Abstract
Though almost every insurer provides an integrated solution for online product research and purchase for existing and potentially new customers, there is still a significant percentage of customers turning into research-shoppers, a practice of using one channel for products search and another for purchase. This trend is visible from the channel usage statistics: according to various studies, while more than half of the customers worldwide use the insurers own website for product research, only a minor percentage of them stays there for purchase purposes. The preferred purchase channel often remains the one that enables personal contact to the sales person. This situation is mostly due to the high complexity of the insurance products. In addition, insurance products belong to the category of experience goods, where the evaluation of the product price and characteristics is difficult and can be based only upon previous experience, e.g. after experiencing a claim. While channel switch might lead to higher profit since multichannel customers were found to spend more, the change of the insurer is a serious threat.
In this paper we address this issue and analyse the research-shopper phenomenon in the insurance industry. We investigate which customer and policy characteristics influence the research-shopping behaviour in terms of duration from research conducted via an online channel to purchase conducted using offline channels. Our empirical study is based on a sample of approximately 10 000 research-shopper customers of a large Swiss insurance company across the three insurance products: motor, household/liability and travel insurance. The obtained results show that there are several customer characteristics that have an effect over the duration to purchase and that these characteristics differ across different products. Our findings are relevant to academics and practitioners alike and are important for multichannel management and better understanding of the customer journey.
Zusammenfassung
Trotz der Tatsache, daß eine Vielzahl der Versicherungsunternehmen heutzutage eine integrierte Lösung für Produktrecherche und -kauf im Internet für ihre Kunden implementiert haben, gibt es eine signifikante Anzahl von Research-Shopping-Kunden. Diese Kunden wählen einen präferierten Kanal für die Produktrecherche und wechseln für den Kauf in einen anderen Kanal. Dieses Verhalten wird durch Zahlen aktueller Multichannel-Studien im Versicherungssektor bekräftigt. Gemäß dieser Studien nutzen etwa die Hälfte aller Versicherungskunden die jederzeit verfügbaren Informationen zu Produkten und Preisen im Internet während der Kaufvorbereitung, jedoch nur ein geringer Anteil nutzt den Online-Kanal für den Abschluß der Police. Der bevorzugte Kanal beim Kauf ist weiterhin die Agentur, welche eine persönliche Interaktion mit dem Versicherungsagenten ermöglicht. Gründe dafür liegen sicher in der hohen Komplexität von Versicherungsprodukten, deren Güte und Wert beim Kauf durch den Kunden nur bei vorhandener Produkterfahrung einschätzbar sind. Des weiteren haben Studien gezeigt, daß die Nutzung multipler Kanäle durch Kunden mit einem erhöhten Umsatz einhergeht. Es besteht dabei jedoch die Gefahr, den Kunden auf dem Weg zwischen Internet und Agentur zu verlieren.
In dieser Studie adressieren wir diesen Sachverhalt und analysieren das Research-Shopping- Verhalten im Versicherungssektor. Genauer untersuchen wir den Einfluß von Kunden- und Policencharakteristika auf die Zeitdauer, welche der Kunde zwischen Online-Recherche und Offline-Kauf auf der Agentur benötigt. Unsere Analyse basiert auf einem Datensatz von ca. 10 000 Research-Shopping-Kunden einer Schweizer Versicherung und beinhaltet die Produkte: Motorfahrzeug-, Hausrat- und Privathaftpflicht- sowie Reiseversicherung. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, welche Charakteristika einen Einfluß auf die Zeitdauer bis zum Kauf haben. Diese variieren je nach Versicherungsprodukt. Unsere Ergebnisse sind gleichermaßen relevant für Forschung und Versicherungsindustrie: Sie geben Ansätze für Verbesserungen im Multichannel-Management und tragen zu einem genaueren Verständnis der Customer-Journey bei.
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Mau, S., Cvijikj, I. & Wagner, J. From research to purchase: an empirical analysis of research-shopping behaviour in the insurance sector. ZVersWiss 104, 573–593 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12297-015-0310-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12297-015-0310-1