What to know about experimentation in the insurance sector with Direct Line Group
Every industry faces their own set of challenges when it comes to experimentation.
For those in highly regulated industries like banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), challenges often come in the form of compliance, privacy regulations, and legacy systems.
We sat down with Richard Carter, Customer Data & Interactions Manager at Direct Line Group (DLG) and Sarah Cridland, Lead Optimization Strategist at REO to learn how DLG overhauled their digital customer experiences and improved their experimentation operations.
Below are seven key points to keep in mind when it comes to experimentation in regulatory-bound industries like insurance.
1Compliance and regulation will shape how you experiment
Compliance and regulation often leads to a shift in priorities for those in insurance when it comes to how and when to experiment.
According to Forrester, 30% of insurers say that compliance is one of the top challenges that prevents them from using data to create great customer experiences.
Richard notes that regulation often requires experimentation teams to get creative with their testing, while remaining compliant.
Despite being a potential challenge, he maintains that compliance and regulation needs to be at the center of all of your experimentation activities.
2Overcoming legacy systems is essential
Mature businesses often come with legacy systems that can be difficult to maneuver.
Challenges can range from back-end data to the customer data strategy to being unable to meet the demands of new technology.
Overcoming these legacy systems and seeking out new technology when needed is essential to reaching your testing goals and creating a sophisticated experimentation program.
For Richard and the team at DLG, this realization came when their existing systems couldn’t handle their dynamic content and deliver upon what they needed.
This is what drove them to introduce Kameleoon into their tech stack and enabled them to reach their experimentation goals.
See how Kameleoon enables financial institutions to deliver better digital experiences.
3Being user-centric is key
Changes in consumer demand is forcing the insurance sector to undergo a digital transformation.
Even so, Forrester reported that nearly 60% of users are not satisfied with how insurers are serving digital experiences.
Richard noticed over the last couple of years that more and more customers wanted to interact with them online, as opposed to in call centers or more manual methods as had previously been commonplace.
This forced them to think about the online customer journey and create an experience that truly aligned with what their users wanted.
He maintains that in everything that you’re doing, you need to put the users at the center of the experience, even if it means making significant changes.
4You’re often optimizing an experience users don’t want to have
The reality of working in insurance is most of your customers are having experiences that they don’t necessarily want to have.
Richard gives the example of purchasing motor insurance. Auto insurance is a legal obligation, rather than a desire. For most people, it’s about simply going through the motions.
Optimizing these journeys then becomes about making sure people are having a good experience, finding the information that they need, and feeling empowered to make decisions on their own.
In these instances, optimization comes down to creating an easy and accessible experience where everyone has equal, or just as much ability, to navigate these journeys as anyone else.
5Insurance companies lag behind in experimentation because they don’t know where to start
According to Forrester, 40% of insurers collected customer experience data from digital interactions. Of that 40% however, only 54% acted on it to improve customers’ digital experience.
That means nearly half of insurers are collecting data without doing anything with it.
Richard suggests this may be because they don’t know where to start. There are a number of barriers to entry that insurers may face when starting out with experimentation, from incorrect configuration to unreliable data.
But once the systems are in place, then the problem becomes figuring out what to use and where to begin.
Richard suggests looking at the size of the audience and the value against them. If you are sophisticated in the way that you can capture or identify that value then that’s the best place to start.
6Creating an experimentation culture comes down to mindset
Creating a culture of experimentation is not always easy.
Over the years, DLG has managed to successfully create a culture at their organization where experimentation can flourish.
This means:
- Sharing insights and learning from other’s results
- Communicating openly about blockers or challenges
- Encouraging learning and removing the fear of failure
Ultimately, a culture of experimentation is created through a change in mindset - from viewing A/B testing as a thing that takes up too much time, to something that will enable your team to be more agile in the long run.
7Experimentation can be the answer to changing world situations
The insurance sector has seen its fair share of challenges in the last couple of years, from the pandemic to the economic downturn.
Richard recalls experimentation stopping almost completely when the pandemic hit nearly three years ago. Now, however, he says that experimentation is the way to optimize your efforts despite whatever challenge the world throws at you.
By doubling down on testing and improving its customer experience, DLG is able to capture feedback, act on it, and make things easier for its customers.
There are many potential challenges the insurance sector faces when looking to adopt experimentation.
In this digital age however, it is absolutely necessary to keep up with consumer demand.
Ready to book a demo? Reach out to a member of our team today.
