For customers to get maximum benefits from a service, such service must satisfy his need, hence, the need for insurers to design their products to meet the expectation of intending policyholders, while also raise awareness on such products and services. ZAKA KHALIQ writes.
While low awareness and education were said to be a major contributor to low penetration in Nigeria, most of the insurance products in the Nigerian insurance market do not really address the needs of the people. The products are more of a duplicate with little or no difference between the product offered by Insurance Company A and Insurance Company B. In this instance, people will rather not buy insurance at all, rather than buy what they don’t need.
In some cases where products address the need of the market, there is little or no awareness on them, hence, people were not really aware of the benefits they can derive from these products.
While experts have called on insurers to increase awareness of their existing products, they charged them to be innovative and carve products that take into consideration, the socio-economic scenario of the expected policyholders.
On his part, the Managing Director/CEO, FBN General Insurance Company, Mr. Bode Opadokun, said there are various insurance covers in the market that can address the needs of the consumers, although, he called for increased awareness on these products for increased patronage.
“There are different insurance products across the country that meets the needs and yearnings of the people. We have Loss of Employment product, Shop owners insurance, building insurance and there is also the latest product which is the fusion of comprehensive and third party insurance cover, among others. Most of these products arise from the feedback we get from our customers and the need to create products that fit into the socio-economic scenario of the country,” he stressed.
While urging Nigerians to approach insurers with their respective risks, he assured them that insurance operators are ever ready to tailor a product towards their needs.
Believing there is the need for insurers to explain in details the terms and conditions of each product to aspiring policyholders before selling to them, this, he said, is essential to avoid conflict at the point of lodging a claim, saying, the insured must be aware of what risks his policy cover and what it does not.
He charged policyholders to always approach their insurers on time and submit the necessary documents to process their claims when an insured risk occurs, noting that most times, the delay in the payment of claims was because customers fail to submit the needed documents on time. “When you don’t submit the documents on time, it will prolong the duration for settling a claim and people will accuse us of delaying claims whereas it comes from them,” he stated.
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers(NCRIB), Mr. Fatai Adegbenro, charged the citizenry to adopt insurance as it is key to survival. “When there is a disaster, the government can only pay you token but with insurance, you will get near or exactly what you have lost. Everybody needs it because of the daily risk we are exposed to,” he pointed out.
Similarly, the Managing Director/CEO, Guinea Insurance PLC, Mr. Tunde Oshadiya, said Insurers must let people know the benefits of insurance policies they are carrying, stressing that Insurance of public building is compulsory by law. Tenants, he said, should make it a priority to ensure that the house they want to rent is insured by their landlords.
According to him, “One of the cheapest things you can buy is insurance. For instance, you can insure a N10 million house with N25,000 premium. Most policyholders did not know that the Fire Insurance policy they have covers Flood, or when wind blow-off your rooftop. All these need to be explained to policyholders by marketers to ensure that customers maximize their cover.”
To settle a claim, he said, it should not take more than five days maximum, but that when a claimant failed to submit the required documents on time, it will prolong the claims payment period.
“Delayed documentation on the part of policyholders is a challenge to timely claims payment. Claims should not take more than 5 days and there are underwriters paying within that timeframe. But when death is involved, you find it difficult to get a police report on time, thereby, delaying the claim process. Moreover, some customers do report late, or fail to provide the documents required of them by their insurers on time,” he pointed out.
The Managing Director/CEO, Blue Pearl Konsult Limited, Chief Chris Obi, on his part, said, Insurance business can only thrive in situations of trust that insurers will not renege on their promises to the insured, adding that, over time, the insuring public have experienced abuses and infractions on their insurance claims and confidence level has waned.
Moreover, he said, Insurance laws have been stagnant for too long that both insurers and the insured do not feel fully protected. Even the available laws are poorly enforced, so that there are no consequences for breaking insurance laws, especially by insurers, he stressed.
To him, lack of faith and confidence have seriously eroded the trust that must exist between insurers and customers and only a change in the insurance paradigm and offer of a rebranding of insurance can flip the situation.
“Therefore, in the Insurance industry, without listening to feedback from your customers, exceptional service may be far away just as you are not cognisant of customer pain points. Listening to the customer is perhaps the most important part of design and strategy to deliver exceptional service and be successful,” he stressed.
He, therefore, advised insurance companies to look out for and remove pain points as the rate of insurance penetration rises, even as one may not justly classify the level of pain points in Nigeria as bottom level, in an environment of the paucity of data.
Top-level product planning, he pointed out, must ensure insurance products are relevant, affordable and value-adding for the ultimate customer, while all employees must have a fair knowledge of the company’s products in line with the purpose and vision set and shared by top management.
On his part, the Acting Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Sunday Thomas, said the National Insurance Commission(NAICOM), as a regulator of the insurance industry, has always made it a duty to only approve products that meet the needs of the market.
“Our product approval process ensures that only products that are fit for consumption get to the market. So, any product that cannot serve the needs of the public will not be approved and when a product is in the market that fail to serve its purpose, we will withdraw it,” he vowed.
