Smart Data Usage Helps Slash Insurance Quoting Time

Friday, 6 August 2021, 10:30 am
Press Release: Tower Insurance

14 June 2021

Make insurance quotes as easy and fast as possible: That was the challenge Tower set itself.

To achieve this, Tower has rewired its quoting process for car, house and contents insurance in its mission to provide the easiest, fastest and most accurate quote for Kiwis.

Tower has implemented a new system that automatically pulls information from publicly available sources and pre-populates information that Tower customers have previously provided. It has also taken on board customer feedback and removed some questions that customers find difficult to answer.

The result is Tower needing to ask fewer questions, while still ensuring an easy, fast and accurate quote.

Tower MD Direct, Michelle James, says the business is looking to disrupt its own processes to automate where possible and create a seamless experience for customers.

“For years we’ve taken for granted that we need to ask our customers a lot of questions to get accurate information when quoting insurance policies. But with so much data now available, we’re changing our processes to make customers’ lives easier with what we aim to be the easiest and fastest quoting experience in market.

Founder of financial advice website Moneyhub, Chris Walsh supports the concept: "The simpler and more transparent buying insurance is, the faster it is to compare the market. Any insurer that can deliver more value to new and existing clients by asking fewer questions is going to likely win and retain clients if the pricing is as attractive as the quoting process.”

Leveraging publicly available data such as information sourced from property data provider CoreLogic, means Tower can plug in data for its customers and shortcut the process for them.

James says, “This is yet another way Tower is using data analytics to improve our core operations and meet the 21st century head-on with customer focussed, digital-first insurance solutions.”

From now, a quote will only take eight questions for a car, nine for a house and seven for a contents insurance policy. In comparison, some of Tower’s biggest competitors run into the double digits across all of these categories.

“The number of questions we’ve been able to cut without compromising on accuracy is world leading. For example, in the UK there are still insurance companies asking as many as 61 questions for a home policy quote. Simply put, Kiwis don’t have time for that,” says James.

“We still have a terrific NZ based team available on the phone for customers who want advice or who have more complicated needs, but with more than 60% of new policy sales quoted online, we’re making the experience as easy as possible for customers,” she says.

Tower will keep improving its quote system by adding more data sources in future and aims to reduce the question set further while maintaining its underwriting requirements.

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