Mobile that Matters

Most insurance industry executives intrinsically understand that mobile technology is an important piece of the future for their companies. Mobile opens up new avenues of interaction with customers, as well as adding a new dimension to internal operations.

It's not taking a great effort to introduce mobile devices and apps to your company, either — employees, agents and partners are already bringing their own devices into the environment, and customers are light years ahead of their carriers in terms of adoption and usage.

The challenge for insurers, then, is being able to measure what's working and what isn’t working with mobile engagements. To illuminate this critical aspect of mobile technology, EY recently published a report exploring the various metrics insurers need to put in place to track the profitability and value of mobile engagements.

“Insurers’ ROI depends on their ability to perform environment analysis — i.e., analyze the mobile activity of current customers to determine the level of feature adoption and use among target policyholders,” the EY report advises. “Viewing the mobile channel as a long-term investment will require tracking results, such as customer experience, multichannel servicing enablement, customer retention, demand generation from younger customers and claims processing costs.”

A key strategy for tracking mobile returns, EY suggests, is looking at how customers change their interactions with the company once mobile capabilities are added. EY says that insurance industry managers need to “identify active mobile customers and their behavioral changes across a range of metrics, such as call center interactions, spending patterns and electronic bill paying. Behavior should be measured before and after adoption, rather than simply comparing mobile users with customers who do not use any mobile insurance function. It is important to measure how these initiatives have changed behavior, not simply how mobile insurance users differ from other customers.”

Click here for 14 key metrics EY says need to be captured to understand if a mobile outreach effort is having a positive impact.

Joe McKendrick is an author, consultant, blogger and frequent INN contributor specializing in information technology.

Readers are encouraged to respond to Joe using the “Add Your Comments” box below. He can also be reached at joe@mckendrickresearch.com.

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