The two years of the pandemic have led SMEs to a greater awareness of risks and to the request for a protection model based on targeted coverage and 360 ° consultancy services linked to business activity, which is even more evident in the current complex international geo-political scenario. The perception of risks among Italian SMEs has also changed, placing cyber risk, pandemic risk, systemic risk, climate risk and catastrophe risk in the top five. These are some of the evidences that emerged from a recent study conducted by Deloitte on 5,300 companies in 14 countries.
In the current context, SMEs appear to have a good level of coverage. Those Italians without any type of insurance are only 4% (the European average is 2%), even if the annual expenditure dedicated to this sector remains below the international average, which in Italy stops at € 14,000 (compared to a average of € 22,600). In terms of types of insurance coverage, the most common in our country are:
The difficulties of recent years have sensitized Italian companies, which are more inclined (33%) than in the past to spend more on the purchase of insurance coverage. The main reasons, according to the Deloitte study, are:
With a view to the future purchase of different types of insurance coverage, the most requested in the near future will be:
Good news for the insurance sector is that, according to the Deloitte study, since the beginning of the pandemic, the confidence of Italian SMEs in the sector - already good in the pre-pandemic period - has increased. If already three years ago 96% of SMEs (vs 91% average of the sample) declared that they put their trust in their insurance provider, today the level of trust has further increased by 58% (vs 71% average of the sample). As a demonstration of the appreciation towards the sector, only 7% of Italian SMEs changed their insurance provider following the pandemic (vs 14% of the sample average; together with China and the UK our country shows the lowest "churn installments ").
Italian SMEs recognize the sector's ability to have been able to manage the difficult context by guaranteeing:
Among the 5 main risk categories, cyber risk is identified by 33% of Italian SMEs (vs 25% average of the sample) as the first additional risk from which they deem it necessary to protect themselves and not already provided for by the current insurance coverage; substantial equal importance is attributed to the pandemic risk (32% vs 27% average of the sample). Both these types assume a greater perception than more "traditionally" known risks, such as systemic risk (of an economic-financial nature) - 18% vs 15% average of the sample, climate risk - 17% vs 19% average of the sample and catastrophe risk - 13% vs 18% average of the sample.
Only one in four SMEs relies directly on an insurance company. Much more widespread is the use of an intermediary (72%), which is key in the choice of insurance and in the management of the need for protection. The main reasons why Italian SMEs use an intermediary are:
What are the reasons that lead a company to choose a specific intermediary? First of all, trust in the operator (average 45% vs 32% of the sample; the Italian figure is the highest of the sample), followed by the ability to offer an affordable price (38% vs 29% average of the sample), by the ease of interaction (37% vs 31% average of the sample), reputation (28% vs 30% average of the sample) and finally the functionality of the website / app (12% vs 22% average of the sample).
The loyalty rate towards the intermediary is particularly high in Italy: 63% of SMEs have the same reference for a period ranging from 4 to 9 years (vs 59% average of the sample).
Although the purchasing process is strongly based on the physical channel, this does not eliminate the need to structure a digital model to support the management and post-sale process of the policy. In fact, it is key for an insurance provider to have an operating and technological model that is able to enable the customer also features and device services of the policy in self-service mode.
The digital issue therefore takes on several connotations for the benefit of SMEs:
