Insurance has always been a business built on trust, but the way trust is earned and maintained is evolving in this digital age. Today’s policyholders live fully digital lives. They expect their insurers to operate in the same way, seamlessly, conveniently, and across every channel they already use.
According to Capgemini, 75% of customers say they would switch to another provider if it offered a better customer experience. At the same time, 66% of insurers report they are already leveraging digital technology to improve customer experiences.
The urgency is clear. Poor customer experiences are no longer just an inconvenience; they represent a significant barrier to purchasing insurance and a major contributor to churn.
Despite the effort carriers are putting into digital technology, there is still a huge gap between what the insured customer feels from a satisfaction standpoint and what the carrier is delivering.
Closing this gap is not only possible, it is profitable and popular with customers. Insurers that get digital experiences right see measurable gains: J.D. Power reports higher satisfaction among customers who use digital tools to file claims. McKinsey research shows a 20% uplift in employee satisfaction after customer-centric transformations, and carriers that prioritize customer experience achieve 4 percentage points higher revenue growth and a 7-10% gain in total shareholder return.
A connected digital journey, from policy to payment, is no longer just theoretical. It is available today, powered by the Guidewire Marketplace and its more than 220 technology partners. Every app, integration, and workflow listed on the Marketplace is rigorously validated and security-reviewed, ensuring that insurers can reduce their total cost of ownership by up to 30% while accelerating innovation. Three of those partners, Smart Communications, Docusign, and One Inc, joined us in a recent webinar (The Customer-First Insurer) to demonstrate exactly how carriers can transform the most important customer touchpoints.
Start By Communicating with Clarity and Consistency
Eileen Potter, Vice President of Vertical Marketing for Insurance at Smart Communications, discussed research that her firm commissions annually, surveying insurance consumers and business leaders worldwide to uncover what drives policyholders to buy or renew. The findings are striking: 67% percent of customers said they are likely to switch away from a company if communications do not meet expectations. For younger customers, the numbers are even higher: 73% of Gen Z and 78% of Millennials said they would make the switch.
Potter stressed that the implications are clear. Customers expect convenience, personalization, and speed in every interaction, whether it involves policy issuance, billing, or claims. To deliver this, carriers must modernize their communications platforms. “An excellent customer experience really starts with excellent internal processes,” she noted. With SmartCOMM for Guidewire InsuranceSuite, carriers can automatically generate compliant documents, tailor communications to any channel (print, email, SMS text) and give internal teams pre-approved templates that ensure consistency and brand integrity.
She pointed to Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance as an example of what happens when communications are modernized. By consolidating from five policy administration tools to one, Mountain West reduced reliance on IT, lowered processing and mailing costs, and reduced operational expenses. They also cut template maintenance time by 95% while adding new digital communication channels. Mountain West CIO, Tim Hays, summarized the impact: “In addition to the operational efficiencies gained through implementation and standardization, this technology enables us to provide an exceptional customer experience that’s consistent across communications, which helps us build trust with our policyholders.”
Build Trust by Digitizing Agreements
If communication is the foundation of customer experience, agreements are the moments that matter most. That was the message from Scott Harrison, Vice President of ISV Partnerships at Docusign. He argued that insurers win or lose customer trust at key inflection points: issuing a policy, handling a claim, or processing a cancellation. Yet many carriers still manage these interactions with paper-based processes, creating unnecessary friction.
Docusign’s partnership with Guidewire integrates agreement automation directly into Guidewire PolicyCenter and Guidewire ClaimCenter, allowing underwriters, agents, and claims teams to send, sign, and manage agreements without leaving their core systems. The benefits are tangible: insurers save an average of $36 per paper document replaced and improve turnaround times by 40%. Security and compliance are embedded at the enterprise level.
Harrison also highlighted Mountain West Farm Bureau as an example of what’s possible when agreements are digitized. Within six months of embedding Docusign into their Guidewire systems, Mountain West achieved 90% straight-through processing. Eighty percent of signatures were collected within five minutes, and policy changes that once took days could now be completed in minutes. “Some of the results we’ve seen with Guidewire and Docusign are still a little mind-blowing,” CIO Tim Hays explained. The case illustrates how digitizing agreements improves efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction simultaneously.
Delivering the Payments Customers Expect
The final step in the digitally connected journey is payments, the moment when insurers deliver on their promise. Sarah Owen, Chief Product Officer at One Inc, emphasized that payments are not simply a back-office function; they are among the most visible and emotional touchpoints for consumers in the insurance lifecycle.
Owen cited both industry research and a One Inc. sponsored study of 400 claimants. The findings show that 95% of consumers rank payment speed as the top factor in satisfaction. Choice comes next: customers who can select how they receive funds are more loyal, while those denied choice are more likely to churn. Eighty-five percent of consumers prefer digital payment options, and only 4% still prefer paper checks. The economics are equally clear: processing a paper check costs seventy times more than a digital transaction.
With One Inc’s PremiumPay and ClaimsPay integrated into Guidewire InsuranceSuite and InsuranceNow, carriers can offer fast, frictionless payments across a wide range of methods, including direct deposit, debit or credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, ACH, or even paper checks if requested. Customers can also select their preferred communication channel, whether mobile, online, IVR, or SMS text. Compliance and fraud protection are built in, as One Inc ensures PCI standards are met and paper check exposure is minimized.
The Power of a Connected Ecosystem
Taken together, these stories demonstrate the reality and possibility of the connected digital journey. Customer-first experiences are no longer abstract goals for the future; they are available today through validated integrations that deliver measurable business outcomes.
The true power of these solutions is not just in what each one delivers individually, but in how they come together inside Guidewire’s core systems. Guidewire Marketplace is the hub that makes this possible, connecting validated partner apps and workflows directly into trusted core processes. By embedding communications (Smart Communications), agreements (Docusign), and payments (One Inc) directly into trusted workflows, insurers remove friction, increase speed, and make teams more efficient and effective. The result is an end-to-end journey that feels seamless for customers and scalable for carriers.
This was the central takeaway from the webinar: when insurers operate from one connected ecosystem, they not only cut cost and complexity but also unlock exponential benefits in customer satisfaction, employee productivity, and business performance. The technology is available today, the integrations are proven, and the results are already visible in leading carriers like Mountain West and Western National.
In a digital-first world, trust will be built one seamless experience at a time.
To explore the capabilities of the Guidewire Marketplace, visit the website to discover how it drives innovation and delivers solutions for insurers.