Pankaj Razdan
As customers prefer instant solutions, digitisation has played a pivotal role. It is also making a noticeable impact in insurance. Embracing technological disruptions has helped companies to reach customers much faster than before, reducing the time frame. The acquisition engine has changed; where the industry which was traditionally going from one to one is now going from one to many, thereby increasing the reach and pace of the business. Reducing points of failure The big difference that digitisation has brought about is reducing the points of failure. In a physical world there are various touch points which involves processes where chances of failure are high—here an error can cost both the company and the customer. A wrong underwriting on life insurance or a wrong policy can cause a lot of trouble. Digitisation and automation has helped companies to directly access customers, eliminate paper work by auto-populating information from Aadhaar and PAN while removing the series of physical touch points thus reducing failures.
Today, counselling of products, purchase, underwriting, servicing and claim settlementare happening digitally. The industry is doing a lot of underwriting looking at Cibil scores, social profile scores, etc., which has allowed insurance companies to expand their underwriting skills. Similarly, most of the claim settlement is happening online. Claims settlement Internationally, claims are being settled within a few days. Against 15 days earlier, now you can settle a claim much faster– that is the experience digitisation is offering customers today.
To address the needs of customers, insurance websites have adopted live chat bots enabling fast and real-time query redressal and assistance. Moreover, purchasing insurance online gives a better value and is cheaper than buying the same product offline. From decision making to purchasing and finally at the time of claims—the digital platform has made the insurance experience instantaneous and hassle-free. Digitisation has helped insurance companies to reach the hinterlands. It is therefore evident why insurance companies today are keeping digitisation at the core of their business strategy.
The writer is MD & CEO, Birla Sun Life Insurance