Technology providers Meet Parker and iPipeline have joined forces to provide mortgage brokers with protection quotes ‘on demand’ in an effort to help advisers engage more clients through social media.
iPipeline’s platform will provide the life insurance premium quotes through an application programme interface, whilst Meet Parker’s chatbot can connect advisers with clients through channels such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
In simple terms, if a prospective client sees a protection product on Facebook, Parker can pop up and answer initial questions about it, before linking them to a human adviser.
Brokers can use the chatbot to automate their interaction with a client all the way up to the quotation stage, which is supported by data from iPipeline.
Traditionally, the gap between clients with a mortgage and those with mortgage protection has arisen due to the fact brokers claim they are too busy to advise on protection - which is often treated as an afterthought.
“Protection is one of the most undersold and undervalued products on the market,” said Freddie Savundra, Meet Parker’s founder.
“We are always looking at ways we can enhance the client journey when it comes to house hunting, whether renting or buying, and providing instant, on demand answers to our clients.”
Meet Parker’s new service with iPipeline is expected to launch in January. The AI chatbot provider already integrates with Twenty7Tec to provide the same service on a mortgage quote side.
The protection offering, which mirrors the mortgage quote service, can also be integrated with its predecessor. This means a client could buy both a mortgage and protection in the same interaction.
Protection products available through the chatbot come the new year will be anything iPipeline currently provides data on, which includes life, critical illness, income protection, whole of life, and business protection.
“It depends on the company - be that broker, estate agent - who is advising on the products,” Savundra told FTAdviser. “It is possible to do them both in one go.”
As well as time constraints, brokers have also avoided the protection conversation due to their lack of knowledge around the product. Some in the industry have gone as far as to dub advisers’ lack of income protection awareness “embarrassing”.
Meet Parker’s product road map is to eventually go end-to-end automated entirely, which would mean the broker would never have to interact with the client on the sale.
But currently, regulation does not easily allow for no human interaction on an advised product, the firm said.
Paul Yates, iPipeline’s product strategy director, said: “We always want to work with forward thinking companies who make the full use of technology to improve the market and deliver a better customer experience.”
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
