A good loyalty programme can also incentivise desirable customer actions such as a policy renewal, cross-sells or upsells or a referral, by using 
Against the backdrop of changing customer expectations and new regulations, insurers can no longer rely on acquisition alone. Engagement strategies are essential for future retention, loyalty, and differentiation from competitors.
Consistent customer engagement remains a key challenge for many insurance companies – largely because they’ve never had to focus on it before. Traditionally, insurers had little need to engage with customers between policy renewals. And for policyholders, hearing from their insurer usually meant one thing – something had gone wrong.
But times have changed. Modern consumers expect the brands they choose to engage with them. While that expectation hasn’t always extended to insurance, fairly recent regulations on price walking have forced insurers to adapt. Now prohibited from charging loyal customers more at renewal than new ones for the same policy, insurers have had to shift away from acquisition-led strategies and focus more on retention.
In this article, we’ll explore how the insurance sector is responding to these shifting market dynamics. We’ll look at common challenges, proven engagement strategies, and what the future holds for customer engagement in insurance.
Faced with changing consumer expectations and limited room to compete pricewise, insurers are rethinking how to build lasting customer relationships. We’ve seen firsthand the shift that’s well underway. In our 2025 Loyalty Uncovered Report, we had conversations with professionals from 100 enterprise level brands. Out of all the insurance companies we spoke to:
This signals a clear direction. Insurers are moving on from purely transactional relationships and prioritising customer touchpoints that stimulate ongoing engagement. Strategies like personalised interactions and value-added partnerships are a big part of that. They give customers a reason to stay. Which in turn helps with:
According to Braze’s 2023 Global Customer Engagement Review, brands with effective engagement strategies were 1.8x more likely to exceed their revenue goals.
According to the insurance companies we spoke to, customer engagement stands as their single biggest challenge. Out of all the issues discussed — from API & data integration to data market competition — 85% said they were struggling to meaningfully engage their customers, second only to retail.
Challenges faced by insurers compared to other industries
(Source: Propello 2025 Loyalty Uncovered Report)
Through working with enterprise-level insurance companies like Hagerty UK and Perfect Pet, we’ve identified several underlying factors behind this.
Limited Engagement Opportunities Between RenewalsTraditionally, insurance is a low-touch sector. In the past there was very little interaction between sign-up and renewal. Some customers may have this dynamic embedded in their minds, and as a result, that’s influencing their behaviour. To break the mould insurers will need to be proactive in their communication efforts. |
The Digital Experience Gap in InsuranceLegacy systems are still rife in the insurance sector. This digital debt shows up in the customer experience as a slow, impersonal, and inconsistent service. Friction emerges at every stage of the policyholder journey, the opposite of the seamless, real-time interactions that today’s digital-first customers expect. |
Rebuilding Trust in an Online-First Insurance LandscapeThe age of online interaction has rewritten the rules for earning customer trust. Today’s policyholders want transparency around data use, value exchange, and the absence of hidden catches. Insurers must prove themselves at every digital touchpoint. In this context, credibility and reliability are just as important as convenience and personalisation. |
Connecting With the Digitally Empowered PolicyholderToday’s insurance customers are digitally fluent. They expect the same on-demand experiences they get from leading consumer brands. Engagement strategies must reflect this mindset. Relevance, speed, and convenience are essential across digital channels that customers actually use (mobile apps, social media platforms and real-time messaging).Therefore, consider an omnichannel marketing strategy too. |
Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Customer BaseDemographics vary widely and behaviours and expectations are even more nuanced. Effective engagement means understanding customers on an individual level. Insurers should implement smart customer segmentation, data-driven insight, and tailored outreach, and meet younger, digital-native customers where they are, while still delivering meaningful value to older, more traditional policyholders. |
Customer engagement in insurance goes beyond just claims process and renewals. In this section, we explore eight ways insurers are finetuning touchpoints into highly engaging, memorable moments. This includes loyalty programmes and gamification to personalisation, partnerships, and community platforms, designed to drive retention, relevance, and real customer connection.
1) Loyalty and Reward ProgrammesLoyalty programmes are among the most effective digital tools insurers can use to drive ongoing customer engagement and ultimately retention. With an insurance reward programme in place, insurers can increase positive interactions throughout the policy lifecycle by offering rewards from closely aligned brand partners, which we’ll discuss more in the next section. These programmes are a value add for customers and offer an opportunity to offset their policy cost through savings and discounts on products that they would purchase anyway.
