Mareike Steingröver: Customer Loyalty in Insurance

Read the transcript below.

MAREIKE STEINGRÖVER: While traditionally, insurance companies have focused more on products, agents, we now see many of them actually taking a more customer-centric approach because they are realizing that they need to listen to and understand the customers in order to be able to accommodate their needs.

So Bain's latest global research of more than 100,000 consumers actually suggests a few themes that insurance companies should keep in mind while making the shift. One is fight to get closer to your customer. We see that the frequency of interactions actually drives customer loyalty. So many insurance companies now start to offer services that go well beyond the traditional insurance coverage in order to have more frequent interactions with their customers.

So for example, offering services around smart home, or building a digital platform to address any need that's related to human health are just two examples of that.

Then, really accelerate the mobile experience. Consumers these days want to use the channel that's most convenient to them in the moment. And so, if you're able to create a really exceptional mobile experience, that also drives customer loyalty.

Another theme is expand your share of wallet. We see a huge desire by consumers to have one primary insurance company, and then have many products with them. And we also know from our research that the more products consumers have with the company, the more loyal they are to that company.

To sum up, while the consumer is sovereign and switching is often only a few clicks away, they don't really want to defect. So if you give them good reasons to stay and offer them convenience, they will be very loyal customers.

Read the Bain Brief: Customer Behavior and Loyalty in Insurance: Global Edition 2016