Growing Customer Loyalty in the light of Digitalization - A study on the Swedish P&C Insurance Industry

Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
Program
Management and economics of innovation (MPMEI), MSc
Publicerad
2018
Författare
Broström, Ellen
Bengtsson, Viktor
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Problem: After a long period of enjoying uncontested customer access, traditional insurers are now facing the threat of new technology driven start-ups that have started to appear in the Swedish insurance industry and that is distorting the competitive landscape. With many market actors believing that digitalization will ultimately change the value creation chain of insurance by enabling new interaction channels, new business processes and new products, it is becoming increasingly important for insurers to facilitate customer loyalty. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the managerial view of what challenges and opportunities digitalization poses on the Swedish insurance companies’ ability to consolidate customer loyalty. Given the results, this study endeavors to propose solutions to Swedish insurers on how to approach the identified challenges. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework first describes the importance of customer loyalty and its implications. This is followed by a description of how to measure customer loyalty, with a focus on various Key Performance Index (KPI). Finally, the theoretical framework describes the use of the eight factors, or “8c’s”, that have an impact on customer loyalty, namely: customization, contact interactivity, cultivation, care, choice, convenience, character and community. Method of data collection: This study is primarily based on ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews with managers from various insurers active on the Swedish market working in customer relations or digitalization. For this purpose, an interview guide was drafted, outlining the main talking points. All interviews were conducted over the phone, save for one face-to-face interview. The primary data was triangulated and contrasted by secondary data collected from various white papers authored by internationally leading management consultant firms. Findings: The findings have been divided into two categories. First, the primary findings from the interviews conducted with managers in Swedish insurance companies. Second, the secondary data collected from consulting white papers that describe the international insurance market and the customer perspective. Both categories present the respective sources’ take on how customer loyalty is defined and how they measure it. Given their response, the information received was then analyzed and presented according to each of the 8c’s. Conclusion: The results have unveiled a wide spectrum of challenges associated with growing customer loyalty; from the mismatch between the insurers’ definition of customer loyalty and how they measure it, to the current rewarding of disloyalty. An additional significant finding is the urgent need to facilitate trust in the customer-firm relationships in order to increase the customers’ willingness to share their personal data with the insurers.
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Transport , Övrig industriell teknik och ekonomi , Transport , Other industrial engineering and economics
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