Human Interaction Is Still Necessary For Health And Term Insurance Purchases, According To A Poll.

To sell their products and provide seamless customer service, health and term insurance providers are turning to technology. However, according to the PolicyX.com Health & Term Technology Survey 2022, insurance purchasers seem to be taking their time adopting new-age technologies that claim to eliminate human interaction and breach of privacy.

And the personal touch is still essential.

The Indian insurance sector has traditionally been dominated by physical touch, with agents playing a vital role in promoting various insurance firms and their programs. Despite increased digitalization in the business, policyholders prefer working with an agent at various phases of insurance payouts, according to a recent poll performed by PolicyX.com, an online insurance aggregator. According to the findings of the survey, the majority of respondents prefer human help at various phases of insurance transactions, such as purchasing and claim to file.

“Insurance…has historically been a push product where agents or advisors have played a vital role in bridging the gap between insurance firms and clients,” said Naval Goel, founder, and CEO of PolicyX. As a result, the human touch will be essential from the perspective of customers, as it is an important commodity for them, and they will require human intervention to ensure that they are investing in the right product plan and convenience in the following process.”

With 1,176 replies, survey respondents comprised current health insurance and term insurance clients.

Take a closer look at the survey results:

Obtaining Insurance: The majority of respondents (65.5 percent) expressed apprehension about purchasing health/term insurance via a website or mobile app without engaging with an agent or representative. Whereas 29.1 percent of respondents feel completely at ease purchasing insurance using a website or mobile app.

Making Claims: The majority of respondents said that they would not be comfortable filing a health or term insurance claim via a website or mobile app without the assistance of an agent. According to the poll, about 67.3 percent of participants rejected to continue without a representation, 21.8 percent agreed to be comfortable with the whole digital transaction, and 10.9 percent were perplexed by their decision.

While insurance firms investigate new approaches and technologies to give clients a streamlined claim experience, policyholders are cautious about claims being reviewed by artificial intelligence (AI) from start to finish. Around 72.7 percent of respondents indicated they would be uneasy if a health/term insurance claim is totally examined by AI instead of an agent, while 23.6 percent said they will be uneasy if a health/term insurance claim is reviewed without any human intervention.

Concerns about privacy vs discounts: Insurance firms have also investigated a trade-off strategy to compel the audience to become more responsive to the new technology that they implement. In return for discounts or coupons, insurance firms need personal information or a monitoring system.

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Participants in the survey are willing to consider it if the insurance company encourages them to share their eating habits and healthy practices in order to monitor data via a website or mobile application in return for premium savings. As many as 36.4 percent of respondents claimed to be OK, 49.1 percent denied any such monitoring, and 14.5 percent seemed unconcerned.

Customers’ opinions on health monitoring equipment such as fitness bands, which gather health-related data and aid inhabit assessment, were also solicited. If offered a lower health insurance premium for the next year, around 21.8 percent of respondents indicated confidence in linking their wristwatch with an insurance website or app to gather their personal data, but 58.2 percent expressed worry about giving any such data. According to the poll, around 20% claimed their decision would be influenced by the affordability of the premium.