Trust in the digital world

Trust is slow to build, yet easy to lose. Even more so in the digital world where the lack of in-person interactions can hinder our ability to build trust.

In recent years, as we continue to spend even more time in the digital world, trust is a growing concern. A 2021 survey by helpnetsecurity.com found that 45% of consumers in Asia said trust online had declined.

This makes complete sense as we see daily headlines on data privacy, cybercrime, and data breaches. Despite this, we continue to engage online, out of convenience and increasingly, out of necessity. We provide our financial information, health records, and personal information on websites and social media, and through instant messaging apps.

There is clearly an inherent need for trust in the digital world, but it is a highly complex and multi-layered issue that we, collectively, have a responsibility to actively work on.  And for insurers, we likely need to double-up our efforts, after all we are in the business of trust.

The drivers of trust

In the expanding, evolving realm of digital and online interactions, where brand presence is predominantly virtual, how do insurers replicate the personal interaction and physical experience that is intrinsic to the customer journey that so many insurance agents have cultivated over years?

Think about transparency, security, reliability, and closeness. These are the prerequisites of digital trust that I have seen shared broadly by scientists, psychologists, and experts.

Insurers must guarantee these conditions throughout their operations, from the moment a customer starts researching, to the purchase of a policy and then onto the post-purchase service including claims processing. Being transparent about the underwriting process, providing simple and secure products, and offering a hybrid digital-human ‘always on’ customer experience can support a trusting environment.

Technology can also enable digital trust. Innovation such as real-time claims processing could provide a transparent and simple customer journey and promote trust.

Improving the customer journey

Another key objective in developing digital trust is bringing value to our customers. Trust will come from building something that is relevant and useful for them.

Offering innovative insurance solutions that are available at the right time, when a customer is ready to transact, provide a seamless customer experience.

Technology can also help us to match needs with policies. Using data-driven insights and digital tools, we can provide a personalized fit. Ultimately our goal is to improve accessibility to insurance products, which closes the protection gap for consumers.

Building an ecosystem of trust

To deliver what a customer needs, we must come to terms with the fact that we may not have all the solutions under one roof. This is where partnerships offer value, to build out ecosystems that offer a holistic approach that benefit all parties. By combining our expertise in underwriting and our customer focused solutions, we are building ecosystems that result in great user experiences.  

Overall, consumers want to trust, and we, as insurers, have a huge opportunity to be leaders in digital trust, but only if we continue to transform the industry, supported by technology, collaboration, and a desire to put the customer at the heart of everything we do.  

It takes time to build digital trust, and it doesn’t mean that with time we will automatically be trusted. We must stay vigilant and ensure that we are constantly learning, evolving, taking a customer-first/digital-first approach to protecting our partners and customers in order to build and maintain trust in the digital world.