Helping New Zealanders feel confident about insurance 

This month, I participated in a panel discussion at ‘Towards Wellbeing’, the 2019 Financial Services Council and Workplace Savings conference. 

The panel looked at what the insurance industry can do to help more New Zealanders feel confident about insurance. Research shows that while customers who have a claims experience are more positive about insurance than those who have not, most of us don’t get particularly excited thinking about insurance! 

Knowing you can trust your insurer when life gets tough is incredibly important.  I’m passionate about helping our customers, and helping our customers means understanding what they want, and delivering it. Customers are telling us that when it comes to trust, they want their insurer to: 

• Prioritise a customer friendly approach 
• Be efficient and empathetic claims handling  
• Be flexible and creative with how we approach insurance solutions 
• Be known to really, genuinely care

Doing these things well matters as we’re often helping our customers at a critical moment in their lives when emotions can be high. 

One of our team recently supported a customer who had lost her husband. Her husband usually took control of finances and insurance and the customer was quite nervous about working through the claim process. Knowing the customer was at a vulnerable point in her life, our team-member actively supported the customer at every step. She sent a personal letter of condolence and encouraged the customer to contact us at any time if she needed help in the future. Our team-member recognised the sensitivity of the customer’s situation and responded in the best way possible. 

So, what do I hope New Zealanders will be saying about insurance this time next year?  I’d love to hear them say: 

• “I get great value from you” 
• “I feel secure – you’ve given me peace of mind”
• “You made it so easy for me”
• “You made me feel like you genuinely cared”

At Asteron Life, we’re on the way. We know insurance jargon confuses customers, so our policy documents are written in plain English.  

Looking ahead, we are implementing processes to respond to customer vulnerabilities, our customer communication strategy will help customers better understand how their insurance will work for them and our technology and digitisation will play a big part in this. 

We’re putting the customer at the heart of what we do and are working on how we can build ongoing value into customers’ insurance experiences. 

If you're trying to decide whether now is the right time to get some life cover, it's always a good idea to get expert help. An insurance adviser can offer advice tailored to your circumstances - if you want to find out more, we can put you in touch with a financial adviser.

Did you know:  

• We received 1197 claims for Asteron Life in 2018

• We paid $95 million in claims to Asteron Life customers in 2018

• Of the claims received and assessed in 2018, we accepted 93 per cent of all Asteron Life claims.