The insurance industry needs to move with the times and offer cross-transactional options to customers to cater for the shift from a sellers’ to a buyers’ market, according to a new survey.

A cross-section of insurance professionals met in Sydney last week to discuss the study by the IBM Institute of Business Value.

It was compiled by Germany-based Christian Bieck, who says the insurers were surprised to see research suggesting consumer behaviour isn’t solely concentrated on internet use.

The global study, Meeting the Demands of the Smarter Consumers, highlights the need for insurers to “forego conventional channel strategy development and focus on quality interactions”.

It took in more than 21,740 consumers from 20 countries and examined attitudes toward “insurance interaction points” over the past five years.

“While 30 years ago agents, brokers and conventional mail were the only insurance communication channels used to search for and sell insurance, today there are many different interaction points consumers prefer and insurers can offer,” the study says.

Mr Bieck says insurers need to be able to provide cross-transactional options for customers such as social media, the internet, personal contact with agents or brokers and conventional methods such as mail – or risk losing customers to the competition.

“The report says 20% of customers use five interaction points or more,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “It used to be the case that you would call your broker or agent and talk on the phone and that was it. But there are now a lot more options to get information from insurers, and people use them.

“The key is to be able to switch back and forth, and that is one of the things insurers lack the ability to do easily.”

Mr Bieck says one of the key issues in the survey is consumers’ lack of trust in their insurers – a problem the industry has “brought upon itself” by focusing too much on efficiency rather than personalisation.

The survey says only 49.4% of global customers use the internet for buying insurance. While

They find the information they need online, 49.7% of respondents said they ultimately want to talk to a person when finalising their decision.