By incentivising these actions, insurers create more regular opportunities for meaningful interaction. This is especially important in insurance, where relationships are typically low-touch. Done well, insurance loyalty programmes turn passive policyholders into active participants, and give customers a lasting sense of connection to their insurer all year round. |
2) Hyper-Relevant Brand PartnershipsContinuing on from loyalty and reward programmes, brand partnerships are critical to these programmes and widen the scope of value creation. Perfect Pet, for instance, collaborates with pet-focused brands like tails.com and Protect My Pet, offering nutrition and health perks through their reward programme.
These partnerships provide policyholders with real, everyday benefits tied to their lifestyle. For insurers, this drives regular engagement between renewals and unlocks partner revenue streams (via affiliate commission for example). It matters because it transforms low-touch policies into high-frequency value exchanges. Plus, it helps insurers stand out. In a competitive market with near-identical coverage and pricing, strategic brand partners offer a powerful edge in engagement and long-term customer retention |
3) GamificationGamification introduces game-like mechanics into loyalty programmes. What otherwise would be static touchpoints are reimagined into interactive experiences. Think elements like challenges, leaderboards, spin-to-win games, and tier progression. Each of these motivate repeat behaviours and build habit-forming engagement. The thing about gamification, it adds another dimension to your loyalty initiatives. Mechanics like points-based loyalty still have their uses (although not really applicable to insurers) . But they’re so common now that customers expect more in their experiences with the brands they choose. Gamification presents the universal attractive concept of play, progression, and recognition. Research shows gamification can boost engagement by up to 47% and brand loyalty by 22%. For insurers, this means greater participation between renewals and more emotional stickiness with your brand.
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4) Incentives that Reward Positive BehaviourOur recent Loyalty Uncovered Report found that insurance providers in 2025 are prioritising investments in engagement. As loyalty programme tech progresses, we’re beginning to see a shift in behaviour-based engagement. Using real-time customer data from insuretech like telematics or wearables deepens customer relationships because insurers can nudge policyholders toward safer or healthier habits. Not only does this drive down claims, it increases the insurer’s presence in the policyholder’s life in a way that’s non-intrusive and natural and opens up the opportunity for a policy renewal. Programmes like Vitality use this approach to personalise rewards, create meaningful touchpoints, and reinforce long-term behaviour change with specific customer segments. It’s a shift from one-off perks, building instead a continuous loop of engagement where customers feel supported in improving their lives. In many ways, it positions insurers as an active partner, not just a service provider. How different insurance sub-sectors can engage their customers through incentivising positive behaviours.
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5) Referrals as an Engagement ToolReferral programmes give satisfied policyholders an opportunity to advocate the brand to their friends and family. Naturally, a byproduct of this is improved acquisition. But they also establish a robust engagement loop. Because insurers that reward customers for referring friends or family are encouraging deeper emotional investment in the brand. What follows is a two-way relationship, where customers feel valued and involved. Adding gamified or tiered incentives can enhance impact, turning casual recommenders into true brand champions. Well-structured referral schemes |
6) Personalised Content and CommunicationIn today’s insurance landscape, personalisation is at the centre of effective engagement. Tailored messaging that’s relevant to customers on the individual level makes them feel seen and understood. As a result, it builds rapport with the customer because they feel the brand knows them on a personal level. Using data, insurers can tailor messaging to life stage, policy type, and behaviour. They could send out birthday wishes, a reminder on insurance products they’ve browsed, tailored advice at renewal, and even personalised videos. The number one rule; relevance is always key. Personalised communication builds trust, shows attentiveness, and creates the sense that customers are understood and seen – not just another policy number. |
7) Community Clubs and EventsCreating a community gives insurers a powerful way to build lasting relationships with their most passionate customers.
Take Hagerty, a classic car insurer, which also runs HDC UK, a drivers club, which offers a space for classic car enthusiasts to connect, access exclusive content, and participate in events. With their dedicated Propello rewards platform, Hagerty promotes its Drivers Club as a customer benefit, allowing classic car insurance policyholders to become active members of a lifestyle-driven community. Community invokes a sense of belonging and shared identity, both of which are key drivers of long-term engagement. For insurers, it’s a way to go beyond policies and become a brand customers choose to spend time with. Hagerty Drivers Club benefits for classic car insurance policy holders. Get the full case study to see how this classic car insurer is engaging its customers.
