TransUnion Live: Identifying the Insurance Needs of Today’s Dynamic Consumer

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Well, welcome, everyone to another episode of TransUnion Live on LinkedIn, I'm TransUnion's Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion, and I'm excited to be joined by my esteemed colleagues, Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion and Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion. We're here today to discuss the latest research about how to identify and meet the evolving insurance needs of today's dynamic consumers. Welcome, you two.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Thanks for having us.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Yeah, thank you. Now, before we get started, I always have this quick housekeeping note for the audience. We welcome your questions as long as it's related to today's conversation. Just put it in the comments area below. If they're applicable and we don't get to them today, we'll do our best to respond to you afterwards.

Now, let's get started. First off, I think it's always best to get the lay of the land in these conversations. What do you two mean when you say a consumer data strategy, and why is it important for customer acquisition and retention?

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Thanks, Andrew. Yeah, it's great to be here, so excited to speak with everyone today. I think if we just take a step back and think about what we mean when we say consumer data strategy, we're really just talking about those building blocks of marketing, and marketing strategy and execution. Really helping you to understand if you think about what those building blocks are, understanding your consumer, who they are, and defining that target audience who you want to actually attract to your brand, and then figuring out where you can find them across the ecosystem.

Having a consumer data strategy really helps to enable that, so making sure that you have consumer data, you know where you're going to put it, and how you can leverage it to actually execute those things that I just mentioned. Those are all the things that are really critical for success. Realistically, if you think about the marketing ecosystem and where we are today, there's more channels than ever before for these marketers and for us to engage our consumer.

If you think about streaming TV, or new social media networks, TikTok didn't exist all that long ago, streaming audio, commerce media networks, there's so many ways in which you can engage that consumer. Plus, you've got your own data and your own touch points that you're trying to collect and integrate into that ecosystem. Really, it's about joining all that data together in order to make sure that you can actually know who the consumer is, and where you can actually find them.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Yeah. Michael, do you have anything to add to that?

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah, I do. What we've been seeing from insurance carriers is they're really getting back to the basics with understanding the breadth and the wealth of the data that they have within their own firewalls. To maximize that strategy, they're really joining all their disparate data together to gain a 360 degree view of the consumer. Once they better understand what that consumer looks like, they're able to resolve identities across all of the different contact points within the channels that are within the carriers.

Call center, and emails, and site, they're being able to resolve all that identity across all those different channels, and then ensuring that all the contact points that they have on their CRM across all their different disparate data sources is crucial in getting that core identity correct, so that they're able to target effectively and reach the consumers through whatever piece of channel that they want to reach them.

Third part is really building models using that data and that foundational identity to best match who will get through underwriting. They don't want to target people that they're going to bring in and not pass underwriting. They really want to target the ones that will obviously pass, but then optimize all of their efforts across their marketing plan, but leveraging that core identity at its foundation.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

I really like what you said about 360 view. I think that that's really interesting, Mike, because I feel like that's really what we mean when we say the consumer data strategy.

There's so many more data points than ever before, and being able to create a 360 view of really understanding not just who they are demographically, and keeping that data up to date, but also understanding a little bit more about their psychographics, their need states, all those things that kind of make up the consumer of where they are in their life journey, I think that that's really what you mean when you say a 360 view.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Right, and to your point, Allyson, really reaching them where they're at. If somebody's going to be applying for a mortgage, that could be a good indication of somebody needing a home policy, but it could also be a good precursor to somebody having a need for life insurance, because they're maybe a potential first-time buyer and starting a family.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Now, they're worried. They're worried about all their assets is what you're saying.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Exactly. It really gives them the ability to target and reach that consumer when they need it the most.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah, that's right.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Yeah, there's so much to consider in today's environment, and obviously, consumer data strategy is at the center of that, but with all that data, that vast amounts of data, there's some key challenges that insurers face. Can you get into a little bit of some of those challenges that this vast amount of data presents for insurers?

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah, I think insurers have so much data. There's a ton of data behind their firewalls. There's current customers, there's past quoters, there's lapsed customers, there's customers from sister brands, there's leads, there's prospect files that are licensed, maybe various prospect files licensed, there's affinity partners, and all this data is held in disparate silos.

Bringing all of that together to really understand what that consumer looks like currently, from both an identity perspective, but then also from a life stage perspective, a demographic perspective, and that that person will be able to pass your underwriting criteria, those are all really, really important factors that carriers are considering today. Then once you do get that identity right and you have a better understanding of your consumers, how do you ensure that when I'm calling your call center or visiting your site, that I'm getting the same experience each time?

