Some 46 per cent of impaired individuals are in work “but they are less likely to be employed to work with able-bodied people,” he added.
The Seven Families project showed the positive impact of financial support on people’s lives, helping them get back on their feet and, in some cases, back to some kind of work and “normality”.
These kind of messages need to be wider communicated, said Mr Kornhauser. He added: "Eighty per cent of people with multiple sclerosis leave employment after 12 years. How many of these would taken out insurance if they were aware of this statistic?”
3. Make things easier for customers
Find out what people think. Listen to the consumer. And use this information to help make the whole customer experience, including service, application and claims – much easier.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should fully rely on consumer surveys. Studies from behavioral psychologists can also be very revealing.
Alasdair McGill, of Ashton McGill, noted during his conference talk that Harvard Business Review published a study earlier this year that looked at what consumers think.
He outlined some of the key findings:
- 84% expect businesses to let them down
- 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain. “And that’s in the US,” commented Mr McGill. “The percentage is probably higher in the UK".
- 91% of those unhappy customers will simply leave and never come back.
Damage to business reputation as a result of unhappy customers is almost instantaneous now, as well.
Mr McGill added: "Statistics have shown that we used to tell around 11 people when we had a bad experience and two when we had a good experience.
"Now we jump on social media when a business delivers a bad experience and tell an audience, the size of which is almost impossible to quantify.
“The Harvard Business Review Study also asked customers, what’s the number one thing businesses could do to make them more loyal? The answer was quite simply, make things easier.”
4. Make protection more engaging
We all know that protection is sold, not bought. It isn’t sought out by customers, instead it comes alongside a mortgage purchase or pensions or investments.
However, as pointed out by Jackie Leiper of Scottish Widows at Protection Review, there are many more tools now available to help make protection more engaging. These include things like apps, calculators, case studies and videos.
“There are lots of consumer objections for us still to overcome,” said Ms Leiper. “Research carried out by Scottish Widows last year revealed that the top reason for not taking out life insurance and critical illness cover was that people felt they couldn’t afford it.
"This was followed closely by ‘it’s not a priority’ or ‘I don’t need it’. Interestingly the bottom objection in both cases was ‘it won’t pay out’ suggesting that relevance is more of an issue than trust.”
