Summary
A mobile products distributor in Asia engaged AWS Partner Marsh LLC to secure an extended warranty and device protection scheme to offer consumers to safeguard against unforeseen breakdowns, accidental damage, and theft. One of the key challenges facing the company was minimal visibility on the performance of the existing protection plan. Marsh launched an embedded insurance program built on a cloud server with API connections to the different stakeholders.
This resulted in customers easily purchasing a protection plan, while retailers benefited from an efficient claims process and the distributor gaining visibility on loss mitigation data. By improving the customer journey in the sales and claims process, Marsh’s embedded insurance program provided a new revenue source for the retailer and distributor.
Developing a protection program to offer consumer
The company sells phones and tablets from hundreds of kiosks across Asia, in addition to several flagship stores. The company needed a protection plan to offer to consumers as a means to safeguard their purchased phones, tablets, and other devices against theft, certain kinds of damage, and breakdowns.
The mobile product manufacturer had its own protection plan in place; however, it did not align from a strategic and timing perspective with the distributor’s marketing program. In addition, global supply chain issues with the chips for mobile phones and tablets were placing pressure on sales volume. The distributor decided that owning its own device protection plan would enable it to offer the right products at the right time to its customers. By incorporating embedded insurance, the distributor could expand its customer acquisition strategies and generate additional revenue.
Improving integration between various technology platforms
One of the key challenges facing the company was that the existing protection plan management system was not built on a cloud server. It was having difficulty enabling connections between the platforms of the manufacturer, master dealer, retailers, and insurers.
Marsh developed a plan to integrate the multiple stakeholder platforms. By launching a cloud-based system, Marsh leveraged application programming interfacing (APIs) to connect the various platforms, including a payment gateway. This enabled the program to be scalable, flexible and reusable. Among the benefits, a key standout was enabling the retailers to upload insurance policies quickly and efficiently through mobile phones.
Cutting the wait time for insurance activation
Whether they are students, employees, government workers, or another type of consumer, today’s electronics buyers rely on their devices for everything from staying in touch with family members to conducting business to responding to emergencies. Having a device break, get stolen or otherwise become unavailable can not only cause anxiety, but can mean lost opportunities — or worse.
When customers purchase a protection plan, they don’t expect to wait weeks for it to take effect. And yet, most of the protection schemes offered by the company’s competitors only became active after a cooling-off period — sometimes lasting several weeks — following the purchase of a phone or tablet.
To differentiate the service offering in a competitive market, Marsh was able to reduce this cooling-off period and, in some cases, eliminate it altogether.
Streamlining an inefficient claims process
Streamlining the claims process was an important component of what the company wanted in a protection program. Many times, customers would bring their protection plan-covered devices to a kiosk for repair — only to be told to wait for insurer authorization for the needed repair.
Retailers wanted to satisfy their customers’ desire for speed and immediately carry out repairs at the store or kiosk without contacting an insurer. Marsh was able to arrange a plan under which authorization for preapproved claim limits was agreed upon.
At the same time, Marsh ensured the claims data were tracked and audited under the program, providing the client with reliable information — available on a real-time dashboard —regarding claims severity and frequency for parts, device models, and individual retailers.
Overcoming low demand for device insurance
As kiosks and stores were forced to shut during the COVID-19 pandemic, the uptake of the new program’s device protection schemes was slow at first. Marsh was able to integrate the insurance platform with an online retail space created during the pandemic and to support several social media-based marketing campaigns. This helped boost consumer awareness of the benefits of general device protection insurance and the client’s plan.
Even without the pandemic, sales staff in the kiosks needed to be able to communicate the value proposition for device protection insurance to customers as part of the purchase process. Marsh specialists held regular training workshops — both online and face-to-face — for sales staff on how to pitch the value and benefit of the insurance to customers.
Since then, the client has reported a steady increase in the number of customers purchasing the plans.
Securing results from an embedded insurance program
After listening closely to the company’s needs, Marsh built an embedded insurance program and platform from scratch. Backed by specialist insurers, the device protection insurance is easy to purchase and generally covers the device as soon as the customer completes the purchase.
Retailers appreciate the efficient claims process, while the distributor uses the crucial data provided to improve its loss mitigation strategy. At the same time, the program is generating revenue for both the retailer and the distributor. This is but one way in which Marsh’s specialists fulfil evolving customer demands for more flexible, personalized, and accessible protection.
About Marsh
Marsh is part of Marsh McLennan, the world’s leading insurance broker and risk advisor. Marsh’s Cyber Practice helps corporate and public sector clients navigate an increasingly dynamic environment for cyber risks. We have a deep understanding of cyber risk and insurance issues, having been engaged with cyber insurance since its inception some 25 years ago. We work with clients to analyze their risk exposures and help them implement solutions to address and mitigate the financial impact of a cyber incident.
