Review: General Insurance
Getting to grips with the latest technoloGI The rate at which technology is changing is truly staggering, the last 20 years has been an era of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’. Things that once seemed revolutionary are now gathering dust in attics. Who can forget how mind-blowing, futuristic and outlandish the original iPhone once seemed. Fast forward to 2019 and, following vast improvements to network infrastructures, the phone is little more than an antiquated brick. Where transferring money once involved taking out your cheque book and waiting days for it to clear, it can now be done instantly at the tap of a finger. Shopping for groceries can be done from the comfort of your home, and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime mean that we can enjoy the latest blockbusters on demand at any time of day. As fantastic as these technological advancements are, you can’t help but wonder what they mean for our work lives and the industries that we work in. Take General Insurance (GI) for instance. In the past, GI has failed to keep up with the rate of technological change. This meant that systems quickly became outdated, clunky and an all-round pain to use. Where technology was getting quicker, GI was in danger of being left in the dark. However, it would appear that ‘these times are a changing’ now… What’s particularly exciting when it comes to GI (yes, you read that correctly – even GI can be exciting sometimes!) is that systems are becoming quicker and quicker. Previously, there was a collective groan at the mention of GI – there’s now a growing curiosity from advisers who are starting to consider the benefits of selling GI. Question sets used to be something of an interrogation, asking every question under the sun before returning a premium. We’re at a point now where fewer and fewer questions are being asked, with GI Providers using various data sources
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MORTGAGE INTRODUCER
David Smith chief innovation officer, Uinsure
APRIL 2019
to feed information into their systems so that advisers no longer need to answer questions around property types, the number of bedrooms and the year of construction. All of this makes for a much, much better user experience and it saves time for both advisers and their clients. And even more excitingly, we’re coming to a point where it won’t be long before premiums can be returned without any questions being asked. Who’d have predicted that 20 years ago? Interestingly, the price comparison websites still use outdated and lengthy question sets that require customers to know the obscurest details about their locks. When you consider the speed of modern GI systems this represents a huge opportunity for advisers who can save their clients a great deal of time and effort by offering home insurance to them. The usability, and slickness, of
modern GI systems is a world apart from what it was in the past too. Many of you will remember the pain of waiting for a price presentation screen to load or the dread of having to go back and edit a quote. Quotation systems are now seamless, with some returning binding premiums in a matter of seconds. How refreshing it is that you can now obtain quotes for home insurance whilst you’re in the room, or on the phone, to your clients without keeping them waiting for minutes on end for the premium to be returned. As someone who’s worked in the technology sector for several years, it’s incredible to see how much it’s changed and to know that there’s still so much more to come. I can promise you that there’s never been a better time to consider adding GI to your product offering – it’s quicker, and easier, to sell than ever before and can add serious value to your business.
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