Due to the strategic importance of this research, it would be appreciated if the contents remain confidential and not circulated for a period beyond five years. I would like to say a big thank you to the agents at Sage who helped with completing and collecting questionnaires. Having served the retail industry as a photographic salesman and ultimately as a director of a chain of retail stores, I was startled by some of the blasphemous remarks about the insurance industry.
In my current position as a life insurance consultant, I have made it my mission to utilize good quality, good values and provide excellent service to the insurance industry's countless patrons. To provide background for the evaluation, a brief history of the life insurance industry and companies was examined. The survey's it* results showed that customers' perceptions of service quality at Sage favored some dimensions more strongly.
Overview of the Life Assurance in South Africa 53 1. Economic Investment Overview
Structure of the Financial Services Industry 56 56
Consumer protection bodies 56
Representative bodies
Financial Services Regulatory Environment - (Framework 64 59
Roles and Duties ofFinancial Services Providers and their 64
The General Code of Conduct for Authorised Financial 64 Services Providers and their representatives
Ombudsman for Long Term Insurance
Financial Services and Intermediary Services Bill (FAIS) 68
Statutory Requirements 69
Golden Rules to Follow When Buying Life Assurance - 70 70
CompetitorProfiling - Keyplayers in the Life Assurance Industry ][
Corporate Profile
The Various Business Units
Business Strategy 77
Business Purpose, Core Values, Ethics and Strategies at Sage Life 93
Call Centres as a Means of Improving Service Delivery 103 1. Some Interesting Facts about Sage Life's Call Centre 104
EVALUATION
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Closing the Gaps on Service Delivery at Sage Life 141
INTRODUCTION
The depth and scope of the study will be refined after a formal presentation to management. A questionnaire measuring the five dimensions of service quality will form the basis of the assessment. A stratified sample covering income demographics from low to high income groups will be surveyed.
The remaining questions are categorized according to the five dimensions that measure the quality of service. It is the wish of Sage Life management not to make the results of the study public without their express permission. Recommendations will be made on how to improve service delivery at Sage Life to optimize customer satisfaction.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Model of Consumer Behaviour
- Five Stage Model of the Consumer Buying Process
Understanding what happens in the buyer's mind between the arrival of external stimuli and the buyer's purchase decision will help. This refers to the degree to which the culture favors the centralization of power and the degree to which people from different levels in the power hierarchy are able to have contact with each other. Marketers are interested in the relative roles and influence of husbands, wives, and children in purchasing a wide variety of products and services.
A buyer's age and stage in the life cycle, his occupation, economic outlook, lifestyle, personality and self-concept are crucial characteristics for marketers. The key to marketing is to identify who makes the purchasing decision in a family, the types of purchasing decisions and the steps in the process. The marketer's goal is to identify these key attributes and, if necessary, reposition the brand in the.
Connecting with Consumers - The Four D's ofEffective Positioning
- Competitor-based positioning
Satisfaction is a function of the proximity between the customer's expectations and the perceived performance of the product. For example, Discovery Life in the insurance category can be seen as a company that embraces social values through its vitality program. Competitive positioning defines what the brand should be compared to and why it should be preferred over those alternatives.
This means that a position that focuses on a particular attribute of the brand can be deepened by using a benefit implied by the attribute as a basis for the brand's next position. McDonalds, for example, illustrates the cleanliness of its restaurants and the good taste of its food, as a step on the 'ladder': towards a place that is good for children and trusted in the community. By identifying the points of similarity between brand essence and consumer goals, marketers will be able to reach a point of complementarity (i.e., the brand complements the goals).
Designing and Managing Services
- GAP 4 - Service Delivery - External communications that over promise
The customer development process involves converting initial suspects into lifelong partners as indicated in the model below. Perceived quality is a result of the consumer's subjective assessment of the quality of a given product. The consumer's perception of quality can be seen as the expression of his satisfaction with the product.
The economic value of quality can be described in terms of the relationship between quality and price. The interpretation of value includes both the perspective of the producer and the consumer, so it has been placed in the middle of the above model. Do customer contact employees collaborate rather than compete with other employees in the company.
Marketing Strategies for Service Organisations
- Promotion / Communication
Finally, to explore the existing and latent needs of customers in the selected market/s. This means maximizing the value of the service, as perceived by the customer, and the company's cost of providing it. Brand value is ultimately expressed in the market, so companies and customers must be aware of the structure of the product line for the effect to be active.
If the marketplace is not aware of the scope of a product line, the scope is unlikely to be associated with brand equity. The paradox is that the value of a focus on the high end of the market actually arises in the middle of the market. Pricing is also sensitive to target market demographics and general economic conditions prevailing at the time.
