A third of customers who talk about protection fail to follow through on taking out a policy, according to Emma Morris, engagement manager at NMG Consulting (pictured),
Morris warned the sector should not become focused on premium growth at the expense of leaving people unprotected.
Speaking at an event marking the Protection Distributors Group’s 10th anniversary, Morris told the audience that protection premium growth was increasing at a much faster rate than policy numbers across the market.
She noted this represented a challenge to the sector of targeting the third of customers who engaged in conversations about protection, but never followed through with the purchase of a policy.
Premium growth vs disengagement
“Premiums are seeing really strong growth at the moment which is definitely fantastic,” Morris said.
“But what we’re seeing is that it’s the underlying case size that’s really driving that growth much more so than the number of policies.
“While we are seeing so many developments in a really strong growing market, what we’re seeing is some of the challenges in engagement, particularly from the lower end of the market is definitely still continuing.
“If we couple that with disengagement, we know that a third of protection conversations never result in people taking the policy out.”
Consequently, Morris added that the challenge for the sector is reaching these disengaged customers.
“The challenge for everyone in the room is how can we make sure that the one third dropping off, which is part of the driver of that lower growth in policy numbers, how can we stop that happening?“ she asked.
“What’s the cause of those drivers of those customers not taking those policies out?”