The top three most important characteristics for consumers shopping for an insurance policy are value for money, ease of doing business and responsiveness, according to EY's 2015 Property-Casualty Outlook.

Noting the ongoing expansion of channel choices available to consumers from a variety of industries, the report identifies increasing customer expectations for price transparency, real-time customer service and support and instant delivery—trends that necessitate a competitive shift from a product-centric push to a consumer needs-based risk assessment, says Dave Hollander, EY Global Insurance Advisory leader.

“That is front and center for the agent and broker—to think of themselves not as a conduit for products, but as someone who can understand their customer niches,” Hollander says. “More meaningful interaction with an agent or broker is incredibly valuable, particularly if you know their industry.”

The strategy will be vital in 2015, when traditional definitions of exposure will be relatively flat and “a lot of excess capital both in companies’ balance sheets and other sectors looking to get returns,” Hollander says. “You have new entrants sitting out there saying ‘Maybe I can offer a lot of that risk protection without you having to buy insurance—I’ll just bundle it in the price of the refrigerator or car.’”

As non-insurance industries like auto and high-tech position themselves to compete for insurance business, “we’re seeing some disruption, and the pace at which that’s happening is going to intensify as people look for returns any way they can,” Hollander says. “The general state of the economy, the lack of indigenous or natural growth, excess supply of capital sitting out there now and relatively low rates of return make it challenging.”

While price will be a constant factor for almost every insurance consumer, agents have a real opportunity to improve ease of doing business and responsiveness. “Generally, consumers do not like buying products from multiple companies—that’s a negative,” Hollander says. “They would rather work with someone who can figure that out and make it come together in one place. The agent and broker is ideally positioned to do that.”

The agent’s role should begin at a highly granular level: understanding the needs of each individual business or consumer—“and then thinking broadly not just about the products you represent, but the actual risk that person has,” Hollander explains. “What during the course of their life or their business expansion are the events that would trigger other needs? It requires a real needs-based orientation.”

But being responsive and easy to do business with means being speedier and more flexible than competitors—and that means satisfying consumer demands will also require agents to work hand in hand with insurance companies instead of competing outright for the evolving consumer, Hollander cautions.

“It’s a much more collaborative world as you look ahead,” he says. “The industry’s at great risk of being really disrupted or disintermediated completely. That concept of real risk and providing new products that can get delivered in real time, servicing that can be answered in real time—agents have to understand that’s not a threat. That’s just the new world.”

And according to Hollander, it “sets a bar for agents and brokers working with companies to say we’ve got to have seamless real-time services for information access, or real-time quoting for endorsements or click on my app to be able to talk with a specialist online immediately,” he says. “Collaboration between the agent or broker and carrier is more essential now than ever, because consumers are driving toward a model of interacting very differently and demanding more innovative products.”

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.