New rules for customer engagement in the insurance space

THE social ecologist Peter Drucker once famously said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. If you look at the crux of that statement, you'll see that seemingly simple human motivations, desires and behaviour - if not properly understood - can be a powerful force in undermining even the best-laid business plans.

As the life insurance industry innovates, we face this tension. We know that customer expectations and behaviours have already shifted in such a manner that there is no longer loyalty for "transactional" brands.

Compounding this conundrum is the very nature of insurance itself. In order to process a quote, customers face lengthy questionnaires or invasive and time-consuming medical exams. Premiums are priced on the assumption that all individuals within a group will continue to live their lives in the same fashion.