Using data to sell a “grudge purchase”: ICTC 2018

As brokers are well aware, it can be a challenge selling insurance to customers who typically aren’t excited to buy it.

“As brokers or distributors of insurance, we can forget quickly that we sell a product that a consumer doesn’t necessarily want,” says Sherif Gemayel, president of Calgary-based brokerage Sharp Insurance. “In a lot of cases, it is a grudge purchase.”

Speaking at a panel discussion on customer experience (CX) at Insurance-Canada.ca’s Technology Conference (ICTC), Gemayel shared insights on what Sharp has learned from trying to enhance the customer journey.

“On the claims side, it comes down to speed—creating an experience that’s full and rich to the consumer, but not long and drawn out,” he said.

But it’s not just claims that can be a pain point for consumers: there’s also the quoting process, which has traditionally involved a lengthy list of complicated questions.

“We completely rewrote how we quote the customer, and how we get from beginning to end with as few questions as possible, which is ultimately the dream in our industry,” Gemayel said.

Sharp’s key to cutting down on quoting and claims times has been aggregating data wherever possible to maximize efficiency and minimize pain points.

“It really comes down to data,” Gemayel said. “Whatever we do, if we can’t have something measurable—if there isn’t a data point that we can get out of it—then we’re likely not going to do it.”

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This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.