On top of that, how are you going to proactively target the best lookalikes that you have for your best customers through digital platforms, including social and connected TV partners? There's a lot of challenges that carriers are facing today, but it really, again, just all stems on getting that foundational piece right, joining all this disparate data together, enriching it with great information to help you with your targeting and acquisition efforts, and then effectively reaching them where they are in their journey.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Some of those pain points you're describing, Mike, we oftentimes talk about things like trying to manage duplicate reach. Am I reaching Allyson twice and not realizing it, because I have two different records? Maybe I have my maiden name and I have my married name in the same, and I think they're two different people, but in fact, they're actually one person, or it's incomplete records, where you're using my data from, I used to live in the city, and moved out to the suburbs, so you're using my home address from the city, and not realizing that you're actually hitting a completely different household than my household.

Maybe it's a broken customer journey, like you said, of having that experience with the call center, and not having that consistency, or poor segmentation because you have all this inaccuracy in your data, and you think you're targeting a household of five, and realistically, you're targeting a household of one or two. All that creates a lot of what we call data chaos. I think that phrase is really a helpful one, because it sort of articulates or personifies what this feels like to someone who's in this role, which is it feels like chaos.

It feels like, how do I even attack this problem? It's really, I think, a good way to describe it and the challenges that we're really facing as an ecosystem.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah. To that point, Allyson, just over the summer, I got two insurance offers from the same carrier, from the same affiliate partner, two different offers, one of saving X number and one of saving Y number within the same week, from the same carrier, from the same affiliate. There's really critical needs in getting this right, because that's just not the best experience from my standpoint.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Did you take a picture of that and send it to them? I feel like that happens all the time.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

I know, I know. I did not. Not a bad idea.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Next time.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Yeah. We got into a lot of this already, but let's get into the importance, let's hone in on the importance of getting consumer identity right. Then on a solution side, how would a unified data strategy help?

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah, I think I kind of mentioned this earlier, but the idea of being able to execute best in class marketing, insurers really need to have clarity in terms of who the consumer is, and where they can find them. That's really just that building block, that underpinning of what good marketing looks like. With the right identity data, you can really make sure that you have that data hygiene, so you have accuracy in your data within your CRM, and you can link that to in-market behaviors that help you to trigger whether or not there are certain things that are happening.

I think there's a lot of perception in the ecosystem, for example, that maybe there isn't as much need for accuracy and data because consumers, they were moving a lot during the pre-pandemic, and then as we kind of saw changes in home prices and challenges in the ecosystem, people maybe have stayed put, for example. The reality is, there's actually data from Intel on American lifestyles, which says 20% of consumers actually expect to relocate within the next three years.

In fact, there's actually a lot of consumer life events happening every single day. You really do need to maintain that data, that first party data, your CRM data, and maintain that hygiene, so that you are being able to manage those triggers, those factors that may be indicators, to your point, of needing a new policy. I think it's really important to have those tailored messages, but you can only do that if your data foundation's in order.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah, I agree. I've worked with carriers where we're asking questions about some of the data that they have within their firewalls, and one of the topics is past quoters. Past quoters, they have an abundance of data that could go back five, 10, 15 years that's just sitting there, it's not getting updated. People are moving all the time, people are getting married, changing names, having kids.

Keeping that data current, because you know when they're in market, they quoted with you, they likely went with somebody else because they're not a current customer, but now you know when they could potentially be in market. Perhaps they didn't meet your underwriting criteria at the time, but now perhaps they do. There's really important reasons to keep this information current so that you have the correct and accurate view of the consumer to get them while they're in market.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Right, and it helps you tailor your message. What you're describing too is that if you understand where they are in terms of their maturity and where they might be from a policy standpoint, whether that's needing a policy now or needing a policy in the future, you can tailor your messaging that way.

You might be sort of, so to speak, stoking the fire for the future if you know that they're maybe not ready for a policy now, but you can be sending them halo messaging, perception messaging, brand messaging that helps you stay relevant for the future, favorable towards your brand for when they are ready that you're on the list, the short list of who they want to go to to essentially get a quote and get an understanding of who they would trust to have a policy.

Then at the same time, if you know that they're actually in market right now, then that's a very different message that you want to send them. I think it's about having, like you said, having that data accuracy helps you with your targeting strategy, your segmentation strategy, and then ultimately, who you're going to be messaging to, and about what.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Got it. Now, we got pretty specific about these life events, but I think we can probably drill down maybe a little bit deeper. How can insurers more accurately and easily identify both customers and prospects as those customers and prospects are experiencing major life events? Shopping for a new car, shopping for a mortgage, any more specifics that we can provide?

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah, we've seen carrier clients monitor for changes within the demographic composition of their customer's household. If I'm seeing an age change, whether it's, there is no child zero to two in my household, and now there is, that's a good time for life insurance. If there's a change in somebody going from the 13 to 15 age band to 15 to 17 age band, good time for new auto policy coming up, because there's going to be a new driver in the household.

