“I see the digital revolution as a huge opportunity for Allianz,” said Mascher at the Digital Life Design conference (DLD). “It allows us to combine our global strength and the ability to provide components of insurance and services to consumers who could not have afforded them in the past.”
Mascher explained that the new mobile devices help design insurance components and align the offer to customer needs in real time. While in the past contracts were signed for a year, today it is possible to insure a driver for an hour if he so wishes – for instance if he is about to drive through a dangerous area or plans to travels on a highway.
“How to get to a higher frequency of interaction with customers was always a big challenge for insurers. The digital age has brought us countless opportunities and frequent touch points. Now it is up to us to understand the devices and the customers’ diverse eco-systems, so we can tailor our offer and reach out to them,” said Mascher.
Selling protection: “We need to be particularly careful with private data”
A challenge, according to Mascher, is the internal transformation of the company’s organization required by digitalization. Furthermore, data protection is extremely important; not only in Europe, where regulation is stricter.
“As insurers, we are faced with the following paradox: on the one hand, customers want us to know and offer them exactly what they need. For that, we need information,” Mascher explained.” On the other hand, we sell protection, security – and that means being particularly careful with private data. I see it as our task to take this paradox and use it as a foundation for our value proposition to our customers.”
Allianz is a partner of Digital Life Design (DLD), which held its annual conference in Munich from January 18-20. Allianz Board Member and Chief Operating Officer Christof Mascher was invited to join one of its panels to discuss the implications of new customer behavior in the digital age.
