Mr. Chintan Mehta has 2 decades of experience in bridging awareness & operational excellence in Insurance domain. He is catering to insurance needs of HNI clients at AH Insurance Brokers. Mr. Chintan, along with his team is master of innovation & disruption for mass & class of society. He places his every Staunton right with in-depth insurance business analysis, claims management, re-insurance and Customer Retention. His team manages client business through most trained data-centre and field associates.

Q. Insurance companies are into stress how you think this will affect your business?

Principal organizations under stress will definitely impact intermediary industry. Flexibility and freedom to intermediaries will be restricted up to certain extent, which can create short-term hindrances. 

Though I believe this is a temporary phenomenon, India growth story stays intact. Growth will be delayed not deferred. Insurance sector in particular will get desired boost due to government policies and increased awareness. Insurers will see major updside in days to come which in turn will help my business to scale newer heights. 

Q. There is a lot of redemption pressure on life insurance companies, what is your experience?

India is sentiment driven market. We have seen people rushing to buy Investment products in bull market and queue up for redemption in bearish times. Current situation is no different. Unfortunately this will affect Life insurance companies adversely. Companies with reasonably small base will face turmoil. These needs to be monitored very closely and required support must be extended, else this creates negative impact and new entrants will avoid venturing.

Q. What kind of challenges have you faced in the last 5 months?

Oh! This phase has been very eventful. None of us would have ever imagined such times even in our wildest imaginations. Every concept of traditional business functioning was challenged. 

With the sudden announcement of lockdown, all were caught unaware. People's movement to office was suddenly halted. Initial challenge was remote access to staff to work from home. Few were not having systems or required connectivity, to make things available to them was a task which we successfully completed. Digital initiatives taken well in advance, helped us sail through this turmoil. 

To keep your resources motivated and agile for such long tenure was another challenge. Daily briefings, weekly webinar and motivation sessions from industry stalwarts helped us keeping our young team committed towards delivering our organizational goal of “customer delite” even in such tough times. Here I would like to thank all the industry leaders to come forward and address without a second thought. 

Q.     What are the challenges you anticipate for the next 7 months?

Challenges are not yet over I believe. Next 7 months are going to be equally challenging. Movement of people will be restricted for some more time. Economoy will realign to “new normal”. Certain business will undergo major transformation. Cost rationalization at multiple avenues will hamper corporate insurance business too.  Physical meetings will be reduced greatly. Withdrawal pressure on Life companies and Loss Ratios at Health side will pose separate challenges too.  

Silverlining here is increased awareness and well understood concept of “adequate cover”. These shall surely help our industry in days to come. 

Q.     Do you think online sales will take over traditional sales in the next 3 years? 1)     If Yes, Why? If No, Why?

This is a tricky area. The way I look at this, I will say yes, from current levels online sales will definitely improve. Will it take over traditional sales is difficult to predict!

For retail lines and small ticket insurance products, it may take over. Growing influence of millennials will surely help online sales to capture grounds. 

In the areas where expert intervention is required, online will provide desired knowledge to customer. But the satisfaction of personal touch and assurance of a known face to lean on at the time of crisis will always count as far as insurance is concerned. 

I believe both have own areas to grow and can coexist happily.

Q.     Are you into Retail marketing, if yes what are your future plans?

Our strength is retail. To be close to our client as much as possible is our future plan. Most of retail centric organizations do forget to be in constant touch of consumer due to business constraint which no one can deny. At our end, It is our conscious decision to overcome this and we have designed a roadmap in this regard. We take pride in managing “life cycle” of our customer’s insurance journey. 

Also, to have a known figure every time you think of insurance can be a great satisfaction. With dedicated team of experts, we are working in the same direction   

Q.     Do you have POS network, if yes how it’s doing and what are your future plans?

We have taken a rout of D2C (direct to client). We connect our clients through a hi-tech contact center based out of Mumbai. Currently no plans to appoint mass level POS to increase network. 

Q.     Where will the growth come from in your company?

Insurance is a rising industry and as I already mentioned India growth story is well intact in this sector. Our idea is to create a bouquet organization where we deliver what we promise. 

If you look at our current business model, we have industry highest renewal penetration levels. This proves highest possible service standards delivered throughout the policy tenure. 

Satisfied clients are our brand ambassadors and our growth comes from there. Once a customer trusts us with any one of his insurance need, if is often observed we are invited to advise on their other insurance requirements like their premium car to office, factory, employee benefits or global health and travel insurance. 

It is our endeavor to develop industry first unique offerings to our clients and we have been doing this successfully since our existence. 

Q.     How many Covid-related claims your company has received so far and how many have been paid?

Our success ratio here is 100%. We did insure reasonable corporates as well as individuals during these pandemic times. As I answer you today, all the registered claims have been honored so far. 

Q.  Which product do you think will do well in the next 2 years and why?

  There are multiple products which will dominate next phase. Some of them are Health Insurance with reasonable SI, current average market ticket size is too low. Global Mediclaim, Critical illness, Term Plan, Pay as you go Motor policies in retail segment and at corporate side Liability, Cyber, Keyman are the products which should dominate, I feel.