SCB Life stresses agent training
SCB Life Insurance is placing a greater emphasis on training for its agents, as the company aims to be more active in sophisticated products designed to meet customer needs at different stages of their lives.
Agents will be equipped with better knowledge and understanding of products to reinforce the firm’s "trusted life insurer" brand positioning.
Keilic Wong, deputy managing director and chief of the actuarial and product development group, said yesterday that the business showed good growth potential, as only 39 per cent of the population owns insurance policies.
New products with a variety of coverage have been developed in line with customer demands as well as economic and social trends.
"However, we have to realise that Thai consumers still see life insurance as complicated and high-involvement products that require engagement," he said.
"In the past, insurance purchases of Thai consumers usually resulted from some other decision-making factors besides the real need for insurance, for example, close relationship with agents and misunderstanding of insurance products, which prevent policyholders from perceiving the true benefits of life protection.
"These false buying behaviours resulted in the loss of trust in the real value of life insurance among consumers and finally to policy lapses and cancellations."
Backed by consumer research with Siam Commercial Bank, the company decided to launch a "need-based selling" approach that would make it a "trusted life insurer" for a sustainable outcome.
With customer-centric and need-based selling as its strategy, the company recently reorganised and simplified its agency product portfolio to be more focused on consumer needs at each life stage.
Products were divided to main categories corresponding to five segments.
They are single people, families without children aged 25-35, families with children aged 35-45, pre-retirement people aged 45-55 and retirees aged over 55.
The criteria in choosing products to fit in the new product portfolio include popularity and good fit and coverage with consumers’ needs at certain life stages.
The company has also removed redundant products to have the product portfolio more focused and concentrated.
The new slimmed-down product portfolio is easier for both agents to sell and consumers to understand.
More important, consumers will realise the linkage between their needs at each life stage and appropriate insurance products as one of their financial tools to help manage their quality of life sustainably.
The new product portfolio was divided into three major groups basing on consumers’ needs – Life SAVE (savings product), Life PROTECT and Life CARE (health product).
The introduction of the new product portfolio for the agency channel is part of SCB Life’s need-based selling policy and mission to develop sustainable insurance, which the company has continued to drive since 2014.
This year, the company will support agents in offering quality insurance ethically and taking responsibility for consumers.
This includes analysing the needs of individuals at different life stages and offering the right product that meets their real needs in a bid to strengthen long-term business quality and raise the persistency rate. The company will also upgrade agents to professional insurance advisers through intensive training.
Various easy-to-understand promotional sales materials will also be developed via many channels to allow consumers to access insurance information more widely and efficiently.
