The perks and pitfalls of insurers’ direct channels

Perfect driving record? Two-year-old car? No teenagers with learner’s permits at the wheel? You could place that policy in your sleep. Same is true for address and name changes.

Self-serve online systems, on which clients perform their own administrative updates or even buy basic coverage, can free up brokers’ time to meet new clients and work on more complicated policies, says Aviva Canada’s CEO Sharon Ludlow. And if a brokerage isn’t ready to invest in its own self-serve system, an insurer’s system can bridge the gap.

Read more: Ludlow: Aviva changes will help brokers

Algorithms in direct writing platforms are also designed to flag cross-sell opportunities a human broker might not immediately notice. Guidewire, the system Aviva will begin to use in 2016, lets brokers and insurers “have a much better view of what insurance needs [customers] have, what should they have, and where there’s gaps to make sure that those are addressed,” says Ludlow.

So the system could alert a broker when a customer updates her or his address on an auto policy (could be a good time to check in with the customer and make sure their home insurance is up-to-date).

Read more: A difference of opinion on directs

And since Canadians are used to buying groceries, choosing Christmas presents and paying bills online, the insurance industry must “have the system and the availability and the processes there in place to be able to respond to customers’ needs,” says Ludlow.

Self-serve systems allow customers to both pay premiums and weigh options at home, at night, in their pajamas. And that flexibility can help brokers.

“If you are a broker in today’s world, without that facility or without support or resource at that time of night … you may not be providing that customer with the best available experience,” says Ludlow.

Read more: Aviva’s flood insurance is available for Ontario, Alberta clients

She says that once brokers acclimate to this idea, they start seeing the benefits it will bring to them.

Further, she says the customers will know when the situation requires more than a computer.

Customer preference, says Ludlow, extends beyond the time of day they want to think about policies. If a customer is looking to insure a fleet, obviously more complicated than a one-driver car, “it would become obvious to the customer that they will need further expertise,” she says, “and they’ll be able to get that expertise either from Aviva or from a broker.”

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