Goal Setting, Personality Traits, and the Role of Insurers and Other Service Providers for Swiss Millennials and Generation Z

Abstract

Service providers are developing more sophisticated offerings, and it is important for them to understand the demographics and specific context by which individuals might procure their services. This allows companies to stay relevant to their customers. The target of this paper is to investigate the types of goals Millennials and Generation Z individuals are pursuing and what role different service providers may play in supporting these endeavors, with the aim of providing actionable insights for insurers. Furthermore, it is to investigate how personality traits may relate to differences in individuals’ preferences. The study is based on a survey of 854 Swiss university students. The results indicate that goals are concentrated in a few categories, and educational institutions and healthcare providers are well-positioned to support goal achievement. Insurers, on the other hand, rank low among the preferences, and their profile is largely undifferentiated. This result indicates that insurers need to further focus their efforts to gain relevance among younger customers. Supporting goals relating to self-fulfillment and ability for high-conscientious and/or low-honest/humble customers by focusing on risk education and risk management seems a particularly interesting strategy for insurers.

Do Customers Want to Communicate with Insurers on Social Media? An Investigation of the Swiss Market

“…Personality type also impacts the willingness to interact with insurance companies in ways that are similar, but not identical, to the willingness to engage in social media described in Section 2.2. Thus, while conscientiousness, neuroticism and extraversion are linked to higher willingness to share information, openness and agreeableness are not (Pugnetti et al 2022).…”

Insurers Need to Better Support Gen Y and Gen Z Goals

“…We surveyed 1,781 Millennials (Gen Y) and Generation Z (Gen Z) in the Summer of 2021 to understand their goals and their view of how different service providers may support the achievement of these goals. We analyzed the results age cohort, gender, goal type and personality type (for a more in-depth discussion, see Pugnetti et al, 2022).…”

Customer Expectations for Sustainability in the Swiss Insurance Market

“…Swiss customers have shown little patience for understanding the technical details of insurance and tend to find the topic foreign [43]. They also do not think insurance is particularly relevant or that it can provide meaningful support regarding their key personal decisions [44]. On the other hand, they have high trust in insurers and are willing to share personal data to a large extent [45] and communicate with insurers on their most personal channels [46].…”