Insurers should build personalisation around trust, clarity and customer value, rather than simply using data and technology to tailor products, executives said during a panel discussion at InsureTech Connect Asia in Singapore.
Discussing the “last mile” of personalisation—the customer touchpoints where insurers deliver on their promises and build trust—panellists said data collection should be treated as a visible value exchange, not a one-way requirement.
Fang Zhong, Executive Director of Research and Marketing at Reinsurance Group of America, said that RGA research in China found that 99% of customers were willing to share annual health checkup reports in exchange for faster, clearer underwriting outcomes.
“Make the offerings attractive and easy,” she said. “In China, annual health check-ups are very common… they [customers] need to see the value, making that sharing attractive.”
Trust remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges because many customers still view providing detailed health information as intrusive, time-consuming or potentially disadvantageous.
Zhong said insurers may view it as a risk assessment process, but customers can experience it as a vulnerable moment, especially when asked to disclose unhealthy habits, illnesses or mental health conditions.
Customer dissatisfaction can also arise when products are designed around internal mechanics rather than real customer needs. Zhong pointed to critical illness products, which have traditionally been structured around diagnosis-based payouts. But customers facing illnesses such as cancer often think in terms of treatment, recovery and ongoing support, creating a gap between product design and lived experience.
“When customers think about cancer, they’re thinking about the multiple courses of treatment and the long recovery journey. When they see the needs and the benefits are misaligned, the dissatisfaction happens,” Zhong added.
Making disclosures easier
Executives said better communication can help bridge that gap and encourage customers to share information more openly.
Clinton Brown, General Manager for APAC at customer communications tech provider Smart Communications, said customers are more willing to share information when insurers can improve their experience, whether through faster claims processing, fewer forms, clearer communication, or better service.
“If you can frame that data collection for your customer … and you’re able to refine either the experience they get, the service they get from you, or perhaps making sure that it occurs on the right channel … you’re actually building trust as you do that,” he said.
Even small changes in communication can make a change. Zhong cited RGA behavioural research in the UK and Australia showing that simplified mental health questions, combined with wording that normalised mental health treatment, increased customers’ willingness to disclose sensitive conditions.
The way insurers collect information can also influence disclosure. RGA research found respondents were more comfortable sharing sensitive health information with an insurance chatbot than with a person, Zhong said.
“Technology creates the emotional distance to feel more comfortable sharing,” she added.
Focus on relevance, not more data
Building trust also requires using data more thoughtfully rather than simply collecting more of it, executives said.
Brown said insurers operating in emerging or rural markets can still tailor customer experiences using cohort-level insights, geographic context, local weather, nearby infrastructure and demographic information.
“The insurer with the most data doesn’t necessarily win,” he said. “It’s a common misconception that you need to implement a ton of data systems, and you need AI, and you need all these analytics,” he said.
Instead, insurers should focus on removing friction from existing customer journeys before pursuing increasingly sophisticated personalisation. Brown said this means addressing basic pain points such as repeated information requests, fragmented communications and unclear next steps, particularly during claims.
“The goal is not to have more communication,” he said. “It’s actually to have less uncertainty in the process.”
More importantly, the “last mile” should be understood more broadly as the full experience customers have with an insurer.
Sachin Dutta, Chief Operating Officer & Director of Technology at Canara HSBC Life Insurance, said customer-centricity should become an organisational value rather than simply another business objective, extending across technology, finance, operations and service functions instead of remaining confined to sales or product development.
“It’s all about how the entire ecosystem operates in a particular rhythm,” Dutta said.
Reinsurers also have a role in shaping those customer touchpoints, despite not usually dealing directly with policyholders, Zhong said. By using customer research, reinsurers can help insurers redesign products, underwriting journeys and communication processes around customer expectations.
“We don’t see the customers,” Zhong said. “But actually, every touch point we have as [an] industry where the customer… is that last-mile moment to create a long-lasting relationship and trust.”
