Insurance Journal has an article on State Farm’s recently-announced “3.0” iteration of their Drive Safe and Save mobile app, which features immediate driver scoring on each journey, powered by Cambridge Mobile Telematics technology. The article emphasizes the UBI side of the offering, but perhaps the best part of this program is the continual and repeated customer engagement.
Any insurer is happy to get more and better risk-scoring data, but in the world of telematics and IoT, insurers can actually get more data than they can meaningfully use. Many insurers are still at the stage of ingesting a single risk score, and the granularity of “this driver uses their cell phone” or “this driver brakes too hard” is probably not going to move numbers. Faster driving improvement through more immediate feedback is certainly useful, and insurers should be happy that they’re helping people be safer while also improving their risk profiles.
But really, the biggest value from a program like this is that people pick up their phone and turn on the insurer’s app every time they drive. For many policyholders, that will be every day, often more than once. That’s an incredible customer engagement opportunity. Insurers should seize the chance to have regular, positive interactions with their customers. It’s hard to put numbers on that impact, but then again, insurers have never really had an opportunity like this.
Telematics is beginning to move beyond UBI and programs like this one have the technological muscle to do more than just give discounts to good drivers. Insurers should continue to push forward with what they can do (we’re seeing activity around claims, for example) while keeping in mind that the entire telematics offering has to be wrapped in a customer engagement package that’s compelling. It’s the overall experience that’s going to keep policyholders coming back.
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