We are linking customer-satisfaction improvement with business impact through this willingness to recommend in two ways. The first, of course: once a customer becomes loyal, he or she tends to retain his or her policies with us. The second way: through new promoters, we can gain more new customers. In many cases, we are also observing cost reduction, because the solutions we are offering to our customers remove some steps from their journeys.

Guidewire Insight
With the influx of newer "consumer-friendly" entrants to the P&C market, customer experience has become a competitive differentiator. Insurers must make customer centricity a priority. German insurer Allianz is learning to view customer journeys from an outside-in perspective. In 70 projects spanning 24 corporate entities in the first year, the effort spawned a rethinking of digital strategy and corporate culture. In this McKinsey Q&A, Firuzan Iscan, head of customer and distribution experience at German insurer Allianz, describes the journey.

How can insurers differentiate in a world where customer engagement is nonexistent? One might think that it would be price. Actually, it is speed. Indeed, I think that the ability to match a specific demand faster than competitors will allow an insurer to win the deal. To do so, they’ll need to support what I call high frequency underwriting in order to have their quote matched with the demand side within milliseconds (faster than competitors’ quotes). Indeed, for the same price, the fastest proposition will win the deal.

Guidewire Insight
Speed is certainly important in today's P&C market, not just in underwriting but throughout the enterprise. P&C insurers have to have the technology, staffing, and capability to adapt and succeed to this changing market and offer business faster. To complicate this more, the rate of change is accelerating. If insurers are on old legacy technologies, they're already behind and it's going to be very hard to catch up and in the future, it's going to be even harder to do so.

The pace of change will accelerate in the years ahead. This begs a question: In this time of accelerating change, what technology is required to ensure that P&C insurers can be successful in the short and long terms? One way to answer this question is to explore the different eras of P&C insurance technology.

Guidewire Insight
There are three eras of P&C insurance technology, and we are at the dawn of the third—the engagement era. While the three eras don't replace each other as they surface, they build on top of each other. In this first of three blogs on the topic, Guidewire's Brian Desmond introduces the engagement era, identifies what it's building upon and explains why insurers should care.