In a bid to foster collaboration and discussion within the Nordic marine insurance market, Oslo’s Marine Insurance Nordics event featured key players and thought leaders from the industry. Among the insightful discussions and debates that unfolded during the event was a panel session titled Technology – Making the Best of Things, which delved into the evolving technology landscape shaping the sector in our region.

Moderated by Noria CEO Ronny Reppe, the panel included Ove Jarl Andersen, VP of Digital Customer Offerings at Gard, Nils Arne Fagerli, Head of Specialty at Marsh Norway, and Andy Yeoman, Chief Executive and co-founder at Concirrus.

The industry’s current period of significant technological transformation has prompted insurers and brokers to optimise their systems for maximum cost-effectiveness. One crucial theme that emerged from the discussion was the delicate balance between cooperation and competition in adopting technology to ensure it remains both cost-effective and relevant.

Improving the Customer Journey

One of the focal points of the discussion was enhancing the customer journey through technology. Gard, for instance, revealed plans to launch a new customer portal. Andersen discussed how the challenge lies in presenting this as more than just “new tech”; it should be perceived as an intuitive and user-friendly process, making it more accessible for customers.

“We need to be much more careful in combining technology and the customer journey”, Andersen said. “When we launched our new portal this year, we didn’t focus on it as a new technology, but as a new tool for renewal support.”

He emphasised the importance of maintaining a personal relationship with customers and positioning technology to improve existing processes – keeping in mind that you can’t force customers (many of whom are content with email communication) to adopt a new portal. Data quality was highlighted as a crucial aspect of this integration.

From the broker's perspective, Marsh emphasised the importance of speed in the client’s journey. Client feedback plays a pivotal role in shaping the technology they offer, with a focus on easy access, efficiency and user-interface. To achieve these goals, insurers and brokers must be willing to involve the client in development planning:

“We need a very client-focused approach to the customer journey”, said Fagerli. “[In the past] this has been developed by the technicians … but if we really want to grasp the client journey, we need to ask the client and start the project from the opposite end.”

Concirrus’ perspective centered on the value technology provides to users. Technology is supposed to make life easier, so any solution must provide value for those who use it – just like Google Maps. Self-service is an important offering, but the overarching principle must be to ensure that new technology provides genuine value to customers.

“The first thing we have to do is make the technology something that people want to use”, said Yeoman. “The second thing is … the technology needs to be relevant from an insurance perspective, and the last part is involving the value chain from a data and analytics perspective.”

Self-service portals are a win-win for insurers and their customers. They are valued as a tool to reduce costs, but have also come to be an essential element of the customer experience. 90% of consumers expect an organisation to offer self-service customer support portals.

Many marine insurance companies already offer such self-service portals to their customers, while self-service is more relevant to the insurer in the P&I space. But are these portals sufficiently user-friendly and do they deliver enough value to the end-user?

“We should not only digitise the old processes”, urged Andersen. “We should see how we can utilise technology to create new processes … I would say self-service is a natural development of our industry.”

Striking a Balance

The overarching theme that emerged from the panel discussion was the need to strike a balance between tradition and technology while retaining the focus on adding value to the customer journey. As technological adoption accelerates, the human touch and personal relationships in the industry remain crucial. Insurers and brokers must use technology as a tool to enhance existing processes and relationships rather than replace them.

Learn more about improving the customer journey here.

Source: video recording from The Marine Insurance Nordics

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