2023 Executive Outlook | Louis Gagnon, Intact

Louis Gagnon, CEO, Canada, Intact Financial Corporation

Reduced buying power, evolving technology and the digitization of everything is driving customers’ decision-making and shopping habits.

And so, for the Canadian P&C insurance industry, the key to success in the upcoming months and years will be based partly on our ability to transform data from consumers’ behaviour into tangible assets to better price, segment, select and understand our clients’ expectations to offer the best customer journey.

Accustomed to a hybrid work-experience, customers are now more at ease with connecting personally and professionally through multiple channels. Their digital consumption habits influence their expectations of service providers. They want simplicity, transparency and value for money at every step of the process.

We must meet customers where they are and engage them on their terms. This requires offering multiple ways for insureds to engage us, be it online or in physical offices. We are applying this approach as we simplify the auto claims experience. Customers can easily report and file a claim digitally. And they can have their auto repairs and rentals managed all in one place through our expanding network of Intact Service Centres.

Whichever way they prefer to do business, we must aim to deliver a uniform, consistent and outstanding customer experience across each distribution channel. And we must maintain our good working relationships with brokers, who mirror their clients’ expectations.

Meeting consumers’ evolving expectations requires investment in digital experience, human capital, marketing and distribution. We need to make these investments now: every investment opportunity we miss today will mean sprinting a marathon in the future simply to catch up.