The global outlook for 2023 can easily be described as seismic. Economies, headwinds, uncertainty, geopolitical stressors – the challenges are significant and complex to overcome.
In Africa, however, complexity comes standard. Legacy infrastructure, complex historic challenges, and issues around reliable energy and political stability have long been part of the African conversation. And yet the continent is poised on the cusp of seismic change of its own.
A report from Endeavor Nigeria found that the ecosystem within Africa is at an inflection point. Here, as McKinsey points out, the digital economy is approaching a period of rapid growth that will deliver a positive impact across multiple touchpoints, particularly in the fintech sector.
While companies have identified that Africa is the last growth frontier, it’s equally important that this growth is balanced by one of the most important considerations – people. For companies, particularly those embarking into the markets with insurance and fintech solutions, stepping into Africa by eating up the smaller companies already in the region, one of the key growth considerations should be the customer. This is reflected in recent reports that highlight how there is widespread dissatisfaction with services across the insurance industry alongside a growing lack of trust, limited visibility, and a perception of unfairness based on locations and jobs. The result is that more than half of consumers will simply leave after a bad experience, and most aren’t loyal to the company; they’re just hanging on until a better offer comes along.
Customers are more demanding. They expect more value. And they want less complexity. This means that companies cannot stay reliant on tedious manual processes or get stuck in infrastructure that limits their ability to scale effectively. Insurance companies need to satisfy their clients with service that stands out because customer delight is what builds the foundations for success, particularly in challenging economic times. The survey from Wefox above found that people are willing to forgo insurance when times get tough – they would rather take the risk of no insurance than spend money on a service that doesn’t show value.
Three key things
This means that companies wanting to tap into the extraordinary potential of Africa’s growth need to do three key things: stand out from the crowd by delighting their customers, digitise operations and invest into processes that redefine efficiencies.
Actually, both digitisation and process efficiencies tie back to delivering customer service. But they also extend into the optimisation and transformation of the organisation’s overall capabilities. The ability to analyse data and respond positively to customer demands and expectations through the insights provided by the data is invaluable. Together with automation, this functionality can help organisations transform their growth parameters and find fresh opportunities that only digital can deliver.
In fact, one such area that has shown extraordinary growth over the past few years is in embedded insurance. According to Research and Markets, the global embedded insurance market is anticipated to grow at a compounded annual rate of 20.7% from 2022 to 2029. It goes on to underscore how this segment is proving invaluable to insurance firms looking to create new insurance offerings, invest into fresh distribution models and find innovative ways of connecting with customers. Already, these types of embedded insurance solutions have started to pop up around Africa with companies like MTN Group collaborating with leading insurance firms to create smart solutions for a fractured, unbanked and diverse population.
You want to ensure that the channels you use and the approaches you take are highly relevant to your goals
To respond to the requirements of the market, to overcome the technology gaps and communication chasms, and to create truly dynamic processes and interactions, insurance companies need to focus on embedding customised and relevant technology into their systems. They need data, analytics, embedded insurance capabilities, real-time services and the ability to curate customer connections across multiple touchpoints. It’s a digital value chain that has to extend beyond the infrastructure and into engagement with people – and this can be achieved by collaborating with the right partners throughout.
A trusted partner understands how to pull all the disparate threads together to create a digitised solution that’s relevant to your business, because you don’t want to slap solutions onto your business and hope that they’re going to deliver. You want to ensure that the channels you use and the approaches you take are highly relevant to your goals – like WhatsApp as a tool to communicate with people who don’t have e-mail and to submit claims and invoices. Like using artificial intelligence and video technology to resolve claims based on clear evidence, or implementing the right efficiencies and utilities to smooth over the bumps in the road.
Greenraven provides insurance companies of all sizes with the technology, digital innovations and transformative solutions they need to become more efficient and build digital-first companies that can handle the complexities of Africa while capitalising on its growth.
Contact Greenraven at [email protected], visit greenraven.co.za or connect on LinkedIn.
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