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Technology creates new opportunities for claims leaders to improve customer outcomes—and digital trust makes them possible.

As I’ve discussed over the course of this blog series, technology provides tremendous opportunities to insurers to improve claims outcomes, enhance customer service and offer living services like risk coaching. At the same time, many of these opportunities rely upon customers sharing their personal data—and insurers must not only protect that data (data security) but also use it appropriately (data ethics).

In other words, technology creates new opportunities and trust makes them possible. To build trust for a competitive advantage, insurers should:

• Elevate trust to a C-suite imperative. A Chief Trust Officer or other senior leader must provide direction and oversight.
• Rewrite the trust equation. Trust goes beyond firewalls and encryption, and extends far beyond the IT department—it is a reflection of an organization’s character.
• Focus on the customer. To build trust and relationships, insurers must give customers something in return for their personal data.
• Embed trust into the fabric of the organization. From the inception of an idea to its execution, insurers must keep data security and digital trust at the center of their focus.
• Make trust a cornerstone of partnership models. If customers distrust one company within an ecosystem, they distrust all companies within it. Select partners that share your commitment to digital trust.

To learn more:

• Read Building Digital Trust: The role of data ethics in the digital age, by Steven Tiell and Lisa O’Connor
• Read Trust in the Digital Age, by Rachel Barton, Marc Bender and Fabrice Marque
• Email me to discuss how Accenture can help you establish digital trust to create a competitive advantage.