Millennials are Mad at the Insurance Industry

There’s no shortage of business articles focused on Millennial consumers, but they don’t all agree. Some have painted Millennials as famous for putting off major life decisions; others label them high achievers.

Regardless, Millennials will soon be the largest consumer for every industry, making them the biggest target in almost any market. The only problem this presents is that they aren’t too pleased with the insurance industry— and the reason may be how companies engage them.

J.D. Power and Associates recently ran a study focused on Millennial consumer sentiment surrounding homeowner and renter’s insurance. The study focused on five attitudinal factors: interaction, policy offerings, price, billing and payment, and claims.

“Millennials don’t dig our pitch— or at least our style of interaction.”

Companies across the insurance industry varied in terms of results, but one result was perfectly clear: Gen Y ranked insurance companies lower across all five factors than did their Baby Boomer counterparts. The lowest factor? You guessed it: Interaction.

Takeaways from the study suggest two highly pivotal points for insurance agencies to understand immediately. The first is that Gen Y doesn’t dig our pitch— or at least our style of interaction. The first insurance providers to adjust to the needs of the demographic may be able to clean up.

The second takeaway is that engaging these consumers with likable, worthwhile interaction may just change the game. While that may appear a bit abstract at face value, insurance companies are now in position to take the next step by investigating preferred interaction options tailored to the Millennial generation.

Our hunch? We’re guessing Gen Y is looking for something less formal, more relationship-oriented, digital-friendly, omni-channel and personalized. Email, apps, online chat, mobile-optimized environments and even social media may serve as a positive way to “reach out and touch point” these consumers like never before. If so, insurance providers may discover that investing in technology and investing in marketing may just turn out to be synonymous.

“Insurance agents should improve both personal skills and technological capabilities.”

Yet perhaps the interaction factor uncovered something else entirely (or in addition): a decline in understanding of how to “code-switch” to meet the needs of specific customers. Agents may just not speak the language of Millennials as well as they do older demographics. If that’s the case, web usability will fall back into a tie or even a second place need in comparison to standard person-to-person interaction. To be safe, insurance agents would be best served to improve both personal skills and technological capabilities if they want to cash in on the fastest growing consumer segment on the market. It may just make or break their next decades of business.