NU Online News Service, Nov. 10, 3:06 p.m. EST

Insurers that individually invested $30 million, on average, in analytics and mobile capabilities over the past three years still believe they should be doing more to win over customers, according to a survey by Accenture.

While the majority of insurers (91 percent) believe future growth depends on providing a special customer experience, most of them do not currently see themselves as providing differentiated products and levels of service, according to findings of a global survey of 119 major property and casualty and life insurers in 24 countries.

The survey reveals that more than three-fourths of respondents (79 percent) rate themselves as “average” or “among the weakest in the industry” in their ability to provide customers with multi-channel access to their services—including through mobile devices.

More than two-thirds (70 percent) rate themselves as “average” or “weak” in their ability to tailor products and services to customers' needs; and almost two-thirds (64 percent) gave themselves similar ratings in their ability to provide innovative products and services.

“To pursue profitable growth, insurers need to achieve the kind of differentiation that allows organizations like Apple to charge a premium while building customer loyalty,” says Thomas Meyer, managing director of Accenture's insurance practice for Europe, Africa and Latin America, in a statement. “And as Apple has shown, the answer is consumer-driven innovation that creates an exceptional user experience.”

Also according to the survey:

• More than two-thirds (68 percent) of insurers say they will increase spending on analytics capabilities over the next three years, up from an average of $21 million (per insurer) over the past three years. 
• Half (50 percent) of the respondents leverage data about customers' lifestyles (such as hobbies and interests) to analyze their needs and expectations, and just 37 percent of them leverage usage patterns, such as driving habits and personal needs, to do so.
• Only 16 percent of insurers use external data such as social media “to a great extent” to supplement customer information available internally. 
• Only 15 percent of insurers, on average, provide services geared for mobile devices, such as information about products sold, quotations and account management, while more than half (54 percent) offer these services online.

“To approach the mobile opportunity, insurers should look beyond what their competitors are doing, and evaluate the innovations of other leading ecosystem players—such as banks, mobile operating system vendors and emerging start-ups that reshape entire industries through mobile computing,” says Meyer. “They should also explore the possibilities that a mobile ecosystem offers. By partnering with other key players, such as a bank or online payment service, a retailer, or a telecommunication operator, the insurer becomes part of a mobile initiative that gains wide adoption more quickly, offers greater functionality, and opens doors to large numbers of new customers.”