Value added benefits – How do advisers bring them to life?

“I think the key thing, and I’m sure Matthew will come on to it more, is getting the customers to sort of visualise how they might use those value added services. So asking questions in particular sort of personalising it to their needs, for example if they’ve got children.”​

“We’ve had some experiences already shared around where we’ve used it to sort of get last minute appointments. Times that are outside of sort of the working day. And it can be a challenge in itself just to get a telephone number let alone an appointment with your GP.”​

“I had it where we wanted my youngest to be seen and we managed to get her antibiotics that same evening from a local pharmacy. Again all outside of hours. But I was able to get the appointment really quickly and then drop down to my Tesco to get the antibiotics. And she was able to start that course that bit quicker. And get her back to school more importantly.”​

“Have you found that the value added benefits has helped the sell of protection? Yes, they almost certainly again sort of way you’re thinking about it can make a difference between choosing one insurer to another. As I say quite often you’ve got pence dividing them but at the same time, if you can get that visualisation across to the customer as to how they might be using those additional services then it can make all the difference between a customer going well.”​

“I think Mark actually summed up perfectly.  He said the way evaluated benefits are being expressed to customers is probably the problem. And I completely agree. So a lot of the work I’m doing when I’m coaching advice is actually around, ‘How do we bring this to life in a way that doesn’t make it seem as if from consumer duty perspective we’re treating it as something completely separate or even that actually it’s not part of the core proposition’.”​

“Advisers have to take responsibility for that educational piece and make sure that the customers are fully aware as to what’s included in the policy because when they’re aware, they’re going to be more likely to look at those benefits to see the value in it, keep the policy in the books, and utilise those services.”​

“A common question is going to be, ‘have you struggled at any point to get a GP appointment’. I mean what an open question and who on this call hasn’t had a challenge getting a GP appointment? Because I have, my children have, now even as an adult let alone if you’ve got children. So naturally just that question is going to promote a response from the customer and if the answer is yes you go, ‘Well. Listen I have some amazing news, we’ve got a benefit here where you could get access to 24/7 GP appointments.’ You know how does that sound? Great.”

“I think if an adviser is out there complaining that the clients don’t have budget for these things and aren’t prepared to spend it then they need to try that technique of breaking those individual benefits down and asking them what they pay for them because they think it’d be a very very clever technique of creating a lot more value around the premium than they’re actually originally thinking.”​