Hands up people who love paying for insurance? Look around a sea of humanity and you would no doubt see precisely zero people with their hand in the air at this point…

Life has a tendency of throwing curve balls which can come at you hard and fast and it makes sense to hedge these risks somehow. Insurance does exactly that.

Research carried out by Euler Hermes shows that in 2018, global insurance income (the volume of gross premiums written by insurers) for property-casualty (p&c) and life (without health) reached EUR3655 billion or 5.4% of global output. In plain language, more than 5% of the combined wealth generated by all of humanity is spent on just these types of insurance. Add health insurance to the equation and this figure just skyrockets.

Now I hear you ask “What on earth is p&c insurance”. Well, for those of us who are not studying for Certificate in Insurance (CII) examinations (any of you who are should definitely know the answer!) property-casualty insurance is a broad category of coverage against loss of property, damage, or other liabilities. Casualty insurance includes vehicle insurance, liability insurance and theft insurance. Insurance is therefore a huge market with literally billions of customers globally. As the world develops, so does the insurance world.

Mirroring other industries, an increasing amount of insurance business is now transacted online. Not everything insurance related though is simple and a face-to-face approach will always be required for more complex issues. Running a network of branch offices and/or team of agents in the field is expensive and anything an organisation can do to minimize missed appointments saves a lot of money.

Multiple research studies have found that most missed appointments are caused by nothing more than clients or potential clients simply forgetting about them. Sending reminders by SMS is a fantastically simple means of cutting the number down dramatically, particularly when 2-way SMS is deployed to provide pro-active options to confirm, reschedule or cancel meetings.

Insurance and paperwork tend to go hand in hand and providing unobtrusive ways to collect data benefits all parties: insurance providers receive the detailed information they require rapidly and customers can provide it in an environment they feel comfortable in. A data collection system using SMS as the channel and powered by an AI chatbot is just the thing to do this laborious task.

With such a huge market and a vast number of players to choose from, insurance companies need something eye-catching to get the attention of potential customers. They often spend a fortune on ‘traditional’ advertising (TV and print) but Mitto has powered coordinated marketing approaches of customers in this area using SMS short codes to great effect. Simplicity is key and SMS just works. People feel at ease with it. Comfortable.

We all hope for the best but at the end of the day insurance is there to support us when things go wrong and we need it the most. When people are at their lowest, it is critical that the insurance industry softens these blows as best as they can but it is a difficult path to tread. The companies need to help fast and be on top of situations in an instant. So, there is urgency. There is also need for tact and diplomacy though, so asking often quite painful questions immediately after the impacting situation has to be done with care. Enter stage right, SMS. Its ability to provide a neutral atmosphere people feel secure responding in is clear to see time and again.

Insurance. A funny old game but one which will be with us as long as mankind exists. In 1716 the author Christopher Bullock wrote “It’s impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes…”. We need to add ‘Insurance’ to this as it is most definitely here to stay and there is still plenty of work to do to help this industry better engage with people globally.