7 Tips for Standardising Customer-Centricity Across Global Operations

Managing an extensive multinational insurance portfolio comes with significant challenges. From navigating varying regulations and customer expectations to managing fragmented systems, insurers often face roadblocks that hinder growth and customer satisfaction. However, by focusing on standardisation across systems and processes, insurers can overcome inefficiencies, modernise their core offerings, and deliver personalised customer experiences at scale.

As we explored in our latest whitepaper, here are 7 key tips to help insurers achieve growth through customer-centric standardisation:

1. Simplify and Standardise Operations to Enhance Customer Experience

Fragmented systems and localised processes can create inconsistent customer outcomes. To maintain a high level of service quality across all regions, consolidating systems into a single standardised platform is essential. Doing so allows streamlined operations and ensures alignment with customer-centric goals.

With standardised operations, insurers can:

• Offer consistent services across geographies.

• Reduce bottlenecks caused by outdated or siloed systems.

• Focus more on personalised experiences rather than operational issues.

2. Use Data-Driven Insights to Understand and Meet Customer Needs

Centralisation of data across regions enables better analytical capabilities. A standardised system provides a central repository of insights that equip insurers to proactively address customer needs and preferences.

With clean, accessible data, insurers can:

• Tailor services based on regional and individual customer demands.

• Identify patterns in customer behaviour that fuel growth opportunities.

• Create seamless digital touchpoints across the customer lifecycle.

By focusing on data-informed customer strategies, insurers can demonstrate enhanced personalisation while improving efficiency.

3. Leverage Hyper-Automation to Accelerate Service Delivery

Administrative-heavy tasks can create frustrating delays for customers. Hyper-automation, integrated within a standardised IT infrastructure, accelerates processes and empowers teams to refocus their efforts on delivering enhanced customer value.

AI and automation tools improve:

• Customer onboarding journeys (with far quicker quote to bind times).

• Renewal notifications and follow-ups.

• Claims processing timelines.

These enhancements free teams to focus on high-value relationships and ensure customers receive timely services.

4. Enable Personalised Customer Interactions at Scale

Personalisation continues to be a critical differentiator in retaining customers. A standardised system combined with advanced technology (like INSTANDA) gives insurers the ability to scale tailored interactions without compromising speed or accuracy.

By standardising systems, insurers can:

• Deliver replicable personalised customer journeys across all markets.

• Use AI and machine learning to suggest customised product bundles or coverage enhancements.

• Offer proactive suggestions based on customers' historical behaviour.

For example, cloud-based platforms (INSTANDA being an example) provide a 360-degree customer view, ensuring every touchpoint is rooted in understanding the individual, not just the policy.

5. Modernise Systems Incrementally but Strategically

Full-scale “rip and replace” transformations introduce significant risks and costs. Instead, insurers can opt for incremental modernisation, transitioning offerings to new systems while maintaining operational continuity through strategies like ringfencing.

Benefits of this approach include:

• Mitigating operational disruptions while introducing new capabilities.

• Gradually transitioning customers to improved systems without overwhelming change.

• Spreading transformation costs across manageable phases.

This approach allows insurers to modernise intelligently while focusing on delivering an exceptional customer experience throughout the process.

6. Accelerate Speed to Market with Configurable Solutions

With evolving customer needs and competitive market conditions, insurers must be agile in launching new products. No-code platforms enable rapid product rollout through standardised full configurability.

Configurable platforms reduce development dependencies on engineering teams, empowering business teams to take ownership while expediting delivery.

This helps insurers:

• Reduce product development timelines from months to weeks.

• Seamlessly launch tailored offerings to specific demographics or regions.

• Scale successful products globally without re-engineering systems.

7. Foster a Culture of Agility and Customer-First Thinking

Beyond systems and technology, true transformation requires a cultural shift toward customer-centric design thinking. Insurers should involve teams across geographies and functions in shaping standards that primarily serve customer needs.

Steps to promote adaptability:

• Openly communicate the value of standardisation to all employees and stakeholders.

• Provide training on the use of new systems and their benefits for enhancing customer outcomes (INSTANDA provides Foundational and Advanced technical training in a digital self-paced training environment.)

• Establish feedback loops from employees and customers to consistently improve processes.

A culture that places customers at the heart of processes ensures long-term success and sustained growth.

The Way Forward for Multinational Insurers

Standardisation is not just about streamlining processes or cutting costs. It is a business-critical strategy for driving customer satisfaction, boosting efficiency, and enabling sustainable growth. By prioritising customer-centric technology and practices, insurers can unlock their true potential while delivering exceptional experiences to their clients across the world.

To take the first steps toward crafting a scalable, standardised infrastructure suited to your customers’ needs, download our comprehensive guide today. Learn about best practices, actionable strategies and technologies that will future proof your operations.