We wish all our readers a very Happy New Year 2023!
We hope the New Year will lot of opportunities for the Insurance Industry in India. Already since the third quarter of 2022 there has been significant buzz in the Insurance Industry with multiple steps being taken by the Insurance Regulator to give new wings to Insurance Industry.
IRDAI is planning major overhaul of the Insurance industry by relaxation of current guidelines, adoption of technology, give more leeway to Insurers to launch products, relaxation of guidelines for intermediaries, push digital transformation to achieve its objective of Insurance for all by 2027.
Already one new General Insurance Company has been issued licence and 19 more companies are in pipeline to get license. The authority is planning to have a developmental role instead of regulator role.
We can bring good products, good technology good distribution but I don’t think that is a challenge.
To achieve mass penetration it is very important to reach to the last mile customer and convince him about the benefits of Insurance as a protection tool. A massive campaign is required jointly by the Regulator, Councils, Insurers, and Intermediaries. Somewhere the apprehensions of the customer’s needs to be addressed and a positive environment needs to be created.
Education and training at all levels of organisation must be prioritised. Authority should set examples by penalising Insurers and Intermediaries who indulge in misselling and create a bad name for the industry. Training in current form in Insurance Industry is highly diluted. We must first create the mindset why training is important and when we move to knowledge based selling I don’t think selling would be a challenge.
Customer Service again is a major area which needs to be focussed upon. It is said that a satisfied customer helps to bring 10 more customers by word of mouth. The Insurers must try to frame the policy wordings in simple and lucid way and should give one pager reckoner to help him in getting the claims easily in few simple steps.
