Building a digital-first insurance provider

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McMatt

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#237858 21-Jun-2018 09:50

Hi guys,

As mentioned in my intro post on these forums, loooong time lurker, reasonably new poster!

I joined a start up last year (Cove Insurance) which has been working for close to 18 months on building a new insurance option for New Zealanders. We are up against all the big names you are no doubt familiar with; State, Tower, AMI, Youi etc etc

Our team is taking a digital-first approach to our service, with the goal of making insurance simple & understandable (while still providing great coverage thanks to our recently announced arrangement with Lloyd's of London).

We are in private beta at the moment, but would love to extend the invite to Geekzoners. Our service is currently accessible via a Facebook Messenger based chatbot, and from within Messenger you can fully manage your insurance (e.g. get a car insurance quote, purchase the policy, edit your details, cancel the policy etc).

If you don't need to buy insurance, we'd still love to hear your feedback. You can get all the way to the payment screen, then stop.

Things I'd be keen to know are whether you found the process easy? Did you like the quote you got? What suggestions do you have on how we could improve? You can let me know below, via email, or if you're in Auckland swing buy our Takapuna office and coffee is on me. I just want to ensure we are building something Kiwis will love

There is an early access tab on our website....just mention your from Geekzone and I'll make sure I get you an invite in the next week or two. We will be launching the web version of the service soon for people that don't have Messenger.

Cheers,

Matt

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#2041595 21-Jun-2018 11:30

I tried, but it wouldn't even let me request an invite - "One or more fields have an error. Please check and try again."

But no clue as to what that error might be, or which field it was in, or how to fix it.

McMatt

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#2041599 21-Jun-2018 11:35

Thanks JoJo2 - I got your request, and looking into the form right now!

michaelmurfy

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#2041616 21-Jun-2018 11:42

Well I requested access to the beta (twice actually) because it didn't ask me for anything else apart from my email. Look for the beta signup from an email address at murfy.co.nz :)

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McMatt

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#2041619 21-Jun-2018 11:49

Cheers Michael - you must have caught me just as I was updating the form! I got your submission

Bookmarked your ISP guide too...Sparks been way too slow for me recently.

mrdrifter

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#2041623 21-Jun-2018 11:53

I would give it a go, but need the non-facebook option. I'm assuming you are trying to do something like Lemonade in the US?

McMatt

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#2041626 21-Jun-2018 12:01

What Lemonade is doing is great. There are a handful of international tech companies in the insurance scene now with Lemonade probably being the most well known, but also Jetty, Trov, Huddle etc. Are you in the industry? Not too many Kiwis have heard of Lemonade unless your in the industry or read up on Techcrunch / Wired etc

The insurance industry seems to have been left behind when it comes to innovation, so it's good to see it being shaken up a little.

I'll let the devs know to keep them working hard on the non-Facebook version

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MikeAqua

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#2041640 21-Jun-2018 12:10

A bit more feedback I would never, ever apply for anything remotely financial via a social media platform and in particular via Facebook. Soooo many abuses of privacy.

You guys don't appear to be offering life insurance yet, but imagine for example some of the medical questions asked in a life insurance application.

I do like the move to digital, but getting privacy right is essential.

Mike

McMatt

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#2041646 21-Jun-2018 12:15

Thanks for the feedback MikeAqua. We've had a close look at privacy, and early on we made the decision to bypass Facebook for much of the "sensitive" questions. This includes payment details.

We'll keep working hard on ensuring we are getting privacy right

MikeAqua

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#2041669 21-Jun-2018 13:16

Will you keep free offering free vehicle glass extension in your policy and does it apply to cars with cameras, sensors etc in their windscreen?

Mike

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#2041673 21-Jun-2018 13:25

Digital first... I've got family in the insurance game.

Honestly, major culture change required to do this imo at the higher level.

Certainly seems like a good option if you can pull it off. Will poke about ;)

McMatt:

Bookmarked your ISP guide too...Sparks been way too slow for me recently.

That will very quickly derail the thread, I'd recommend a chat if things are seeming sluggish :)

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#2041723 21-Jun-2018 14:23

Very cool. I thought of Lemonade too, so it's great something like this is potentially coming to the New Zealand insurance space too. There's some pretty cool fintech startups in New Zealand. Access to financial advice is a big problem in NZ and anything that can make the process easier has to be a good thing.

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McMatt

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#2041726 21-Jun-2018 14:28

Sharesies seem to be doing great - love all their work! Hopefully they can continue making investing accessible & understandable, and we can work towards making insurance friendlier.

Stu1

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#2041750 21-Jun-2018 14:59

On the site be great to have up front what type of insurance you provide. It's not obvious unless you scroll to the bottom and it says car and phone? . I really want a digital platform that shows me all the insurance options in one place so I can compare policies but for home, content s and car. Most insurance is already online so unless you are able to provide better quotes than multi discount policies may be hard to survive for example if I took car insurance from YOUI then yes my car is cheaper but I would lose my multi discount bonus so worse off overall.

KiwiSurfer

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#2042716 23-Jun-2018 00:38

Hiya, very brave to set up a new insurance company. Not an easy industry to be involved in especially when earthquakes and the like makes life difficult for even the large established providers.

To be honest the first thing on my mind when it comes to choosing an insurance provider is basically "Will they pay out my claims?". I generally ask around and see which companies good at paying out and which aren't. Personally I'm with Southern Cross for health because in all the years my entire family have been with them, they have paid every single claim without issue. With AMI for my car as friends have told me good stuff about them—and in fact they have turned out to be pretty good when I've had to make claims. Vero have been hopeless in my experience.

Tech like chat bots and the like sound good in thery. Though I'm not sure if I'd jump to the new guy on the block just for that. I typically have infrequent contact with my insurance companies so it's not a big deal if I have to get in touch with them the old fashioned way. And even then both Southern Cross and AMI have pretty decent apps and websites so has been pretty straightforward making claims and the like online. Generally Southern Cross just pays the claim, while AMI will get in touch via email which is convenient for me.

I strongly echo the comment above about Facebook. I would never dream of doing serious dealings with a company via Facebook.

Give me (1) good reputation for processing claims in a timely manner and (2) quick communication via traditional means. Price is also a factor but I generally try and balance price against reputation for paying out on claims rather than just going for the cheapest.

Best of luck. I've signed up for early access (james at pole dot net dot nz) so I can have a look and see how it all works and hopefully get a look at the fine print to compare with my current provider to see what the level of cover is like.

McMatt

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#2043373 25-Jun-2018 08:44

Hi James,

Thanks for the comments. Definitely not an easy industry to be in. The team here has grown to 16 staff at the moment, and combined with our board, have over 100 years experience in the industry in New Zealand.

Good comment on not just going for the cheapest. This is something we found in our consumer testing panels. People want the best value, not just the cheapest, and the best value takes into account much of what you mentioned.

I won't go into the details here, but I'm confident we'll tick the boxes for your other requirements too (will they pay out my claims, in a timely manner, with quick communication via traditional means). I'll look into how we can showcase that we can do this, with solid evidence, on our website.

Regards,
Matt

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