Striking data point from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2015 report
I spoke this morning with an operations executive at a large insurer which distributes personal lines products through independent agents. He said that they are working feverously to deliver digital service tools to the customer service representatives (CSRs) at agents because they know that the average CSR is now 19 to 26 years old. This insurer is transitioning from a telephony-centered approach to one which includes chat, secure messaging, and intelligent avatars in order to meet CSRs' expectations about how service should be done. As any insurer distributing through the independent channel knows, the company that keeps the CSRs happy wins! In our innovation research, we repeatedly see the influence of Millennials’ expectations around the consumer experience, but a data point from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2015 report identifies an equal, if not higher, motivator for change from workers. Millennials now represent the largest percentage of the U.S. workforce. Take a close look at Slide 109. It shows that in 2015, for the first time, Millennials make up 35% of U.S. workers. Gen X and Boomers represent 31% each. The data signals a tipping point and it is pretty clear which way this trend is going to continue. Watch as the buzzword “Worker Experience” is added to the already well-worn “Consumer Experience." For insurers that want to gain an advantage with their own workers, and with their distributors’ CSRs, the field is wide-open. All they need to do is innovate, experiment, put some funds at risk, and transition to digital working.