There's all different triggering type of events and ways that carriers are monitoring for that information, on top of who is actually in market today. Who is applying for an auto loan or lease? Who's applying for a mortgage? It gives you a good opportunity to really understand who's in market, who could potentially be in market, and then chase them effectively.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah, I think one of the things we haven't really talked about is also partnering, being able to talk about taking your own CRM data, and being able to match that to somebody else's CRM data in a way that allows you to also predict some of those life events. For example, I'll give you a personal example.

We have one car in our household, three kids, but we have been renting a car in order to get to hockey tournaments. I think if I was an auto insurance provider, I'd be really curious about who's been renting a car pretty regularly as to maybe they're ready to actually make that purchase and buy that second car.

It's a personal anecdote, but I think it gives you a sense of where not only your own personal data, your own CRM, some of those data demographic triggers that you're sort of talking about, Mike, but being able to connect your CRM data to other data sources too, to be able to get a sense of, "Hey, maybe there's other people out there that would be, like other triggers that are potentially signals in the ecosystem that you might be ready for a policy."

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Wow. Well, props to you, Allyson. Three kids, one car.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

I know, right? We're crazy.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

We just took a quick break just to talk about that, and I have a quick break in the conversation. Just want to remind everyone in the audience if you have any applicable questions, please put them in the comments area and we'll do our best to get to those questions today. Back to today's conversation, we went pretty deep in terms of examples there, but let's get a little bit more technical.

With the rise of privacy regulations and the shift to cloud-based ecosystems, how have these changes impacted insurers' ability to manage data and deliver personalized marketing? What strategies can insurers adopt to remain compliant yet still engage consumers effectively?

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah, I started to touch on this in terms of data sharing, but I think that the really interesting thing that we're seeing from across the ecosystem, not just within our insurance companies, but others as well, that most of our customers are actually maintaining some of their data in a cloud-based ecosystem today. That's becoming more and more common, and that cloud environment can really provide a robust, flexible, and transparent approach to data management.

What I mean by that is being able to see, we're seeing a lot of innovation come through in that world. Being able to access data, whether that's TransUnion data or other data in those cloud environments, to enrich and enhance your CRM data right there in the cloud, without having to move things around, that non-movement of data, it's a really massive step forward in terms of improving and getting an accurate view of the consumer, but without having to really have that data movement.

There's some management of privacy concerns in that world, but also, it gives you a lot of flexibility and scale too. Your teams can access that data in real time to do whatever it is they need to do, whether that's marketing use cases or others.

It really just is creating this single source of truth in the cloud that you can lean on across the company to better get an understanding of your marketing and being able to use that data for adjustable marketing, but also starting to use that data to also connect to other ecosystems without having to move data around. You can share that data from a cloud environment to another partner's cloud environment, for example.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah. I've seen a great majority of our carrier clients move to the cloud. They're slowly building cases for the use of their data within their cloud environment, and they're slowly actually succeeding with getting the data into the cloud environment. However, a great majority, whether they're smaller carriers or the largest carriers, are leveraging cloud environments.

To Allyson's point, I think the importance of being able to facilitate different activation from cloud platforms, or just enriching and appending additional data points to your CRM files within the cloud is a very privacy-friendly way of getting that data within your walls. It sure beats today's day where you're posting it to an SFTP site. It's much more privacy-friendly in that aspect. Most carriers are moving in that direction faster.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

It's also faster, right? It's also faster because you're not having to do that additional step, so you're kind of saving yourself that additional step too, which is great. You're kind of getting a couple benefits out of that.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Anything else? We touched pretty heavily on cloud,. Is there anything on the privacy regulation side that you want to share, or shall we move on there?

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah, I think, not from my side. I think that from a privacy standpoint, there's been a lot of change in the ecosystem, and there's always ongoing change. I think there was a concern of, "Hey, is the cookie going to stay? Is the cookie going to go?" There's constant movement and migration in the ecosystem, and it does require us to stay up to speed on what's happening there, and to make sure that we're supporting our clients, and that our clients have the best information.

I think that's why we talked briefly about the cloud is I think that that's one of the ways that our clients are solving for that. Obviously, the use of things like privacy enhancing technology is becoming more and more prevalent. I didn't call that out specifically as it relates to the cloud environments, but that's definitely part of the benefit is layering in privacy-enhancing technology on top of what you're already doing in the cloud, so that you can create some noise, some ways to share data without sharing individual user level data.

I think that that's really what our clients and what a lot of marketers are trying to get to is a way in which to protect their own first party data, which is very hard-earned, and they've spent a lot of time trying to build up, but at the same time, still be able to execute building an audience, activating that audience, and measuring whether or not their marketing is actually working.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Okay. Yeah, interesting. Now, before I get to my last question, the last question I have, quick commercial break. Wanted to remind everyone in the audience if you have any applicable questions, please put them in the comments area. Kind of your last chance to get it in here before we wrap things up, but this is a loaded question here.

