Whether companies adopt them or not, there is a need to understand emerging technologies, not only to be able to adopt them if needed, but also to understand how customer expectations are being shaped by those technologies. This ever-changing landscape will require companies to be nimble, flexible, adaptable – and consumer centric.

“When you have the customer in the centre, it’s good for your business,” says senior vice president and chief information officer from Economical  Insurance, Tatjana Lalkovic. Even if the company is trying to solve a regulatory problem, she says solving it in a way that helps the customer is a way of thinking which needs to be built into a company’s culture for optimal results.

A different solution and better solution 

“Everyone should know that you start with the customer, but do you practice that every day?” she asked those gathered for a recent Reuters Events webinar, Insurance 2021: The Customer Behaviour Changes That Will Stay. “If you have the discipline to say, ‘how might that help the customer?’ you will come up with a different solution and a better solution. It needs to be practiced, not only having it as a statement, but really build it into your day-to-day business. It does make a difference.” 

“It doesn’t matter how good a decision is for the business if it deteriorates the customer experience or the customer outcome.” - Nathan LaFayette

“The discipline comes in staying true to that,” agrees senior vice president and chief insurance officer from British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA), Nathan LaFayette. “It doesn’t matter how good a decision is for the business if it deteriorates the customer experience or the customer outcome. If your priority is (to have) the customer always in the middle, it forces you to prioritize the customer interests above everything else. You’re forced to figure out the back end – what does it mean for us? How do we adapt? How do we adjust to deliver this optimal customer outcome? I think some companies do it better than others,” he says adding that some companies also lose their way every now and then before coming back to the discipline.

“I think that guiding principle with the customer in the centre of every diagram, every chart, every PowerPoint slide, the customer’s got to be in the middle. You can’t have the customer off to the side because it means you’re solving the wrong problem.”