In refining their brand image, insurers often undergo a debate between the virtues of being "high touch" vs. "high tech." The truth is an effective brand needs to encompass both characteristics. "That dichotomy is the biggest fallacy to hit the industry in the last couple of years," claims Matthew Josefowicz, managing director of Celent's Insurance Group. "Some carriers had the view if you were high touch, technology was less important because you were relying on high-value people to deliver service."

However, if those people don't have the systems and information to support good service, "they're not delivering value," Josefowicz adds. "You need to support those people with the analytics, workflow systems, access to data, and other tools to do their jobs most effectively."

"Technology should be an enabler of whatever brand experience [insurers] want to provide," indicates Harley Manning, vice president and research director of customer experience at Forrester Research. "Get your intended brand attributes on a single sheet of paper, then go try to achieve user goals on your Web site, IVR system, kiosk, or any customer-facing system, and see whether those systems support the attributes or, at least, avoid contradicting them. You'll quickly realize where your technology helps or hurts you."