Trust, transparency and technology

In a first phase the IBM Institute for Business Value and the Institute for Insurance Economics of the University St. Gallen, Switzerland, developed an online questionnaire to gather the necessary quantitative data. This was distributed through affiliated market researchers in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark; achieved relevant return was approximately 400 respondents per country. To test the content topics before distributing the questionnaire, and to gather qualitative data, three focus group discussions were performed in Zurich, Paris and London with local participants.
To simulate the "customer of the future", a filter "internet affinity" was applied to gain desired questionnaire participants. The socio-demographical breakdown of respondents corresponds roughly to the actual population. Assuming internet affinity to be described by the percentage of people who use internet regularly and who shop online, our sample is representative for approximately 40-50% of population.
Goals of the Study were to provide insights into consumer experiences, attitudes and needs towards/about insurance (today and future). Futhermore, to assess viability of dynamic insurance areas (regarding touch points, products, services, communication media, risk communities…).