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Blogs
Our latest blog from Peter Le Beau who considers life in the wireless world... A new way of doing business Weeding out some old seminar notes a few weeks ago I was intrigued to see that around the turn of the century (doesn’t that sound grand?!)we were still wondering if this thing called e-commerce was going to affect the way we did business! It seems so ridiculous to think that lots of sages were suggesting that this might be just another passing fad although perhaps the experience of e-commerce was a slow dial-up and a very limited range of interesting web material. I can remember a well known industry figure telling me after a visit to America that e-commerce was going to be the biggest development in our business lifetimes.I do not always agree that the USA is ahead of us in many respects but it was clear that new business models were emerging over in the States which were not going to go away. There were two common reactions-the people who blew the dot.com bubble up to a ridiculous degree which with the benefit of hindsight and reflection looks farcical and those in the flat earth society who kept naysaying these new developments.They were both equally culpable of very poor business judgement.But the majority were prepared to wait and see expecting that eventually change would take place. The strategic inflection point; that moment when business changes irrevocably, probably came with the advent of wireless broadband.When communication became so easy people’s expectations were radically changed .If you can communicate instantly on the move by SMS,MMS ,phone or e-mail ,the public understandably expect everything they do or buy to be as equally easy ,enjoyable and immediate.We live in “An instant gratification society”,probably needlessly but undoubtedly irrevocably. Yet have the business models in protection insurance kept pace?Have they even kept pace with the business models in other branches of insurance?And before anyone says protection is different try and see it from the perspective of a customer who buys car insurance and home insurance instantly through aggregator sites using post codes or other intelligent profiling material. If we ever want to sell the sort of volumes that really are attainable we have to make protection insurance easier to buy ,more fun to purchase and remember that the customer needs to be able to buy life and health insurance as easily as he or she buys books,records or purchases holidays. We are still some way from that situation.Are we brave enough as an industry to address it? Last week I attended a conference that had been organised by the National Consumer Federation. Its theme was the response of consumers to the credit crunch. It had a very strong line-up of speakers, including: Chris Pond – Director of Financial Capability, FSA David Thomas – Chief Ombudsman, Financial Ombudsman Service Diana Miller – Director, Group Risk & Compliance, L&G Dr Yvonne Braun – Assistant Director, Savings and Retirement, ABI Kevin Brennan MP – Minister of State, Business, Innovation & Skills Lord Lipsey – former Chair, Financial Services Consumer Panel Paul Lewis – Financial Journalist (including BBC’s Money Box) Richard Thomas – Former Information Commissioner Sue Edwards – Head of Consumer Policy, Citizens’ Advice Bureaux I mention this because it illustrates what a hot topic this is. It cost me £120 to attend the conference. There were about 150 other attendees. There were slightly more women and there was a lot of grey hair - average age was probably late 50s. Even though some or many of the attendees may have been in the mass affluent part of the socio-economic spectrum questions and comments from the floor were on behalf of the mass market or less well off sections of society. Sponsors aside, not one of the attendees was from a bank or insurance company. A lot of folk were angry. Government agencies were criticised for being very difficult to do business with. They were too bureaucratic and too slow. There was little or no trust. No engagement. No surprise there; but it meant that headlines about help for working mothers, for job seekers, for the disabled, or whoever were largely ignored. The financial services sector was criticised too – especially the banks. The criticisms and examples fell in to two broad categories: disregard for customers and/or difficult-to-understand products. In the breakout sessions many people noted that the criticisms (of Government and of Financial Services) could have been made, and were made, 5 years ago, 10 years ago or even 20 years ago. Maybe more. But here’s the thing: the main message that I got from this event: Financial Services is happy to talk to us consumers – but it doesn’t turn up to listen. (To what extent are you measured on getting out and about and listening to real customers and building a customer-capability network?)
In our first blog, Protection Review co-founder Peter Le Beau debates whether LTCI is set for a comeback... In February 1990 I had a very busy day. I spoke at a Swiss Re seminar on long-term care,attended by well over 100 people, and recorded a piece for Radio4’s Money Box on the same subject. If anyone had predicted that 20 years on the subject would still be on the 'too difficult' pile surely nobody in that room at Le Meridien would have believed them. It is entirely possible that several people in that room may be receiving long term care now themselves.. Long term care insurance (LTCI) was the market that never happened----yet. It is still an incredibly important issue and one that as someone with an elderly parent and in-law I am very well aware of. The last stages of life are the most difficult, the most painful, the most exasperating and definitely the most expensive if they are spent in long-term nursing care. Just as it never goes away as a social and family issue so it will never go away as a political issue…which may explain the recent rash of activity in Parliament. In July 2009 the Government’s Green Paper on social care: Shaping the Future of Care Together was published. This attempts to set out a vision for a ‘National Care Service’ with reforms proposed across social care structure,delivery, organisation and the funding of the nation’s care for the elderly. So will this kick-start the big debate again and will it go anywhere? And if it doesn’t, what does this say about the country’s willingness to confront perhaps the least glamourous aspect of the 'Demographic time-bomb'. Peter Le Beau, 14 October 2009
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