Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
    • Moody's - Climate Risk Insurers series
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Sections
  • General Features

Common threads: Linking and matching to achieve a single customer view

Open-access content Tuesday 9th August 2022

James Burton discusses the importance of the single customer view, and how insurance providers can leverage the customer data they already hold through linking and matching technology

heah

Separated database infrastructures, high levels of switching, and merger and acquisition activity have made customer data management a major challenge for the insurance market. As insurance providers bring increasing attention to renewal price movement, the urgency to find a solution to this challenge has risen.

Insurance providers need to understand their existing customers’ risk to a greater degree so they can deliver fair pricing and outcomes at renewal. In essence, they need to create a single customer view based on all the previous touchpoints and history they have had with that customer.

Disparate data

By pulling together data from quotes, renewals, claims and marketing, insurance providers can build a comprehensive and accurate representation of a customer’s identity, wherever they are in their dealings with the brand. It also means a provider can use a consistent methodology for standardising and matching customer data across multiple databases. Perhaps most importantly, it can help determine that the right product is being offered for the risk presented at renewal, and at the right price.

The problem is that integrating data for consistent use across the business can be complex. Consumer data can end up being stored in disparate databases, where it may become outdated, incorrect and inconsistent. Individuals may appear multiple times across separate customer databases within the same insurance group, with no link being made between records.

Linking the data becomes even more of a challenge when factoring in address changes, name changes or input errors. Aside from the negative impact it has on customer service, data inaccuracy can lead to inaccurate pricing at renewal and a lack of understanding of the best product for the customer’s needs. It can also create the risk of fraud, leading to wasted marketing budgets and increased operational costs, as well as lost opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.

Solving the challenge of linking and matching customer data to create a single customer view in the insurance market comes down to using insurance specific data, analytics skills and technology.

Putting it all together

Patented linking and clustering methods can now help insurance providers to link all their data assets together. This means one ‘true’ record can be created for a customer using a unique identifier, giving an insurance provider a consolidated view of its customer based on every contact or policy it has had with that person and creating the foundation for all future dealings with them. It means that when it comes to enriching the data using external datasets, this can be done with the confidence that the core customer data is accurate. The picture of the individual’s risk can then be enhanced as more data is accumulated.

Linking and matching works by finding common threads between records in order to match up disparate data. The process pulls on a wide range of external datasets, including public records and insurance policy history data gathered from across the market. Records with commonalities are linked together and assigned the same unique identifier. This process can be done in batch form for all existing customer records and at the point of quote so that new customers are also assigned a unique identifier.

Marketing, customer services, pricing, underwriting, portfolio management and claims can all benefit. If they consolidate details about a policyholder, insurance providers can see all points of their relationship with that person and thus provide more relevant and customised products and services. Fundamentally, it can support accurate pricing based on an accurate understanding of an individual’s overall risk, as well as their assets for new business and, more pertinently, renewal.

In addition, when existing customers are approaching policy renewal, some may be shopping around and requesting new business quotes from their current provider; in these cases, the unique identifier can flag these customers to support pricing consistency.

Insurance providers are under pressure to ensure they are using the data they already hold and have access to the information they need to deliver fair pricing and outcomes for customers. The single customer view can provide the foundation for building a clearer, more informed picture of the customer to help ensure the product and price are appropriate for their needs.

James Burton is senior director of product management at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Insurance, UK & I

Image credit | Shutterstock

Filed in
General Features

You might also like...

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Calling all GI Actuaries looking to move into contracting

England, London
£700 - £1000 per day
Reference
146169

A chance to gain capital modelling experience.

London, England
£70000 - £110000 per annum
Reference
146168

Capital Contractor GI

England, London
£700 - £1000 per day
Reference
146166
See all jobs »
 
 

Today's top reads

 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2023 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