25-08-2020
This is the time to show customer service for life insurance companies, Mr. Rakesh Kedia , Managing Director and Principal Officer, Arunaya Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd in conversation with our Editor in Chief Mr. Vivek JAIN
Insurance AlertssMr. Rakesh Kedia is the Managing Director and Principal Officer of Arunaya Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd. He has been in Insurance Industry since last 21 years. Prior to starting his Insurance Brokerage company specialised in Small and Medium Corporate Business with team of engineers, he has worked with various Insurance companies in India and Reinsurance company abroad as well. He is an Engineer and qualified Associate of CII, London; Fellow of III and Chartered Broker.
Q. Insurance companies are into stress how you think this will affect your business?
In my opinion Insurance Companies are not under stress at the moment. The business figures of July month show that there is an overall YTD growth compared to last year. So things are in the process of recovering and I think overall it will be much better for Insurance Companies compared to last year. General public is more aware about Insurance now. Corporates are also more aware about the utility of Insurance. Thereby business is increasing. Further in terms of claims, Covid has impacted only health claims directly. There is no direct impact on Fire or other property lines of business. Motor claims which used to constitute a large portion of claims are down. Motor renewals have also picked up. Obviously since the market is slow, business is slow in terms of new motor sales but the increase in property insurance prices has taken care of that. Thus overall, insurance market is positive and the future is much bright.
Q. There is a lot of redemption pressure on life insurance companies, what is your experience?
This is the time to show customer service for life insurance companies. Till now private players have not been able to gain considerable share in Life Insurance market. This is the time for each one of them to show the service levels and customer retention methods. Companies who have made things easy for customers are the ones who are have created a positive impression on clients and done a positive publicity. Clients will not hesitate to recommend these companies to friends. I think Insurance is a long term business and this is an opportunity to make long term gains.
Q. What kind of challenges have you faced in the last 5 months?
I think the start of the lockdown was a challenge for everyone as we were trying to embrace a new change. Availability of resources with employees and solving new issues of new normal came with unique challenges. But every challenge also comes with learnings. We faced all these challenges and learned new things. The positive part for us in Insurance is that Insurance was always in exempted category and emergency operations could be carried out without a problem. We were continuously in contact with our clients and although initially our employees struggled to adjust and cope up but in a weeks time things were normal and running from home. Our all systems were digital so we did not face much challenge in working from home.
Q. What are the challenges you anticipate for the next 7 months?
For insurance sector in a way things are going to be easier going forward. Although covid cases are increasing and health claims coming as well which is increasing the challenges, but clients being aware of this are not insisting on in-person meetings. With the market opening up, business is increasing. However going forward another challenge for employees will be to be back to the earlier normal of operating from office. There are uncertainties around the current situation but this situation has made us ready to face any challenges now.
Q. Do you think online sales will take over traditional sales in the next 3 years? 1) If Yes, Why? If No, Why?
I think online sales is a separate market over traditional sales. There is a complete different set of customer base who believe in online sales and another set who believe in traditional sales. Further online sales is more on individual products and less on corporate products. Although change is inevitable and the change in circumstances like in last 5-6 months influences customer behavior, I believe technology always drives and influences. World over a lot of business is done online. Some reinsurers have even started reinsurance through online systems. Therefore it is difficult to say if online sales will takeover traditional sales, but yes with the technology being of good help to everyone in analysing the data of customers, new solutions are being developed to make it easier for customer to provide them a solution of all their questions at their convenience.
Q. Are you into Retail marketing, if yes what are your future plans?
We are not much into retail marketing. However given the market size and growth, we are looking to enter into this segment soon.
Q. Do you have POS network, if yes how it’s doing and what are your future plans?
We are not focusing on POS as of now as we are not into retail marketing. Probably once we enter into retail marketing we will consider working on this.
Q. Where will the growth come from in your company?
There are various areas of growth looking forward. One aspect is that the entire market is growing, premiums are increasing for property insurance too just like health and term insurance. We are also looking to growing our team soon as there is lot of talent available in the market at this time. We are further looking at various other areas of growth such as cross selling and adding retail marketing and making business specific channels etc.
Q. How many Covid-related claims your company has received so far and how many have been paid?
We have received a lot of covid related claims both under corporate group policies and individual policies. In general about 60% of them have been paid as cashless and out of the non-cashless claims about 70% have been paid.
Q. Which product do you think will do well in the next 2 years and why?
With respect to personal insurance, health and term insurance are the ones who will continue dominance and will become more and more important owing to the lifestyle and living expenses. These have become more of an essential part of financial planning.
With respect to corporate insurance – liabilities such as cyber crime and public and product liabilities are growing. Group health is already a growing area too.
