17%
of users.
But findings from a report published last week by IT consultancy
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young revealed that most insurance companies
are deeply disappointed with the take-up of online services by both
customers and business partners, known as intermediaries.
The report showed that both customer and partner usage of online
channels fell drastically short of expectations. In the survey,
which looked at the use of technology in 120 financial services
firms in 13 countries, 100% of UK respondents admitted that
customer use of online channels had been lower than anticipated.
This had meant that the anticipated cost savings from e-business
initiatives had not materialised.
According to Jonathan Charley, financial services analyst with Cap
Gemini Ernst & Young, although it was clear that expectations
had been set too high, a closer scrutiny of the research revealed
that initial online offerings had not appealed to either customers
or business partners.
Website complexity and sluggish response times for online queries
were found to be driving customers away. The survey showed that
about 40% of UK insurers were taking more than eight hours to
respond to an email query. "With many of these sites, it's a lot
quicker to pick up the phone rather than to go through numerous Web
screens," said Charley.
Kevin Paterson, head of transformation and e-business at management
consultancy Winchester White, said user convenience was central to
the success of an online initiative. "It's often easier to pick up
the phone," he said.
"The investment has definitely gone in but a lot of expectations
were set at board level and the business case was generally based
on volume. People thought, 'If we spend this amount on technology,
we will reduce our per-unit cost'. But the volumes were just not
there because [these channels] weren't convenient.
"Technology isn't a solution - it's an enabler. Companies have got
to start looking at it from a wider perspective, about how it can
change the way they interact with customers," said Paterson.
According to Charley, having seamless links to back-office
processes is key to improving user experience. Integration with the
back-office and straight-through processing were critical, but at
the moment they were not happening, he added.
Phillip Bungey, chief technology officer of Lloyds.com, the
insurance portal launched by Lloyds of London, agreed that the main
challenge was achieving straight-through processing. "If you're
offering 'bit processing' people just won't do it. If you can't do
the whole interaction in one go, then there's much less of an
incentive to use these channels," he said.
Paterson said one of the main problems was that insurers had
created electronic channels based on their own requirements rather
than their business partners' needs.
"Insurers need to start with the people who use these systems, and
develop them in a way that benefits both customers and
intermediaries, rather than developing something internally then
making it available and hoping the customer will use it," he
said.
Despite the disappointment over the low take-up of online services,
respondents were still positive about driving up the number of
online transactions, which they saw rising from 1% in 2000 to 14%
in 2004.
Bungey believes a change in mindset is beginning to occur in
companies that have invested in e-commerce where it didn't do
exactly what they thought it would. "They have now got to the point
where they are trying to re-evaluate what they need to do to get
more of what they expect," he said.
Paterson agreed that a change is beginning to occur, but admitted
that the target of 14% of transactions online by 2004 is "quite
ambitious". Although some companies were doing usability tests and
getting both customers and partners involved, the majority of firms
still needed to think along the lines of convenience, he
added.
"E-commerce initiatives have to be designed from a customer's
perspective, and they have to be made far more attractive than
ringing a call centre," Paterson said. "The current mindset has to
undergo a radical change if this is to become a reality."