Innovate on customer centricity
Over the last few years the life insurance industry has seen a number of innovative products being launched.
A contributing factor to this innovativeness is the fact that each one has to be truly customer-centric. However, balance needs to be achieved between profitability and true customer focus.
You can’t genuinely put the customer first at all cost, but you can put them nearly first. Many financial organisations have minimum things they need to do to meet their own needs, but truly customer-centric businesses know they cannot start with their own needs. There is a very subtle difference.
Part of this is to know that you cannot amend a product which is built for one group and try and purpose fit it for another group. Forget about what you have, rather start fresh based on what really customers want.
A new approach
Turning an idea into a reality before you are sure it is any good, stands in the way of true customer centricity. An idea is created into this massive thing with extensive resources poured into it only to find customers don’t buy into it.
Perhaps we should take the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach. My favorite analogy is if the big thing is a car the MVP is a skateboard. An MVP is built in 16 weeks, not 16 months, and repeated in several phases. During the 16 weeks it is tested with customers to get feedback.
The feedback might be that you need to change your skateboard into a scooter. Next you find it is not fast enough so you build a bicycle. After that you realise its very difficult to go uphill so you give it an engine. The design of your car is all along the way based on feedback from clients.
The future of financial services
I foresee great changes in the industry. Innovation is important to achieving customer centricity. Doing what everyone else is doing, but better, is not placing customers first. Innovation of another product with a tweak is not good enough. Innovation is thinking differently and disruptive thinking makes you different. Insurers must not be afraid to be disruptive.
Asking customers will not always give you an answer. This is especially true with innovation because a customer won’t know if they want something if they do not know what it is. Giving customers more simplicity is not reducing how a product works, but increasing their experience with it.
If an experience is intuitive, anyone will tell you it is simpler when it may not necessarily be simpler at all. An example is application forms with many pages of non-applicable information. Imagine if you were asked one question at a time and the next question would depend on your answer. You did not simplify the process, you simplified the experience. There is still a lot to experience dimensions to be changed, engineered and built.
The man for the job
Do not be scared to innovate. Everything you ever invented is just sitting right in front of you and in front of everyone else. No one ever sees it. The world dictates and we fall into patterns without realising it.
Consciously avoid being dictated to. Have little patterns or routines in your life. I do not spend a lot of time at my desk because that is where a lot of my counterparts are and you will end up thinking the same as them. You cannot suddenly decide to be innovative; something triggers a thought in your mind, usually about something which is not working well.
Customer engagement is a focus on the cards for many companies. An app like Google Maps knows when there is a delay on your route before you ask. This is engaging with customers - someone thought about the customer’s experience. This is going to be the next big thing in the industry.
