But that wasn’t true across the board. Younger participants in particular expressed interest in policies in which usage or driver behavior is factored into risk assessment. They also tend to be drawn more to a streamlined user experience, whether online or on their phone.
“As digital natives, it’s our bread and butter to create a delightful user experience and also to have the ability to understand how customers are interacting with our product and to change things fast,” Kashi, of VOOM Insurance, said.
This is true in sales as well as the claims process. Increasingly during the pandemic, legacy insurers and insurtechs have developed technology to expedite and digitize requests for coverage. But many newer companies still need to establish a record of taking care of customers.
“Some of the more advanced insurtechs are definitely pushing the envelope on streamlining the process, and insurers are going to be following their lead,” Friedman said. “Ultimately, ease of purchase and price are very large factors going in, but where the rubber meets the road is going to be what happens when they need you. It comes down to, in a moment that matters, how good was the claims experience? Did they pay? Did they hold back and only give me a partial payment?”
The aversion to newer types of insurance may also have to do with the fact that a large number of policyholders qualify for discounts by bundling their auto insurance with other forms of protection, such as home or life. Unless newer insurance providers, like the VOOMs of the world, are able to expand and offer insurance across multiple sectors, they may struggle to pull a large segment of the market away from legacy providers, Friedman said.