Insurance-Canada.ca - Where Insurance & Technology Meet

Mobile Usage & Sophistication Rising; Banks Are Taking Positions; What is Your Strategy?

Use of mobile technology for increasingly sophisticated tasks is on an upward trajectory.  Insurance professionals are participating in the uptake.  A recent report suggests that banks are offering mobile applications with transactions, adding credibility to the channel.  So, the question to you is, as an insurance professional, what is your organization’s mobile strategy?

An Insurance-Canada.ca survey in July found that 80% of respondents (insurance professionals) are using smartphones for business.  Mail is the most common application, but mapping and GPS functions are also high on the list.

A recent report from Ispos indicates that 12% of on-line Canadians have conducted banking using mobile devices at some point in the previous 3 months.  This is an increase of 50% from the 2011 report.

Ipsos’ Senior Vice President Catherine Dawson says this has wider implications for the channel, commenting, ““This growth in mobile and online banking may be fueled at least in part by an increasing sense of confidence and security in online and mobile transactions”.  The study presents data supporting this, 87% of Canadians surveyed “are now confident that Canadian financial services industry can ensure the security and privacy of their information”.  This is up from 77% in 2008.

There are numerous surveys indicating that mobile device use is growing (including the Ipsos research and the Insurance-Canada.ca survey).  eMarketer reports that advertisers are taking advantage of this, quoting another Ipsos study which found that “43% of (US) smartphone owners used their device to search in response to television ads at least monthly. Nearly as many, 40%, searched in response to ads they saw in stores.”

So, where is our industry in this?   We have blogged on some Canadian Mobile initiatives, and we are confident that others are underway.  There are opportunities for insurers to use mobile payments in claims situations.

What we would like to see is some innovative marketing ideas for using mobile – and especially its location awareness – to drive leads or support customer engagement.

What are your thoughts?  Leave us a comment below.  We’re listening.