Connected, innovative customer experiences
The recent Qorus Accenture Awards for Insurance Innovation highlighted the leaders in the global insurance industry. Winners in each category stood up to the stiff competition with initiatives that were not only innovative, but effective and with measurable impact. In this blog series, I’ll dive a little deeper into each category, showing how each winner is on the cutting edge of innovation. Before we begin, you may notice a change – Efma recently changed its name to Qorus to reflect its global importance in the financial services landscape and strengthen its community focus.
It is important to contextualize any discussion of innovation with the forces currently driving the insurance landscape. New emerging risks and a shifting risk landscape pose new risks (environmental and climate change) and opportunities (new cyber and digital economies, new infrastructure) for insurers. The convergence of emerging industries and ecosystems is driving product innovation, new distribution systems, and players. Together, these elements work to expand the value proposition of insurers, from reactive risk compensation to proactive and ongoing risk prevention and mitigation. And the new business environment we’re in, which includes higher inflation rates and a potential recessionary environment, will require innovations to address efficiency/bottom line goals in favor of both insurers and policyholders (the discovery case is a good example).
Moreover, we have seen healthcare become a central trend. Accenture’s 2025 Insurance Revenue Landscape: The Innovation for Resilience Study You expect huge revenue opportunities for insurance companies from health/wellness and life products and services.
In a recent survey, Redefining Wellness: A global survey sheds new light on opportunities for insurersAnd RGAa life and health reinsurer, found that an overwhelming number of insurers – 85% – report making wellness a ‘priority’ and an integral part of the solutions being developed to support clients’ needs, with nearly 3/5 of respondents doing wellness. Integrate wellness into product offerings, including health programs, technologies and tools linked to insurance.
Connected Ecosystems and Markets – AIA (Thailand)
This shift in insurance toward well-being is evident in the 2022 Ecosystems and Connected Markets category, which celebrates innovative practices that lead to new business models, scalable and inclusive value propositions that harness the power of partnerships, platforms and the Internet of Things. category winner, AIA (Thailand) He won the award for his ALive mobile application. This ecosystem of health and wellness offerings aims to put the community at its core by supporting young families and helping them live healthier, longer and better lives.
Prashant AgarwalHead of Digital Marketing, AIA Group, says: “Life and health are two areas in which the business goals of the insurance company and the personal goals of the consumer completely overlap. The healthier you are and the longer you live, the better the insurance company will do as well. Therefore, wellness is the outcome that customers seek, But it’s simply a better business, too.We embrace shared value as a core principle of how we operate, expanding beyond the role of a transactional payer for claims, to a relationship partner for our clients throughout their lives and health journeys.This delivers a triple win: for the client, the AIA and the community, alleviating the burden of Public health crisis for governments.
Product and Service Innovation – Discovery Health
In Product and Service Innovation Award, this year’s winners DiscoveryA life and health insurer from South Africa has demonstrated the power of innovation with the customer at the center through Discovery Hospital at Home Innovation. The product provides an alternative care environment for a range of medical and post-operative conditions that would otherwise require hospitalization.
Dr. Puthu Muzia“Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital healthcare technologies by patients and healthcare providers and driven the spread of virtual/‘at-home’ care delivery,” says Discovery Health’s Head of Occupational Health Risk and Hospital at Home, Discovery Health. Accenture’s 2020 Digital Health Consumer Survey It found that patients have embraced virtual care during the pandemic, with the majority finding virtual care as good or better than in-person care. Almost 60% of these patients would like to use technology and virtual care more in the future. In Discovery, the increasing adoption of digital healthcare has been demonstrated by the exponential increase in the use of telemedicine with logins to Discovery Connected Care increasing by 763% since 2019. This dependence on digital healthcare globally and the need to lessen the burden has been increasingly Drenched healthcare systems, and highlighted the patient’s home as an important and appropriate place for healthcare delivery. This presented a unique opportunity for technology to enable the delivery of safe, effective and comfortable hospital-grade clinical care in a home setting. “
Discovery Health has launched Discovery Hospital at Home to provide an alternative care environment for members diagnosed with COVID-19. More than 100 members of the Discovery Health Medical Scheme have been successfully treated for COVID-19 in their homes during 2021, all with similar or improved levels of clinical outcomes and an improved patient experience. In January 2022, program eligibility criteria were expanded to include all clinically appropriate medical and postoperative conditions that would otherwise require hospitalization for the general ward level of care. The program has been further expanded to ensure nationwide availability of the service and expand capacity to enable admission of up to 750 patients at any one time. This makes it the largest hospital in the home in South Africa.
Muzia adds: “The pandemic has also shown that controllable behaviors lead to outcomes not only for non-communicable diseases but also for communicable diseases, with global research showing that more than 50% of deaths related to COVID-19 are attributed to individuals with three or more comorbidities.So, business models that help make people healthier, while lowering the price of insurance at the same time, have the potential to make a profound contribution to society by building resilience against both non-communicable and communicable diseases and helping individuals and health care systems And the increased availability and adoption of digital healthcare tools is enabling insurers to collect more data and deliver more targeted health interventions than ever before.”
The customer’s need for seamless remote experiences extends far beyond healthcare. The combination of demographic, social and cultural changes, along with greater technological capabilities, is driving insurers to upgrade their insurance solutions to more transparent, personalized, seamless and multi-channel products and services across the board. For example, the use of smart technologies is changing the way the insurance industry handles claims. And that’s not just for the benefit of young, digital-savvy customers. As stated in another Accenture Insurance Global Consumer StudyOlder consumers show an increased preference for digital claims with 71% saying they would like the chat/video insurance claim process to replace the traditional in-office claim process.
Customer Experience – Allianz Partners
This shift comes in 2022 Customer Experience Reimagining Award Winner – Allianz Partners Visi home page. Jose Antonio Moleda“The pandemic has put a strain on homes as they become a school, office, childcare facility, and everything in between,” says Global Head of Product Management and Assistance Innovation at Allianz Partners. In this context, unexpected issues in the home can be particularly stressful. Special: electrics, gas malfunctions, heating breakdowns, etc. At Allianz Partners, we act as guardian angels to protect what really matters, combining intuitive digital solutions with the human touch to build truly exceptional experiences throughout the defining moments in our customers’ lives. Spirit, we created a product that, with remote home assistance, connects customers with a professional claims handler at any time, provides immediate problem diagnosis and professional guidance to fix it promptly when possible, or direct appointment with the appropriate craftsman.”
Visi´Home was launched in July 2021, and has achieved promising results in its first three months. He adds: “First call accuracy rate increased by 18%, while resolution time was significantly reduced, improving the overall customer experience. Clients value convenience the most, right after the immediacy and empathy of our expert claims handlers. Immediately with remote assistance and without literal intervention, customers can have everything. Last but not least, Visi´Home allows a significant reduction in CO2 emissions with 15% avoided interventions which has also been well received by our customers.”
As these three winners for insurance innovation demonstrate, aligning with customer needs and using technology strategically can open up new channels of value. Look out for the next article in the series where I will be discussing other category leaders.
See the full Qorus Accenture Insurance Innovation 2022 list.
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