At a time when uncertainty dominates, digitization is a staple. It is rewriting our lives inside and outside the home and revolutionizing business models, creating new opportunities for insurance as well, as Marco Buccigrossi, Direct Business Director at Verti, tells in this article
What we are experiencing is an absolutely unprecedented 2020. A year that keeps tripping over itself, testing us day by day. In the spring, with the arrival of the pandemic, many of our certainties were shattered and our resilient spirit was tested. Today, with winter upon us and the arrival of the second wave, question marks and concerns about the future remain. Yet today we have a new certainty to rely on: digital transformation, a real culture that is contributing and will increasingly contribute to redefining our lives and rebuilding our "new normal."
Digital is not an option
Digital technology was dialoguing with our daily lives even before the coronavirus, certainly. What is surprising is the speed with which, in recent months, it has rewritten our habits and opened our minds. Today, digitization is no longer an option; it is the new norm for working, playing, studying and interacting with the world. And the amount of innovations introduced into our lives in recent months proves it: we have irreversibly changed our behaviors, espoused new views and matured new needs.
Our future is today
When the scale of priorities turns upside down and people change their mindsets, companies can only adapt and transform themselves into the interlocutors consumers want to have. In recent months, many companies are reinventing themselves. A study by IT giant IBM found that six out of 10 organizations, from traditional companies to startups, are reconstituting their business models to make them more digital. Going digital again is now a priority for everyone if you don't want to run the risk of being "cut off." This is the right time to restart and rethink; our future will depend on the actions we are able to put into practice now. In this scenario, insurance must necessarily pick up the pace.
Toward the insurance companies of tomorrow
For the insurance industry to build a business model based on new digital technologies is crucial not only to respond to emerging consumer needs, but also to attract audience segments that, due to income and culture, had remained excluded. Digitization is a great opportunity to facilitate the construction of a personalized and flexible offering in line with people's increasingly fluid needs. According to the research "Millennials and Insurance: what changes after Covid-19," conducted by the Italian Insurtech Association, in Italy the average penetration for motor liability coverage in the 23-38 year old audience is 65 percent, while it is absolutely marginal in the other insurance branches. A question arises: why do young people have so little dialogue with insurance companies? The reason, highlighted by the research, lies in dissatisfaction with the characteristics of traditional offerings, which are judged to be not very immediate. And, in fact, we see how on-demand digital policies are instead attracting a growing number of people, precisely because of their flexibility. A trend also confirmed by our VertiMovers, - the Observatory on Emerging Trends in Italian Society - whose data speak for themselves: 76 percent of users prefer the web channel, as opposed to the telephone channel, to request a quote. And it is not hard to imagine why, considering that from our site it takes only 15 seconds to fulfill this request. The challenge, then, will be to make products increasingly intuitive and personalized, integrate insurtech technologies into management models, and focus on increasingly agile and immediate communication and distribution models.
Verti is there.
Disintermediation, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and simple and immediate customer experience-these are the key words of the insurance world. And at Verti we know this well, because they are the principles that have always inspired us. While others, a few months ago, changed course to meet the needs of the "new normal" triggered by the pandemic, we - who are born digital - did not need to do so, because our business model already had a digital DNA. We simply picked up the pace and continued doing what we have always done: playing ahead, being ahead of the curve and in #MOV1MENTO. Every day what guides us are people's needs and market evolutions, combined with the right amount of intuition and practicality. This is the only way we can find the answers our customers expect from us.