Part 1: 10 Big Ideas to Turn Insurance Data into Value in 2022
By Thomas Chesbrough, Cloverleaf EVP
The first idea in this 10-part series is – Embrace Your Data: The First Big Idea to Turn Data into Value Is Not to Run from Or Ignore It.
Tom Redman, Ph.D., “the Data Doc”, authored an article in Harvard Business Review in 2015 that still feels very relevant in the insurance industry. In the article, the Data Doc said, “Most people are uncomfortable with data. Estimates, analytics, and data-driven predictions — they can all be confusing and overwhelming. Some of this discomfort is based on experience. Everyone remembers a time when their data was simply wrong, a prediction was misleading, and the consequences were serious.”
Based on my decades of experience in the insurance industry, and the last few years specifically, I believe this description still fits our industry today. I just came from the first major insurance conference since the pandemic started, and besides the excitement of seeing people, there was a genuine curiosity about what technologies can help carriers, MGAs, and agencies better serve the insured. Amidst this curiosity, there was still the trepidation of opening a can of worms by looking to deeply at internal data and operations, and that perhaps the status quo is enough to survive this current period of transition. This attitude feels akin to the discussion of whether to use all paper processes in a carrier or to move to digital storage and processing. It was shocking how long that transition took, and in some cases is still taking place.
This perspective could be nothing further from what is needed. Over the course of this series, we are going to break down issues related to pricing, sensors and signals, how to couple BI and AI effectively, and many other topics. To grow your carrier, MGA, or agency, this series will be of no benefit if you do not make the honest commitment to stop running from one of the greatest assets in your business, data.
In the next post we are going to delve deep into how you can talk to the insured as a trusted advisor using their data – what specific points could interest them, what could better protect them, what could inspire them to be a customer referral for new business. We will break down how to use data insights as an opening to strengthen customer relationships by providing counsel regarding risk management, coverage levels, and potential new products that may interest your customer base as a whole.
Before we hit that next post, ask yourself, is your company scared, failing, or excelling when it comes to embracing data, data analytics, and BI. Depending on that response, ask yourself how would you feel if one of your favorite intelligent services or products providers had your perspective, would you stay a customer or look for a more innovative alternative?
As you are asking these questions, I would not come to the 100% same conclusion as this 2021 opinion piece in TechCrunch that says you should throw BI out the window because Tableau and Qlik aren’t full platforms but tools with limited relevant functionality. The last part we do agree with at Cloverleaf, as that is why we built our full solution with insurance-specific data insights, and our customers are reaping the benefits and expanding the use of our solution internally.