The rules of engagement have changed with Millennials and for that matter, most other age groups as well.

Traditional approaches to advertising, customer service, as well as insurance underwriting inspections, no longer work and often have negative results.

For the past 60+ years, insurance carriers have sent an inspector to a policyholder’s home or place of business to survey the property, look for defects and submit a report to the underwriter.

Today, what do you think the outcome will be when your policyholder returns home and sees footprints circling their home in the snow, even if the inspector left them a business card in the door?

Give the Customer What They Want

In a recent study done by Aspect titled "Customer, Serve Thy Self: New Study Reveals Millennials' Desire for Self Service, Digital Interaction to Change Customer Service Forever," they concluded that, “73 percent of consumers said that they should have the ability to solve most product and service issues on their own.”

So, are there benefits to using self-service to complete insurance inspections?  Again, Aspect’s study suggests that there is: “65 percent of all generations and 69 percent of Millennials say that they feel really good about both the company and themselves when they are able to answer a question or solve a problem related to that company on their own.”

This aligns with the understanding that millennials value the customer experience more than they value the brand.  So, the shift here is that your customers, and not just millennials, WANT to engage with you in the insurance journey.  They WANT to give you a tour of their property.  They WANT to proactively be involved with the risk management of their property.

Salesforce Agrees with this Conclusion

Salesforce recently published a blog about this topic, "How Millennials Are Redefining Customer Services." In the article the author points out that “compared with previous generations, millennials are more willing to share their personal data with brands to receive better and more personalized service.”

In Michael Jan’s annual report for 2018, State of the Industry, Watershed for Agents, he lists the impacts of millennials on insurance as one of his top four trends for 2018.

In fact, Michael referenced the study from Elite Daily titled The Millennial Consumer.  From the study, they reference the legacy approach to product and the customer journey and where it is headed.

“In our society, companies usually create products and hope that their target market will consume them. When it comes to millennials, they want to be more involved with how products get created. Companies that enable them to be part of the product development process will be more successful.”

Conclusion

60 years ago, and even now, inspections have been completed by an external person who provides that information to the underwriter.  The act of completing the inspection actually creates friction and distance for the customer and distances the agent from them. 

This is hardly an approach that is sustainable in today’s digital world.  Self-service inspections flip this approach on its head by engaging the very willing policyholder into the inspection process. 

So, in a sense, what you have is a take off from the concept of “build it and they will come”.  For many, it is now, “let me build it and I will come!"

Interested how you can offer self-service inspections to your policyholders?

Visit our Onboarding page to learn how carriers and agents can get started with self-service inspections.