Reliance Life Insurance Company (RLIC) introduced a distribution channel – Life Plaza – aimed at creating awareness about life insurance and said it plans to set up about 200 branches across the country by the end of the current financial year.
“The main objective of our new distribution format is to generate greater awareness about life insurance in and around different locations where these Life Plazas will operate and create a pull for life insurance products,” Malay Ghosh, President and Executive Director, Reliance Life Insurance, said.
RLIC targets to hire about 1,000 people under this new distribution format within this fiscal and would focus on Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV cities for recruitment and setting up of Life Plazas, he said.
Reliance Life Plaza would promote need-based sales, fill service gaps and also offer financial and value-added services such as tax and financial planning, Aadhar card registration, pan card generation, health check-ups and nutrition counselling.
All Life Plazas will be managed by RLIC employees, who will handle customers’ queries and process the documentation instantly at the venue, with a view to tap new customers and also provide service to existing RLIC policyholders, the company said.
Apart from addressing walk-in customers, the company will also proactively invite customers to the Life Plaza for presentations on the benefits of investment in various financial products, importance of insurance as life protection tool and RLIC’s wide- range of products and services, it said.
“We believe this unique distribution model will help us reach out to customers, understand their needs and provide solutions to them at the venue. The process of selling will ensure that the customer buys only what he or she needs and understands and thus also address the problem of mis-selling,” Ghosh said.
He further added that, “We are confident that Life Plaza will help us build a healthy relationship with the customers and expand and strengthen the existing distribution channels in order to increase our reach”.
“We hope to replicate the success that this model enjoys in Japan,” he said.
RLIC is the first company in the country to set up a structured need-based in-branch sales platform in the form of a Life Plaza, the company said.
