Blog by Nilesh Patel, Head of Sales and Marketing, UnderwriteMe

Data. You see it everywhere. With ever-growing access to more and more data, everyone in the world is moving towards data-driven propositions, including us in the insurance world. Sure, the big players such as Amazon and Google (to name a couple) are great at it, but what other industries use data to gain insight and knowledge?

Casinos are a great example of where data can give a clear picture of their customer.

They can predict how much you’ll spend, how far you’d be willing to go to win, and how many Gin & Tonics you’ve had – meaning casinos always retain an advantage over their customers.

“Percentages never lie …you can lose faith in everything, religion and God, women and love, good and evil, war and peace. You name it. But the percentage will always stand fast.” – Mari Puzo, Fools Die

The percentage here is the edge casinos make their money on. Intoxicated, tired, or just really bad at blackjack, a casino understands the statistics, percentages, and probability as soon as you walk into that room.

So, if the goal in the insurance industry is to deliver a data-driven proposition to provide the best customer outcomes, how do we achieve this in the current market, given there is a limit to which Insurers can access data?

See the full picture

Insurers need to prioritise the most valuable activity with the best return. It’s important to analyse all segments of data, including;

• Customer, Products, Distributor
• Underwriting
• Benchmarking
• and Post-sale information

As you already know, understanding customer behaviors and the buying journey is valuable information, but you need a clearer lens to capture the full image. Benchmarking what’s working and what isn’t is key, so you can make timely adjustments to your underwriting or product features. Then finally, close the loop by analysing the full end-to-end of the product journey.

Stay focused!

Insurers can only really see quote, customer, product, and distributor insights across the market but access to underwriting questions is limited. Getting hold of all the information in one place can be difficult as data is stored in multiple systems and tying this to post-sales activation data can be as hard as having bad lighting and a low resolution camera!

All these insights are usually across many different platforms, which need to sync up and start talking to each other.

A lot of the time, we rely on third-party information (specifically re-insurers) on market analysis and benchmarking. That insight can often be slower to come, and therefore already out of date and making it harder to determine what your business needs to specifically change as it’s only general market information. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to solve some of these challenges?

Picture perfect

The Protection Platform can help insurers bridge these gaps creating a clearer view of your business and customers!

• Access – by understanding the whole picture that includes underwriting insights not only through the insurer but the marketplace
• Single reference – the platform data does some of the heavy liftings, as insurers are presented with customer, product, and underwriting insights in one location ready for actuaries or data scientist to play with
• Visibility – the Protection Platform provides transparency allowing insurers to understand the types of cases they win as well as lose
• Distributor analysis – being able to understand how much of an advisor’s business is being placed with the insurer and the business mix they are submitting
• Benchmarking – understanding data in real-time is a benefit as insurers can react earlier to trends and behaviors allowing them to reassess and adjust their strategic direction if necessary

Let’s be clear, we’re not saying the Protection Platform is the magic bullet for you that means insurers don’t need to augment with other data sources, but what we are saying is that the Platform insight does give them the ability to make better data-driven decisions and through this, we expect tailored customer journeys that frankly, our customers now expect, especially given the amazing work that other sectors have done in this space.

If you’d like more information on the Protection Platform and to get a different perspective, contact me at Nilesh.Patel@underwriteme.co.uk