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Accelerating Business in Motion
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Mobile devices are swiftly taking over the world. Stam- ford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc.report-ed earlier this year that it expects mobile
phones to overtake PCs as the most common Web-accessible devices worldwide
by 2013. And by 2015, Gartner says that
smartphones will overtake the PC as the
most common primary device for Web
access. Given these stats, insurers should
be cognizant of the way
the wind is blowing when
it comes to developing or
refining their mobile strategies.
Gartner also warns that
this shift means that many
websites will need to be re-formatted or rebuilt. Because mobile device users
typically make fewer
“clicks” on a website than
PC users, any websites not
optimized for smaller screen
formats risk reduced customer interaction and fewer
transactions. This could be a
serious problem for insurers that have finally embraced the Web as a sales, service
and interaction channel.
Given Gartner’s ominous prediction of
lost online customer engagement opportunities, insurers should be looking to
marry their social media and mobility
strategies. With social media’s ability to enable insurers to have direct contact with
their customers, a blending of the two
strategies could negate any potential interaction losses.
Ellen Carney, senior analyst with For-
rester Research, Cambridge, Mass., already
has seen a number of carriers beginning to
merge the two. For example, she says, in-
surers are using Twitter to send weather
alerts, especially recently with Hurricane
Earl, to peoples’ mobile phones.
“Insurers will do this to show consum-
ers that they’re acting as their protectors,”
Carney says. “Another added benefit of
this interaction is if they help people be
safer on the road, they’ll see fewer claims.
We’re going to see more types of user-
friendly applications like this. Insurers rec-
ognize people are tuning into to the news
via Facebook and Twitter, and are going to
take advantage of that on mo-
bile devices.”
Allstate Insurance Co.,
Northbrook, Ill., designed its
mobile application strategy
around extending connectivi-
ty to customers, and deliver-
ing relevant, useful informa-
tion via the mobile device.
Roger Tye, Allstate’s direc-
tor, consumer engagement,
says that the company’s social
media and mobile sides work
very closely together. “It really
just goes back to the consum-
er,” he says. “People are on
Facebook, so we have social
aspects to our mobile apps. We’re very
much thinking of the two as linked. Since
mobile is the way that customers access
the Web, and social is what people are us-
ing when they’re there, it’s now harder to
pull them apart than it is to link them.”
The key for Allstate is making sure it can
connect with existing customers in ways
that are relevant to them. “Life is constant-
ly changing,” Tye explains, “and so too is
the way people interact—it’s changed dra-
matically. [The Nielsen Co.] says that 45%
of people will have smartphones in the
U.S. by Q3 this year. Morgan Stanley says
that by 2014, mobile will eclipse desktop,
so it’s become this new mass medium, and
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we need to be there and have ways to in-
teract with our audience.”
Tye believes insurers shouldn’t worry
about developing apps for mobile use ver-
sus website functionality, and should in-
stead concentrate on giving users as many
capabilities as possible via their mobile de-
vices.
“The phone has become an extension
of the person,” he says. “It’s important to
focus on their ability to get to websites and
mobile-optimized websites.”
Mobile apps also will evolve for carri-
ers’ own needs, specifically, in claims,
which should see development in the year
ahead.
“It’s about extending the use of mobile
devices past just your sales force and get-
ting it more deeply embedded in your
claims operations,” says Karen Pauli-Brad-
shaw, research director, insurance with
Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup. “The
real trend next year will be about not man-
dating the device, but about creating apps
that aren’t device-specific, but device-ag-
nostic. Some forward-thinking carriers are
already doing this, but it’s just starting to
expand and grow.”
However, Forrester’s Carney is as-
tounded that claims adjusters are still not
fully leveraging mobile technologies in
the field. She acknowledges that she has
seen adjusters often use tools that have
the friendliest form factor, such as clip-
boards and paper, and then go back to the
office and use their tablets to do the rest
of the work.
Further, Pauli-Bradshaw notices a disturbing trend among insurers that think
once they develop a claims app for a certain type of tablet, they’re finished. “
Technology is going to be evolving so quickly
that you can’t just look at it on a project
basis—it should be viewed as a strategic
direction for the long haul.” ;
