How are clients using ‘Value Added Benefits’?

“I am now starting to be reminded that I have policies. So I was really happy when for the first time this year I got an e-mail on my Guardian policy anniversary. Congratulating me for another year but what I was really happy about when reading that was, wasn’t just that ‘you’ve been with us another year’, but it was reminding me about what I’ve got access to… ‘Actually, this policy is giving you real value’ and I really liked that.”

“It is incredibly important that we talk about those in a way that’s a fundamental part of the policy not just an additional piece, which is my concern.”

“I went through a health check and I did a full health check with Vitality last year. This gave me a good idea of what my health was at the time and what I might want to work on in order to improve my health.”

“What surprised me the most is how personalised the support I’ve had has been. The nutritional consult was very aimed at me and really personalised that consultation around what my needs were.”

“Many of these services can be really useful just to help you understand not only where you are but where you can go and what you can do to improve your lifestyle.”

“We partner with Square Health for our for our value added services, and over the last few years this has become a really fast moving area and now it’s a pretty pivotal part of the proposition that we provide to our customers and we market through advisers.”

“These are all free of charge and like the majority of value added services in the market, there they’re non-contractual as well.”

“On the mental health support services, 89% of members using the mental health support were repeat users and then within physiotherapy support 73% of appointments were repeat users.”

“Our services include remote GP, physiotherapy sessions, mental health sessions, and nutritional consultations, among others.”

“We’ve noticed trends and changes in how these services are being used, and it’s important to communicate these through advisers as well.”

“Delivering value is what we should be doing and we now have to demonstrate we’re doing that to the customer in a way that the customer can understand, because no one should be underneath any conception you are paying for added value services, it’s implicitly costed into your proposition, the customer’s paying for this benefit. They need to be able to understand it right the way through the customer’s lifetime journey, the service needs to deliver. You need to administrate you are delivering a service and support outcome.”

“It’s our duty and our right to remind clients constantly of the benefits of added value services.”

“We’ve got a couple of key services that we offer clients, for example, remote GP services via ‘Clinic in a pocket’.”

“So probably the most positive trend that we’ve noticed in terms of those services are the usage figures in terms of people under 25. Roughly 1/4 of all users that we have in terms of these services are people under 25.”

“Mental Health UK have identified that 75% of all mental health problems tend to originate on or before the age of 18. So having that support very early on can allow clients to get support when they need it the most and ultimately hopefully prevent the issue becoming more serious over the course of time.”

“Following from what Jack said, getting repeat users of these services is really important and ties in with the trends that we’ve had.”

“It’s interesting to hear about the reminders that you get in terms of the services and their benefits. I think that’s really, really important.”

“One of the things that we need to focus on is making sure that clients are aware of these services from the start. It’s not just about having the services available; it’s about making sure they know how to access them and the value they bring.”

“We also need to look at the feedback we get from clients using these services. Understanding their experiences and satisfaction levels can help us improve and tailor these offerings better.”

“I completely agree with Johnny and consumer duty is a key factor here. It’s absolutely about proving value.”

“Value added services, which agreed with is a shocking name, something like health and well-being benefits would be much more relevant to the market and to consumers.”

“Based upon research that we’ve done at HSBC Life with both brokers and consumers around awareness of value added benefits and also take up and usage, if customers knew they had free access to private services, they would engage with them much more and engage with protection sales much more than they might if they weren’t aware of it.”

“84% of brokers said that they explained in full the value added services that surrounded the products that they gave to their customers. But when you spoke to customers, the awareness was more like 44%. So actually, there’s a mismatch between the two.”

“One of the things we’re about to add is making sure that we’re offering mental health services to 16 to 23-year-olds. There’s a mental health epidemic, especially following COVID.”

“I really think that value added services, first of all, need a name change and a change in direction. They are an essential part of the consumer duty journey and valuation.”

“It’s incredibly important that we talk about these services as a fundamental part of the policy, not just an additional piece.”