Protection Superpowers – Education

In the last edition of iPipeline Quarterly I started the first of three episodes based around superpowers, because of course you can’t talk about superpowers if it isn’t at least a trilogy.

In this edition I’m going to focus on the superpower of education.

Much like the best brands that invest heavily on engaging clients, the same is true for education. Brands like Apple, Ikea and Colgate understand the importance of educating their customers on their products.

Take Colgate for example, they spend millions of pounds on free children’s toothbrushes, online resources and school visits to educate children on the importance of brushing your teeth twice a day.

I’m sure most people reading this will probably think “well of course, why wouldn’t you brush twice a day, that’s what my parents taught me.”

However it turns out:

• 31% of adults do not brush twice a day
• 2% admitted to not brushing daily
• 37% never floss their teeth¹

So, what happened? I’m sure within that 31% there are many intelligent, qualified people. I think because the education stopped and there wasn’t a parent telling them to brush their teeth before bed, the brushing stopped.

The FCA Financial Lives Survey 2022² revealed that 17.7 million adults (34%) have poor or low levels of numeracy following financial concepts and the National Literacy Trust³ revealed that one in seven have literacy skills at or below those expected of a nine- to 11-year-old.

These vulnerabilities highlight the critical importance of providing the right tools and resources to educate consumers when purchasing financial products at the same time disproving the belief that protection products are too expensive.

In my experience, every DTC comparison service on the market does a poor job in providing education when it comes to determining how much cover a client might need. The first two questions they ask is:

“How much cover do you want and how long do you want it for?”

Having worked in financial services for over 20 years, even I couldn’t answer those questions accurately, so how should an adult with low levels of numeracy be able to?

This lack of clarity and support usually results in the client either under or over-insured, both of which result in negative consumer outcomes such as lapsed payments or direct debits and cover being cancelled.

If we use education correctly, we can ensure we meet 3 clear goals for better-informed clients:

Education empowers clients to understand the various types of life insurance

Educating clients about protection needs helps them recognise its long-term value

Clear communication helps build trust between clients and advisers

Technology also plays a pivotal role, and it doesn’t have to cost the earth either. Advisers don’t need to immediately invest thousands in lead generation campaigns to stimulate the next generation of protection customers. iPipeline has recently launched a new, improved version of its ground-breaking PreQuo Lead Gen tool, designed to educate customers and convert them into qualified protection leads. By providing straight forward information about their circumstances, the tool provides customers with predictive instant feedback on potential cover amounts, duration and risks, along with an indicative premium.

When clients feel informed and educated, they are more confident in their decisions and more satisfied with their chosen policies. This transparency fosters stronger client relationships.

 

Source

¹ Dentistry: A third of British adults skip brushing their teeth twice a day

^{2 FCA Financial Lives survey}

³National Literacy Trust