It’s not unusual to find the denizens of the Web world using the Internet to compare prices on everything from travel to hospitality to loans, and now, more so, insurance products. What was traditionally thought of as an impregnable domain, owing to the requirement for 'human' contact, is finally yielding to the meteoric scope that the Internet offers.

Think about it… would you think of buying an insurance product on the Internet a decade ago? You would rather call up an agent and discuss your premium and compare / contrast it across various options. But the advent of the Internet has changed that considerably. The latest calculators and analysis tools help you sit within the confines of wherever you are and decide upon an insurance product. At a recent Roundtable by Post magazine, we discussed how the Internet has come to the forefront, especially with General Insurance (GI) products. The amount of business at stake is forcing providers to reverse engineer their products and re-assess their rating structures.

A leading mutual life insurer has recently launched a term-life product online as it finds life products easier to construct and distribute using the online channel. I find that on the term insurance side, it would be difficult to use the online channel, as it is a bit non-standard. A humble beginning by putting life products on the Internet on a self-serve basis, will surely pave the path for further complicated GI products to go online too.

Buy versus Research
While the Internet surely tends to excite the buyer by offering ready answers to all his / her questions, it still has a long way to go as the decider or deal-clincher. It is a great research tool… price comparisons, product updates, company analysis et al… but the percentage of people who will actually click the ‘Buy’ button is still low. This is where the need for a multi-channel strategy stems. According to one of the panelists at the Roundtable, in personal lines, 80%-90% of business will be sourced via the Internet. But, there will always be an imminent need ─ during the decision to buy, process a claim, adjustment or renewal ─ to reach out to the contact center. The importance of the ‘human’ touch can never be undermined in this industry.

Opening New Doors
E-marketing, paid searches and banner advertising may be the known doors that the Internet opens for prospective sellers. But what is recently taking the industry by storm is a new door that the Internet has opened called ‘Social Media’. Social media has fast gained the reputation of being an effective ‘pull’ strategy. It offers companies an exciting way of engaging with their customers, understanding their pain points and needs more easily than before. Companies have tried to innovatively combine the reach of social media with brand recall techniques. For instance, Comparethemeerkat.com is a classic example of how Comparethemarket.com (a Website that helps users compare car insurance) has placed its brand ambassador, Alesander the Meerkat, on all the social networking sites to create brand recall. Gio Compario, the opera singer, on Gocompare.com is another example of a social media ambassador.

Easy or tough ─ you cannot refuse to jump on to the Internet bandwagon! That is where the future of the insurance industry lies. The Internet will soon take center stage as the primary medium of product development with its ability to generate instant customer feedback. And may be years down the line, it will also evolve to be the primary buying mechanism!

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