For now, let’s consider the BA experience. Firstly, the product – a flight – is something that is sought out: it meets a need. Generally, you know you’re going to get looked after on a BA flight, seats are comfy, legroom is half decent and refreshments are included.
The booking and check in processes are digital and straightforward. BA’s prices appear on all key comparison sites and what you see is what you get. The quoted price isn’t usually inflated on booking by a whole load of supposed ‘extras’ such as the inclusion of luggage.
The actual flight experience is, on the whole, pleasurable with BA guided by its promise: To Fly. To Serve.
Now take a look at the consumer experience of IP. The average man in the street has probably never heard of the product, let alone knows what it’s for so the ‘need’ has to be articulated – it is therefore often ‘sold’ rather than sought out.
People usually learn about it during meetings with IFAs and then it’s often bundled with life insurance or critical illness cover.
Thankfully, the comparison and buying process has moved forward in recent years from indicative prices towards the availability of real-time, buy now prices thanks to the likes if iPipeline’s XRAE and UnderwriteMe. That said, not all IP providers are signed up to these services yet.
Following initial purchase, the product is usually forgotten until the person may need to claim, and only then does the real value become known.
Positive moves
At the point of claim, the customer ‘experience’ kicks in and, as the individuals involved in the Seven Families initiative will attest, the value of the product cannot be underestimated.
It’s a lifeline. It not only helps individuals get back on their feet and hopefully back to work, but also helps financially to support the family too.
Consumers are naturally distrusting about the insurance sector but when we pay claims it gradually becomes realised that the overall claims payout rate for IP is very good.
An increasing number of providers are regularly publishing their claims statistics, dispelling long-held myths that insurers try their best to avoid paying claims.
British Friendly, for example, represented the first insurer to publish its claims statistics for the whole of 2016. The provider paid over 96 per cent of IP claims, with over half of all claims authorised in one day or less.
The remaining claims were declined either for non-disclosure (1.93 per cent) or not meeting the definition (1.71 per cent).
