Maintaining Competitiveness In An Evolving Industry

Maintaining Competitiveness In An Evolving Industry
Insurers that remain heavily invested in traditional underwriting, as opposed to Insurtech-related digital trends, are not truly fighting a losing battle. The streamlined ease of Insurtech enjoyed by consumers in our digitally immersed culture is occasionally heralded as the only future for the industry as a whole. If history has taught us anything, there is never only one way forward.
The implementation of technology aimed at attracting consumers is beneficial across the entirety of the industry, and should not be viewed as the big threat to conventional approaches. However, when referencing progress and competitiveness, it must be understood that it is the sum of all its parts and not simply addressed by a full shift to Insurtech.

Risks And Innovation
Making major changes within businesses in the P&C industry is all too often plagued by an all or nothing approach. This leads to stagnation and an overall underinvestment in technological advances that fuel competition between the two main forces in the industry today, traditional and Insurtech. The potential benefits to insurance risk mitigation are lost in the worries of cost, smooth implementation, experience concerns, and unknown performance. As innovation continues to build upon itself in newer and more efficient iterations, some insurers progressively get left further and further behind. Taking small but impactful steps should be the goal as opposed to the immediate expectation of a solely digital workflow end to end, complete with automation.

Data Is King
Access to data and the efficient analyzation of said data is integral to success in the insurance industry. Success is not determined by shiny new high-speed apps and interaction-free insurance purchasing platforms. The Insurtech portion of the industry is propelled by the data they are able to collect and correlate, often dwarfing the data points of traditional approaches by a mile. Combined with a streamlined approach that provides customers more of what they want and less of what they don’t, its meteoric rise is of little surprise. Naturally, this key data and the ability to collect it is not locked behind closed doors and trapped by patent. It is attainable and should be sought out and utilized to even the playing field. When opportunities to expand in similar ways arise and are neglected, insurers are essentially shooting themselves in the foot and it cannot be blamed on the rising stars of the insurance industry.

Consumer Fulfillment
Consumer engagement and fulfillment are additional issues that are rarely addressed when analyzing the disparity within the industry. Consumers readily flock to insurers who offer them customization and personalization. As such this is becoming an expectation and perhaps soon the norm. There is zero doubt that recent innovation in the field is shaking up the industry, but there is no clear winner yet. This is further evidenced by the fact that entrenched insurance firms still debate and delay over the risk and ROI associated with the significant changes necessary to compete with Insurtech. From a standpoint that purely measures insurance risk, it simply cannot be definitively stated that Insurtech mitigates it better. The only definite lies in what insureds want and expect and thus reasonable effort should be made to fulfill these desires.

At Insurance Risk Services we field a team of experienced property inspectors dedicated to providing accurate inspection reports and unparalleled underwriting support. We professionally represent the face of your business to insureds, strengthening positive relationships and opening the door to opportunities to provide additional services to your customers. Contact us at Insurance Risk Services today to learn how we can help you maintain competitiveness in an evolving industry.

We’re delighted to announce that Insurance Risk Services will rebrand to Davies in the near future.

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