The Digital Health Insurance for Germany is picking up speed – some people will think that this was now high time. However, the fact that the digital transformation in this area has progressed more slowly than in other industries is due to a variety of reasons in Digitalization of insurance.
Sweeping changes for the sake of Digitalization of insurance
Digitization is changing a lot of things in life: including the way the world is seen or how people work together, as well as how challenges are analyzed and solved. Digitization encompasses every aspect of life – both the private and professional sectors.
Although digitization leaves nothing untouched, numerous industries have not taken advantage of the new opportunities for a long time – in fact, they have not even noticed them in the long run. This also includes the insurance industry: the digitization of insurance has been a topic for many years, but unfortunately it has hardly been understood here that this is a great opportunity for companies – but this is now changing.
Digitized insurance – what’s in store?
How can we actually imagine the so-called “digitalization of insurance”? How can not only the distributors, but also their insurers position themselves digitally in the future?
However, there is already good news here: The necessary shift toward digitization has now been recognized by the insurance industry. Studies have already shown that 60 percent of German citizens prefer the Internet for interacting with their insurance companies. The industry has also responded to this – in insurance companies, the topic has now reached the higher echelons.
Digitization equals improved customer experience
On the one hand, this includes products tailored to the customer, which are based on the customer’s risks. Matching the product with its risk is no longer a “one-way street”: insurance products are geared to the risks – this is not done the other way around.
The purpose behind this is that risks have also changed considerably today and are still in the process of change: The digital age leads to “new claims” as well as to completely new insurance cases. Climate change also contributes to this.
In addition, smooth communication between customers and insurance companies is required in this day and age. However, if this does not work, frustration increases for all parties involved: For example, non-synchronized communication channels and faulty interfaces can lead to poor data quality.
Possible negative consequences of poor quality: Customers are asked to repeat their information – this in turn leads to process interruptions and also to annoyingly longer processing times. Disputes and annoyance at the communication level are accordingly preprogrammed here.
Focus on customer needs
Digitization brings with it a number of advantages – and not just the positive aspect of cost reduction. The insurance industry is now driven by completely different motivations.
Another motivation is improving customer service on the part of the insurance industry. However, customer expectations are also changing: Accordingly, the industry must think from the user’s perspective for every new project as well as for every new rate and further steps. Only in this way can digitization develop its own powerful force, which has always been attributed to it.
The trend for the wishes and needs of users and customers to set the actual direction has long been evident in other areas – including the retail and financial sectors. Customers have extremely positive experiences with online banking or e-commerce, for example, and consequently these are also transferred to the other areas – the same level of service is then also expected from the insurance industry.