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE LIFE ASSURANCE
INDUSTRY WITH A PRESENTATION OF THE
SAGE LIFE GROUP Winston Churchill Once Said
- Life Assurance Industry
- Historical Background ,o Life Assurance / Financial Services
- Overview ofthe Life Assurance in South Africa
- Structure ofthe Financial Services Industry
- Roles and Duties ofFinancial Services Providers and their Representatives
- Golden Rules to Follow When Buying Life Assurance - The Customer's
- Consumer Demands on Service Delivery
- Ethics and the Financial Planner
- Competitor Profiling - Key players in the Life Assurance Industry
Notices were pinned up in public places detailing the nsks a trader wanted to secure. The mission of the FSB is to promote sound and efficient financial institutions and services along with providing mechanisms for investor protection in the markets. The main task of the Bank at present is to defend the value of the Rand.
The South African Institute (USA) is a non-profit organization whose primary objective is to encourage and promote compliance within the regulatory environment of the South African financial services industry. The IRF's most important function is to represent the retirement industry in negotiations with government authorities and the FSB. The LOA aims to promote the interests of the life insurance industry and the interests of the insured public.
The South African Insurance Association (SAIA) promotes the short-term insurance industry in order to create awareness and understanding of the industry. SAIFM's mission is to promote professionalism and integrity in the South African financial markets. It must be clear to the client which entity accepts responsibility for the agent's action.
Acquired rights or warranties or benefits that are lost due to the replacement. The purpose of the law is to regulate long-term insurance products and conduct appropriate to life offices. A well-known financial analyst, Bruce Cameron of the Business Report, outlines some of the rules that consumers follow. gt;.
Terminally ill lives can choose to take a full or partial acceleration of life cover.
- Organisational Structure of Sage Life (2002 balance sheet, Page 3)
- Marketing and Operating Strategies (Value Chain at Sage Life) (Training
- Specific questions (These are just a few ideas)
- Concluding View of Jannssen Davies - Managing Director of Sage Life
- Future of Sage Life
- Service quality dimensions
With a large part of the Group's strategy now in place, their focus for the coming year will be on. Gerrard, their largest UK operation, is one of the country's leading private client stockbroking businesses. In a year characterized by slow new business growth in the South African life insurance sector overall, Sage Life produced impressive new business results.
Sage Life's achievements in single premium in South Africa have been particularly notable with total individual premiums growing by 95.5% to R1.2 billion. Total new business (individual and employee benefits) generated within South Africa was R1.7 billion 60.0% ahead of last year. Sage Unit Trusts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sage Life is the group's unit trust management company.
Performance of the group's unit trusts reflected the volatile and contrasting sectoral market trends over the year. We firmly believe in the future of South Africa and we are committed to contributing to the growth of the economy and the development of its people." In the first phase, we provided a technical platform using some of the best technology available.
Sage Life's Collective Wisdom approach provides access to some of the best expertise available in the world, enhanced by careful management and advanced support systems. Once again Sage Life leads the way with their guaranteed products that surpass some of the bigger players in the world. Sage Life took the initiative prior to the pact to comply with changes in legislation and accreditation requirements.
Fifty eligible customers holding policies with Sage Life were approached to complete the questionnaire. Sixteen percent of respondents fall into the thirty and under category, while eighty-four percent include ages thirty and older. An important finding here is that sixty-eight percent of respondents fall into.
SL employees appear to be well groomed and well dressed at all times!
SL marketing brochures are visually attractive!
SL policy documents are well presented and easy to read!
Problems concerning your policies are expeditiously resolved!
SL always performs and or resolves your queries right the first time!
SL always delivers their promises on time!
- Closing the Gaps on Service Delivery at Sage Life
- Increasing Interaction Between Managers, Brokers and Customers
- Improving Upward Communication From Contact Personnel to Management Some of the best ideas on improvement emanate from the 'blue collar' staff. Upward
- A Vision of Customer Service Delivery at Sage Life
- Steps Necessary For Getting Service Quality Improvements off the Ground 1. Model For Sage Life
- Leverage the Freedom Factor
- Promote the Right People To Management Positions
This chart shows that only 40% of respondents are very satisfied with on-time delivery. We allude critically to the fact that only 28% are satisfied with the quality of the documentation. When you buy insurance, you buy hope and the good word of the sales agent.
In light of the current compliance requirements enforced by the FSB, it is very reassuring for Sage to receive a positive score of 76%. This chart illustrates that 72% of respondents are satisfied with the character and credibility of their service agents. More than half of the respondents are not entirely sure of Sage's position in the industry.
The Sage Life product range is undoubtedly one of the best in the industry. This graph reaffirms the perception of customers at Sage, only 4% are unaware of the guarantees. The graph below was extrapolated by summarizing the responses of the five dimensions of service quality.
Overnight service quality miracles are more made-up lecture circuit rhetoric than organizational reality. In light of the above recommendations on service quality at Sage Life based on the five dimensions, the illustration below summarizes the way in which service delivery should be carried out at Sage Life. The potential causes of service delivery failures at Sage Life are a result of the difference between management's perception of service delivery and customer expectations, resulting in service delivery gaps.
Therefore, implementing the recommendations in this chapter on how to improve service delivery at Sage Life will be an incremental process.
QUESTIONNAIRE ON SERVICE DELIVERY
FEMALE
MARRIED
SAGE LIFE SERVICE DELIVERY
QUESTIONNAIRE EVALUATION TABLES
