28-08-2020
We also want to be more socially responsible and look at avenues where we can contribute back to our communities along with our agent partners and thereby uphold a promise of a cleaner and safer future, Mr.Ankur Shah - EVP, Agency, HDFC Life in conversation with our Editor in Chief Mr. Vivek JAIN
Insurance AlertssMr.Ankur Shah has been associated with HDFC Life since October 2017. He is the Executive Vice President and Head of Department for the Agency and Defence Channels. Prior to HDFC Life, Mr. Ankur was associated with ICICI Bank Limited, where he worked across varied roles in Retail Banking. He has over 20 years of experience in the BFSI space. Mr. Ankur holds a Bachelor's & Masters degree in Business Administration from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat.
Q. What kind of challenges you and your agents network have you faced in the last 5 months?
The lockdown phase put restrictions around mobility as well as face to face customer meetings which is key to our business be it for new business or for agent partner recruitments. The medicals were on hold for quite some time as there were restrictions and apprehension amongst customers to go for medicals. Also the on-ground situation was evolving and unique to every city and neighbourhood. Safety of our customers and Financial Consultants is of paramount importance thus we swiftly transitioned to a complete digital way of doing business. We have constantly monitored the changing times and have been adapting, not only in the way we operate but also ensuring that our agent partners have a smoother learning curve through our flagship skilling and developmental sessions – Agency Life.
We have structured training interventions for our Agent workforce which has seen an increased participation in these times. We have also actively used social media platforms to reach out to the prospective customer base of our partners and have seen promising results. The opportunity that the recent months presented was more towards digital adoption and we have seen the speed to adopt and reach out to customers much higher than ever before. Moreover safety of our partners continues to be of paramount importance and ensuring business continuity by following all safety norms remains the core to our approach.
Q. What are the challenges you anticipate for the next 7 months?
We think some of the challenges would be more to do with how the unlock down process progresses and how localized the issues are rather than a generic approach. We as neighbourhoods, communities, cities, states and country have adhered to the prescribed safety norms to overcome impending challenges and our confidence to get back to business as normal has been growing by the day. From the life insurance point of view we can say that the opportunities will lie in how we are able to reach out to our fellow citizens and assist them in their planning for protection, savings, investment and retirement. There are also a large number of people who want to take up soliciting life insurance as a profession, and our response to onboard them and equip them with skill sets, product knowledge and invest in them will be our key priorities. We will also see how the COVID-19 cases and unlock down eases out. The financial savings will be a function of how the economic activities get back and how the investor sentiment builds over the months. However, insurance sector should see more customers getting covered and new business flows improving. The better managed and bigger insurance companies should attract a larger share of the business momentum.
Q. Do you think online sales of retail products will take over traditional sales in the next 5 years? 1) If Yes, Why? If No, Why?
Newer models and use to technology will always be at the forefront in the way we do business as it gives an edge of convenience and reach over traditional models. However, there will always be a need for retail products being solicited through financial intermediation because it calls for personalized and methodical financial planning to ascertain as well as spell out financial goals and provide product solutions to plan for meeting the needs. This new age will see some of the channels growing at a faster pace than the others but it will never be able to undermine the need of the other channels. Also the opportunity of life insurance is so vast in our country that there will always be enough and more avenues for business growth. But the key differentiator will be how learnings of one model are cross pollinated and imbibed by the others to bring about the difference at each customer level. Reach, convenience and customer Centricity will be the core.
Q. What future do you see for your existing agents network?
We believe the future will belong to investments in upgrading knowledge, enhancing skills and use of technology thereby improving ability to reach and understand the customer better. Bridging the wide gap of life insurance penetration will bring in focused efforts in areas of identifying, reaching out, understanding and assisting customers. Increasing customer base, multi faceted ability to engage with customer on various products and help the customer in multi product financial planning will lead to increased productivity at agent partner levels. We would also see the younger second generation coming in and joining the agency work force. Digital footprints along with social connect will make the sales and learning journey more convenient. The Agent Partners of today will evolve to be more knowledgeable, digitally resourceful and develop skill sets to offer advisory across asset classes and products. Independent financial advisors (IFAs), who have been largely distributing mutual funds (MF), would also consider soliciting insurance as core to their advisory, which will bring a new set of financial distributors to the industry. We also see a younger agent partner force also getting developed that will be more tech savvy and will have a very strong digital footprint.
We also want to be more socially responsible and look at avenues where we can contribute back to our communities along with our agent partners and thereby uphold a promise of a cleaner and safer future.
Q. What are your plans for expanding the agent network?
We always believe in market opportunities, that lie in our under penetrated country, for life insurance and always see a strong need for intermediation. Agent partner networks are best suited to reach out to the customers at large across length and breadth of the country and more importantly across income strata as well. And hence we will keep on expanding our agent network for leveraging the under penetrated markets. In parallel, we will also keep putting in efforts on engaging and skilling of our agent partners so as to give them a professional edge in the marketplace. We are relentlessly working to identify opportunities to double our Agent partner base with a clear objective to reach out to newer markets and locations for a profitable and quality business growth.
Q. From the agent's point of view which product do you think will do well in the next 2 years and why?
Our approach has always been customer centric rather than a product led approach. Our wide array of product line up that address financial needs across customers’ lifestage will give our partners an edge in financial planning. Our belief in strong product innovations to address the needs of our young and productive country will drive us to weave out products ahead of the curve. There will always be ample and enough need for products be it Protection, Savings, Investment or even Retirement planning and all the product classes will see a substantial growth. However we see the newer Agent partner force will open up opportunities for higher Term and Annuity sales, given the current trends in the marketplace.
