The point-and-click generation are a demanding lot—wanting information on anything they can dream of in an instant. Google has solved many a dinner-party dispute over who kicked the winning goal in the 1989 Grand Final, or who played the original Batman. It seems any question can be answered by simply whipping out a mobile phone and asking the internet. It makes sense then, that when a big life event occurs—such as a new home or a new baby—and it means a change in insurance requirements or other services, the internet is often the first port of call. What should be a simple exercise in ‘shopping around’, however, can easily turn into a nightmare. The options in the Australian health insurance market alone are too numerous to fathom for most people, who are already time-poor and hoping for a fast solution. iSelect has managed to solve this problem, embracing the digital age and harnessing the power of data to provide quick, easy, and tailored solutions for its customers.
CEO Scott Wilson says that last year, iSelect had more than 7.6 million visits to its website, leading to more than six million product comparisons between the 100 product partners and 140 brands that it represents.
“We call it the iConnect system,” he says, “using our proprietary technology that matches individual customers and their needs, based on the demographic information that we are asking of them, to discover what sort of features are important to them. We then take that information and match it individually to the right product that suits their needs. If you look at the iSelect customer, they are typically white collar, well educated, affluent, and time-poor, and are looking for a trusted adviser to help them work through complex products. Also, these are the types of products that are really only looked at every three to five years, so although you might be savvy and might be able to back yourself to make a decision, customers find the market rather complex, because it’s something they don’t deal with every day, and there are so many choices out there.
“We have more than 12,500 products on our site. If you look at health products alone, there are 10,500 health product combinations that we have to choose from, but we have more than 100 questions that we can ask to make sure the customer ends up with the right solution for their needs, and that can drive over 100,000 possible product combinations.”
