Millennials Vs Insurance

Let’s face it. Insurance isn’t sexy. It’s not glamorous and, most of the time, it isn’t even interesting. So how can you encourage young people to be interested in insurance?

Though the age cohort depends on what statistician you ask, the term “millennial” usually refers to the generation born sometime in the 80s to early 90s, following Gen X. So basically we’re talking about 20-something and 30-something year olds. Certainly not children or teenagers at this age, but rather adults with less traditional mentalities when it comes to work, life and finances in comparison to the older generation. Millennials are currently the largest generation in history. Not just recent history, but human history. So it’s a rather significant market.

This is the age group that will be starting new businesses and shopping for insurance. This is the age group that are dominating the workforce. These are the newest members of insurance product policy ownership.

Millennials vs Insurance Infographic

<p style="text-align:center;">
<img title="Millennials vs Insurance Infographic" src="https://www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk/wordpress/media/millennials-vs-insurance-infographic.png" alt="Millennials vs Insurance Infographic" />
Infographic by <a title="Ashburnham Insurance Services" href="https://www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk">Ashburnham Insurance</a></p>

Please credit www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk if you wish to use this image on your own blog or website!

Millennials expect everything to be available instantly, at the touch of a screen. They’re not going to wait around for you to call them at your convenience in three days or so. Nor are they going to visit your office as a last resort. With so much choice and high customer service expectations, you have to make yourself available for them and on their terms. Millennials aren’t known for their patience.

Don’t sell them a product or a service; sell them a lifestyle. Paint a picture of how they personally view success and where insurance figures into it to benefit them. Sell insurance as a “lifehack”, revolutionise it as something that will empower them, rather than coercing them into the decision through scaremongering tactics that would have worked before with previous generations. Millennials respond better to the carrot than the stick (or the threat of the stick).

Basically, insurance needs to grow a personality. Thankfully, this does seem to be the growing trend in recent years. No longer faceless, financial entities, insurers are engaging with the new generation through relatable branding.

A study conducted in 2015 on behalf of Pegasystems Inc. polled 1000 UK residents between the age of 18 and 34, asking them rank their preferences when selecting an insurance company.

  • The most important thing for millennials when buying insurance is that they get a response to email enquiries within 24 hours. 46% of those polled agreed that this is important.
  • 42% think it’s important that they are able to speak to somebody either in person or by telephone.
  • 35% think it’s important to be able to access all their insurance information online.
  • Astoundingly, only 8% feel it’s important to get a response to a Tweet.

Dr Paul Redmond, an adviser on the study, and one of the UK’s top generational sociologists commented:

While maybe surprising to insurers, these results confirm much of what we’re discovering about Millennials and the way that they behave. They don’t see themselves as digitally savvy because for them digital and social tools are a given, and it’s clear that a strong bias exists for wanting to deal with actual people. No doubt this explains why Millennials are unconvinced about interacting with insurance providers via social media. Use of social media, even amongst the young, is still primarily for social transactions. Crucially, however, when it comes to making critical financial decisions, social media is still viewed with some suspicion by the very people for whom it has been developed, and insurers will need to bear this in mind.

When asked what influences the purchase of insurance products:

  • 51% use price comparison websites.
  • 48% use online web searches.
  • 27% use word of mouth from friends.
  • 24% use word of mouth from family.

When asked what the major influences are when selecting an insurance brand:

  • 70% rank price.
  • 46% rank reputation.
  • 40% rank ease of purchasing.
  • 16% rank social media reviews.

So it’s obvious that traditional channels shouldn’t be neglected when targeting millennials. And though availability via all channels is important, it would be wrong to assume that millennials will be deterred by the fact that you don’t have an Instagram account or a mobile app.

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