Let's get to what I imagine many attendees have been waiting for. Given all of the challenges we've discussed, what are your top recommendations for insurers to make sure they're contacting consumers in the right place at the right time with the right products?

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

Yeah, I would say first step is get your house in order. You have so much rich data, join it together, resolve the identities across the disparate data sets, enrich it so that you have the most current contact information. If you don't get the identity right, you'll get everything else wrong. It's important to really get everything that you have within your firewalls together and accurate, so that you could target effectively.

Second would be really understand these life events, because insurance is such a life event-based industry that understanding when somebody's in market for mortgages, auto loans, insurance, for life insurance, when a baby's born, when somebody's moving, these are all important things for you to know and for you to monitor. Extremely important information. Then I would say thirdly is to be able to resolve identities across all the different ways consumers are going to be reaching out to you.

Understanding that when I'm placing a call into a carrier, that it's Mike Feuerstein on the other end of the phone, and what demographics and model score I am, so that you could route me accordingly. Same goes for whether somebody's quoting online, walking into one of your agency locations. All the different ways of understanding where that consumer is, and being able to resolve to that base identity that you have in-house will really be extremely effective.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think it's clear best in class data is the foundation for successful marketing. That's essentially what Mike's saying is that if you have good solid data as a starting point, that's a really solid foundation in which to build your capabilities. Given the fragmentation and all the different places that you may end up be sending your data today in order to execute good marketing, I think what we're trying to say is you don't have to boil the ocean to solve this problem.

At least take a step forward and making sure your data house is in order, and then use that consistent identity framework to then connect the dots across all of your different disparate data sources. Creating that glue essentially that connects those pieces together, it's really important, and I think that is a really solid step forward from where you are today.

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Got it. I don't have any specific questions from the audience that makes sense to bring up with you all, but is there anything else, and this is kind of the end of interviews, the gotcha questions, if it's with someone from the media, anything else you want to touch on that we didn't touch on today?

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

I can't think of anything, but I think maybe as you head into the next year and into 2025, thinking about how you can start to map out a plan to build out that foundation is a great... Everybody's sort of in planning mode. As you start to think about planning for next year, how can you start to think about building these components into your ecosystem so that you can have a successful start to the year?

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Got it. Thanks. That's some great insights, as I always pick up here when I host these lives. Allyson and Michael, thank you so much for joining us. I personally didn't know how interesting insurance could be. Oh, wait, we do have a quick question here. I don't know how specific we can get here, but we have a question, I believe from Michael Tapp, for Michael from Tapp Solutions.

What tools do you use to clean data? I don't think we can endorse anything here, but maybe just in general, speak in generalities, and what tools do you use to identify that two records are the same person, or maybe it's the approach that we can get into?

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah, what we're talking about ultimately is identity resolution, of being able to take the data that you have and match it to a good solid data source that allows you to then resolve those identities, clean those identities up. If you have two records that are the same thing, you need a solid ID resolution methodology that helps you figure out, based off of modeling and accuracy, how do those two things actually come together into a single record, for example.

That's what we're talking about ultimately is identity resolution and identity enrichment as well to help ensure that you can add to that data. It's sort of like, you take two records, you figure out are they the same record, and then from there, are there gaps in that data? If I have Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion and Allyson Carmi, that's my maiden name, figuring out that that's the same person, but then also making sure that you have the right email address, the right phone number, all those things, adding that to the data as well. Anything you would add, Mike? I kind of jumped in there.

Michael Feuerstein/Director Insurance, TransUnion:

No, you got it. You just have to identify partners with rich identity spines to leverage, to combine all the data together. Generally, they're using keys, so a unique persistent ID to then tie all that data together.

Allyson Dietz/Sr. Director TruAudience™, TransUnion:

Yeah. I think it's important to think about it from an online and offline standpoint as well. A lot of what we've been talking about are specifics around what I would consider to be sort of offline identifiers: name, address, phone number, et cetera. There's also things like email addresses, and IP addresses, and even cookies. What are the ways in which you can enrich that data, so you can find them in all the places in which they might exist?

Andrew Goss/Host, TransUnion:

Got it. Michael, from Tapp Solutions, certainly reach out if you have any further questions for us, and we can probably connect you with the right person. The social media team can help connect. Please keep those questions coming, and we can help you out. Okay. Well, I think we will end this conversation now. Again, Allyson and Michael, thank you for joining us. Super interesting conversation, again. You made insurance interesting, so thank you. Thank you to our audience for joining us and for the questions that came in.

If we didn't get to your question today, or if you think about something afterwards and it's applicable to the conversation, we'll do our best to get back around to you. To download the study we referenced throughout the day, I'll be putting the web address, TransUnion.com/redefining-identity, and a QR code up on the screen. You can also find that URL by going to the LinkedIn Live Event Page description tab. Until next time, we'll see you on TransUnion Live.