DA: In the increasingly digital-first world of today, customers are expecting tailored information, services, products and experiences that speak specifically to their needs and where they are in their life journeys. This seamless experience hinges on having the right data and analytics.
One of the key challenges faced was maximising our customer data to tailor-fit solutions for customers both online and offline. This required us to find a way to unite customer and prospect data that came from previously disparate online and offline sources to create a simple, usable, and constantly evolving single view of customers (SVC). The SVC provides a comprehensive and holistic representation of each customer and enables us to derive insights to better understand them.
We worked on upgrading our marketing technology capabilities in pursuit of this SVC and enabled its usage across various business channels such as agents, branches (offline), and website/app purchases.
The next big focus leveraging technology is to enable a seamless online-to-offline-to-online (O2O2O) experience for customers using the SVC we have and tools that enhance the customer journey. We are upgrading our capabilities in this area to provide better personalisation and customer service for each customer based on their preferred platform of interaction.
Forging digital partnerships is also another way we are widening our customer data base and ensuring comprehensive data. One such example is our collaboration with Trust Bank Singapore to provide embedded insurance products like family personal accident insurance. We are committed to reimagining insurance at Income Insurance by constantly innovating and adopting new technologies.
How do you see the evolution of marketing technology impacting the way insurance is promoted to potential customers?
DA: The rise of new technologies — IoT, blockchain and AI — are enabling insurers to gain access to massive real-time data, which has a significant impact that stretches across several areas in the business and sales and distribution is one key area.
We have leveraged AI to redesign customer segmentation and proprietary cross-sell and campaign management, leading to substantial financial savings, while reducing turnaround time by 50% and enhancing productivity by about 20%. For example, predictive analytics can potentially identify policyholders who are most likely to lapse their policy, enabling the insurer to proactively offer measures or solutions to keep them engaged, and in turn, drive further business growth.
Going forward, the maturation of AI will result in the development of more sophisticated marketing tools such as chatbots and voice assistants that can provide real-time assistance and policy recommendations. These will facilitate greater personalisation in the way new and existing customers are engaged.
One way we are seeing this play out as a growth area is in embedded insurance which has a much higher frequency of interaction and opportunity to cross-sell. The employment of more sophisticated AI, coupled with hybrid cloud strategies that enable access to the rich, often real-time data partners hold on end customers, will maximise embedded insurance’s potential as customers will be able to access and purchase new products quickly through better streamlined advice and application/onboarding.
However, to truly succeed in today’s complex environment, we must also ensure data transparency and security. Customers must be open and confident to share information, while companies must maintain trust and license to operate. This is why we have developed clear data protection protocol, cybersecurity measures, and embedded a risk-aware culture at the company, leveraging on staff as a defence ecosystem.