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The next frontier of customer engagement in insurance will be defined by intelligence, purpose, and participation. As McKinsey notes, the insurers embracing advanced engagement strategies are already seeing:
These benefits are directly linked to the three trends we’re about to explore. These are:
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Customer ServiceAI is redefining how insurers engage at scale. From a customer’s perspective, most of us will have seen chatbots. Behind the scenes, those involved in the insurance sector may have also seen predictive data analytics at work. These tools enable faster, more relevant support and help us to predict customer needs before they arise. |
Purpose-Driven and Values-Based EngagementToday’s insurance customers still expect protection but they’re also increasingly looking for purpose. A 2023 global study found that 80% of insurance customers want providers to embed ESG and sustainability into their offerings. Yet only half of the insurers we spoke to plan to act on this within the year. Brands that align with customer values will be better positioned for the long term. As insurance customers shift toward emotional loyalty, businesses will need the right strategies in place to meet those expectations. It’s quickly becoming apparent that price alone is no longer enough to sustain meaningful, long-term engagement. |
Feedback, Co-Creation, and Customer-Led InnovationInsurers are increasingly turning customers into co-creators. Both Deloitte’s research and our own experience working with insurance companies point to the same conclusion: co-created solutions tend to drive faster innovation, deeper engagement, and more relevant offerings. But are there any implications of co-creating with policyholders? Could the sector be shifting toward customer-led innovation? One example is Swiss health insurer Sympany, which formed a 250-member customer council to help shape service improvements. Across the industry, a two way approach in engagement is showing promise. While some examples focus more on feedback loops than full on co-creation, the adoption of real-time customer feedback mechanisms is growing, and laying a foundation for more collaborative, insight-led service design. In one case, Allianz used real-time listening to reduce complaints by 23% and increase NPS by 11 points. |
Customer engagement in insurance should never centre around gimmicks. Keep your engagement strategy customer-centric. Make the way you engage with customers throughout the customer journey relevant, valuable and trustworthy. Loyalty programmes are the perfect solution for bringing various engagement strategies into a cohesive ecosystem – whether you use personalised content, strategic partnerships or build a community.
But technology alone won’t create emotional loyalty. It takes balancing digital transformation with a more human touch, delivering proactive, empathetic experiences that respond to who your customers are and what they value. The future belongs to insurers who embed engagement into their culture. That means thinking beyond the transaction and putting more energy into the quiet middle where most insurers fall silent.
Against the backdrop of changing customer expectations and new regulations, insurers can no longer rely on acquisition alone. Engagement strategies are essential for future retention, loyalty, and differentiation from competitors.
Insurance has traditionally been low-touch, with minimal interaction between sign-up and renewal. Breaking that pattern means building new mid-policy value through digital communication and incentives.
Loyalty programmes create regular touchpoints between renewals. They reward behaviours like updating details, renewing early, or engaging with content, fostering ongoing interaction and brand loyalty.
Gamification introduces interactive elements like challenges, badges, or points, which make engagement enjoyable and habit-forming — proven to increase both retention and brand affinity.
Modern insurance portals now offer more than admin — they include content, rewards, and community. Studies show regular portal engagement can improve retention by up to 25%.
They offer everyday value beyond the policy. For example, home insurers partnering with smart device brands create co-branded experiences that resonate with lifestyle needs and drive loyalty.
They reward actions like safe driving or healthy habits. Insurers become part of daily life, and these every day interactions build trust and reinforce positive customer relationships over time.
Referral schemes reward advocacy and encourage deeper brand involvement. Customers that share a brand they trust make acquisition cheaper, faster, and more successful due to higher rapport and trust amongst social circles.
Personalisation is all about delivering timely, contextual content and messaging that resonates with an individual’s behaviours and needs. It boosts relevance, and when something is relevant to an individual, they are more likely to resonate and engage with it.
They build a sense of belonging and identity, useful for insurance companies that are typically low-touch. Similarly, if you serve a niche market (like Hagerty does classic car enthusiasts), a community is great because your brand becomes the focal point of customers engaging with each other over shared interests.
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