Bengrip’s study reveals that Dutch consumers are open to innovative sales channels for insurance.
In
a market scan Bengrip asked Dutch consumers whether they would consider
an insurance offer from their energy provider. The majority responded
that they would seriously consider such an offer. In a previous study,
the Netherlands was described as a country in which insurance can be
sold through innovative channels. Bengrip wanted to verify this outcome
by testing a concrete example. 73% of the participants confirmed their
interest in an offer made by their electricity company. One of the most
important elements for their consideration is the pricing of the
insurance. Those participants not willing to consider this offer are all
part of the older age categories, suggesting that innovative buying
behavior is age related.
The Netherlands is a very mature insurance country with innovative sales channels. “Together with the UK, Denmark, and Finland, the Dutch have a remarkable tendency to use new sales channels for their insurance needs. They use the Internet quite extensively, but also such players as local retailers and the National Road Service Association. That’s why we wanted to test how far this behaviour can be stretched. With today’s technology all required information can be brought together to build a truly custom-made insurance proposal. And specifically an electricity company can assemble this information and create an efficient offer,” says Joop Korver, Senior Consultant at Bengrip. In the market scan, a case is illustrated to the participants in which an electricity company offers a custom-made private insurance to its clients. To do this the company uses publicly available information together with specific information from its database, such as energy consumption and location. With this information an insurance offer can be created that accounts for many of the clients’ specific needs. 66 participants were asked for their opinion about such an offer. 42% would definitely study this offer, while another 27% would study it if the price was low enough. The pricing, the policy wording, and the ease of the application process are the three most important variables for the participants.
Furthermore, the scan shows that currently half of the participants use Internet to analyze and compare an insurance offer. The traditional insurance agent is still the largest sales channel, but for the younger participants this has been replaced by the direct-writer or the Internet. Bengrip foresees that insurance sales for both individual consumers and small businesses, in countries such as the UK and the Netherlands, will shift from traditional parties to new channels. “Specialized advisers will always provide their added value, but we expect that insurance sales will shift towards efficient and innovative channels,” says Korver.