Underwriting requires information, so what can your connections tell us? Greg Becker visits South Africa to look at one idea.
This is followed by messages to the head covering things such as the probability of the policyholder getting cancer. Then comes the ‘Top ten most important things you need to know about your policy’, where details and features of the product are presented in a very accessible and conversational way, covering everything from T&Cs to why the product is better than the alternatives.
The CD also shows how street savvy Platinum Life is by giving the listener the top ten things that they need to tell their husband when he says he does not want to pay for it. The idea is that people who listen to the CD will get “educated’”and “hooked” on the product, before hearing the code to unlock their gifts and receiving the call to action.
The endorsement (having received the product from a friend is just the first step) with the audio tracks educating and empowering the listener is a powerful reinforcement. With this lead generation process, no commission is paid, and this offline D2C process does not have the process of price comparison being just a click away.
Sales show that the process works, and that by building your messages on trust and understanding, lapse rates can be substantially lower than the market norm. The industry has being trying to get positive customer insurance stories. Platinum Life has shown that this is possible.
“Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are” is the kind of thing a mother would say when her offspring is bringing home friends from school or university. It does not change who our friends are, but some of our friends are more likely to get an invite to meet the parents than others.
Interestingly, the friends we brought home still had to be selected from those that we had, and no matter how much selection there was, there was always truth left in the saying, and parents can still got an insight into our lives from our friends. Could insurers do the same? Who’s up for some Facebook-based underwriting?
Greg Becker is product development actuary at RGA
