The Solo Buying Experience Invades Insurance

The digital age is in the midst of a "third wave" in which the customer experience is at the center.

Christopher Young described what that third wave means to the insurance industry at the LIMRA Distribution Conference. Young is director of industry strategy for financial services with Adobe.

The third wave to which Young referred was described in Alvin Toffler's book, "The Third Wave," in which he said that human society evolves in waves that stack upon each other. We are in the third wave, which is the computer wave.

There are three waves in the digital age as well, Young said. The first wave was website-centric and the second was channel-centric. The current wave is centered on the customer experience.

In this experience-centric environment, brands must take their online customers on a journey, he said. It's no longer enough to have a website that enables your customers to buy from you.

Instead, a brand must listen to customers, learn as much as possible about them, predict what they are interested in buying, deliver the information they need, and deliver that information across multiple channels within milliseconds.

Adobe surveys show that the insurance industry's top concern regarding the online channel is that information is presented in a way that makes it easy for consumers to understand.

That digital customer journey is becoming more important, Young said, citing research that says 67 percent of the buyer's journey is done online and that 85 percent of consumers will manage their relationships with enterprises without talking to a single person.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at Susan.Rupe@innfeedback.com.

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