WhatsApp is coming into its own in meeting young protection customer’s expectations of an entirely app-based purchasing experience.
This is according to Kesh Thukaram, co-founder at Best Insurance, who spoke to Health & Protection for our July analysis which revealed why positive storytelling matters in helping protection insurance reach underserved communities.
Turning to WhatsApp
Thukaram also told Health & Protection the managing general agent and broker has turned to WhatsApp to better target hard to reach groups.
“Self-employed and younger people remain the hardest to reach groups generally, but for different reasons,” Thukaram told Health & Protection.
“The self-employed tend to be busy and work intensively during the day, and aren’t as easy to reach as employed people usually,” he continued.
“Meanwhile, young people tend to struggle with access either because they aren’t being signposted properly or because they aren’t being offered a sales process that matches their expectations, such as a purely app-based journey,” Thukaram added.
“That’s partly why we launched our end-to-end WhatsApp buying journey last year.”
Resisting one size fits all approach
Though Thukaram maintained even if the protection sector can more effectively engage younger audiences, wider customer communication issues remain.
“This is whether it’s a declined claim in the media, which sets back the good work of years of claims stats publications, or some of the harsher underwriting stances such as exclusions related to Covid/SARS, which we still see in protection,” Thukaram continued.
“There are question marks around how this may affect mental health payouts, as mental health conditions can be a direct result of long Covid,” he added.
“In these instances, the industry could do better. Shifting to a more bespoke approach to mental health underwriting, away from a one-size-fits-all approach, would be a positive step.”
