Property and Casualty Distribution: Services Overview

The P&C insurance landscape is changing—undeniably and fundamentally—as digital channels such as the Internet, mobile and social media jockey for dominance against the traditional agent and broker channels.

Accenture is helping insurers adapt to these new opportunities and challenges with a wide range of services that let carriers improve their multi-channel distribution capabilities and deliver exceptional customer and agent experiences.

The new playbook for growth requires bold moves to reinvent distribution and ignite the growth engines. Accenture believes there are five key actions that insurers must take to create a sustainable advantage in distribution:

• Embrace multiplicity—Allow consumers to interact with you using their preferred channel for each activity.

• Use advanced analytics to determine how to deliver the best offer using the most appropriate channel.

• Deploy mobility for consumers and the sales force.

• Integrate digital marketing, building a deeper understanding of customers and matching them with relevant products and services.

• Create a customer experience that is in line with their expectations and work with agents and brokers to ensure that any hand-off is seamless.

Accenture Distribution Services is built on more than 30 years of experience helping insurance companies achieve exceptional results.

The Accenture Distribution Services offering includes a suite of multi-channel capabilities that deliver exceptional customer and agent experiences that can deliver a 10 percent growth in revenue while simultaneously reducing expenses and improving retention.

Our clients benefit from Accenture’s customized products, services and experiences that deliver effective, measurable digital marketing capabilities, multi-channel mastery and advanced analytical tools.

We help enable greater certainty of outcomes by selling on the basis of quantified, predictable business value and by sharing risk with our clients.

Accenture can deliver:

• Flexible, transparent deal structures
• Deep insurance industry knowledge
• Strong and integrated consulting, systems integration and business process outsourcing (BPO) services as needed

Distribution strategy—This includes the cross-channel customer and agent experience, distribution strategy and management, marketing process optimization, and voice of the customer and agent.

Empowering the agent—In addition to the agent experience, this service encompasses agency and sales strategy; sales process optimization, agency technology, training delivery and outsourcing, agency recruiting, performance consulting and outsourcing, and incentive compensation consulting, technology and outsourcing.

Digital and mobility—The customer and agent experience is enhanced by capitalizing on the Internet, social media and mobility. Digital marketing is optimized, digital channel technology harnessed, and documents and content managed.

Contact center—The focus here is on the operations and service strategy, service process optimization, contact center technology, training delivery and outsourcing, and operations outsourcing – all with the aim of enhancing the customer and agent experience.

Analytics—The latest advances in this field are used to improve customer data management and raise the effectiveness of marketing and distribution.

Core administration—This service includes systems and operations optimization, platform simplification and cloud.

Combined, the Accenture suite of sales and distribution services and tools can help insurers develop deeper and more actionable customer segment understanding that uses an integrated multi-channel distribution strategy and capabilities to drive profitable and sustainable growth.

Customer Centricity - The Key to Differentiation and Growth in the Property and Casualty Insurance Industry - This whitepaper presents the findings of Accenture’s Consumer-Driven Innovation executives survey, with particular reference to property and casualty insurance results.

New Channels Create New Growth Opportunities for Insurers - Accenture surveyed 2500 individuals who had purchased life, home or auto insurance loking for insight into North American insurance consumer behaviors and preferences.

Driving Innovation in Customer Experience for High Performance - Accenture helped an insurer facing customer loyalty challenges that threatened its growth projections, by identifying the causes and improving retention.

Reigniting Business Growth through Relevant Digital Consumer Interactions - Consumers are using the Internet to research and purchase their insurance. This trend provides forward-thinking carriers with tremendous growth opportunities, if they can drive the right consumers to the right offerings.

The Customer Centric Approach - Read how insurers are using CRM to drive organic growth and boost profitability.

Customer Retention in UK General Insurance - Customer retention remains a high priority for UK insurers as customer attrition continues to threaten progress made in this area.

Getting Direct about Direct: Harnessing Web 2.0 Creates a Path to Profitability for Insurers - Now more than ever, insurers are looking for new ways to improve customer acquisition and retention.

Accenture Interactive: Integrating Digital Marketing for Insurers - The digital world offers insurers many ways to reach and serve their customers. Opportunities for innovation will emerge as the number of devices increases and the culture of interactivity grows.

Achieving High Performance in Insurance Through Multi-Channel Distribution - The path to profitable growth in insurance lies in giving customers a consistently exceptional experience. To achieve this, insurers must develop robust capabilities in multi-channel distribution.

Achieving High Performance in Insurance with Social Media - Social media has become an important medium of communication used by a growing number of people opening the door for innovative insurers to benefit.

Accenture Global Multi-Channel Executive Survey 2010 - New research from Accenture clearly indicates that multi-channel distribution is central to the ability of insurers to achieve profitable growth—and, ultimately, high performance—in difficult business conditions.

Achieving High Performance in the Digital World - Continuous change in consumer behavior and the rapid adoption of digital media present new opportunities for insurers. A new ecosystem is emerging with new rules of engagement to serve consumers.

Attracting & Retaining Customers for Life - As customer behaviors and expectations change, successful insurers will change with them. By attracting and retaining customers for the long term, carriers can achieve high performance.

Joining Forces - As insurance companies transform themselves to deliver value to empowered and tech-savvy customers, it is becoming vital for the CIO to collaborate with the marketing department.