The insurance industry still has a negative reputation.
Blasting out claims statistics (that are extremely impressive), is just not working, as many people are still worried they will fall into the 2 per cent of declined claims.
I have noticed clear efforts by AIG’s Rob Rosa and Alea Risk’s Andrew Wibberley to humanise their outreach activities with videos.
What I like about their initial videos on critical illness and underwriting is that in many ways they are raw. They are clearly the people who they say they are, talking about the job they do and not actors who have been drafted in.
At the recent Protection Review conference we learned the average reading age in the UK is 13 years.
Bearing this in mind, what are people going to understand and want to engage with more: Andrew with his visual teddy bear clients for example, or a wallop of statistics?
I think that changing the way we word things makes a huge impact on client engagement.
A couple of years ago, I came out with the term ‘quirky’ lives, instead of the horrible term ‘impaired’.
I was classed as an impaired life, and I can definitely say it was not a nice feeling.
Quirky seems to be taking hold, which is the gist of a recent Financial Adviser article, Quirky protection becoming the mainstream, by Kevin Carr and Suzanne Clarkson of Carr Consulting.
Also, according to Phil Hull and Georgia d’Esterre of Holloway Friendly, the company actively uses the term ‘quirky’ in their new brand approach.
There has to be a point where we use some technical words, as we need to make sure that clients understand the insurances that they are buying.
We all tell our clients to thoroughly read the insurance terms of conditions and key features document, but do they really do it?
We need a human there to break down what to expect when a client applies for insurance, what the insurance actually offers and what they can expect from the insurer.
Kathryn Knowles is managing director of Cura Financial Services
