Editor's comment: Time to tackle trust

Quite rightly the industry will take some time to look at its achievements over the past year, new deals will be done and products launched. However, in the midst of all of this, I hope the industry will also take some time to consider the conference’s theme of ‘delivering our promise’ and ask itself what the end customer thinks of the industry.

Customers buy insurance on the basis of delivering in their time of need and the last year has highlighted one particular stumbling block – a lack of trust in the industry. My personal experiences of my household claim illustrates this issue perfectly.

Some strides have been made with insurers in order to build trust, such as Aviva
starting to publish its customers claims feedback online and Axa agreeing to publish previous quote data. Many are also starting to realise telling customers what their policy covers rather than what it does not engages customers more. Here at Post Towers I’ve also heard rumours of a policy document of only seven pages being issued, rather than the equivalent of War and Peace.

However, there is a lot more to be done and with this in mind I’d like to challenge the insurance industry to join our Trust Campaign, which we are kicking off in this issue in association with the Chartered Insurance Institute. The move nicely dovetails with the CII’s own Made Simple launch, to encourage insurers to improve their customer relationship through transparency and making insurance simpler.

The CII has created an avatar called Ciindy – the double ii is intentional – who can answer the questions customers have before they purchase their cover. She should guide the public through the jungle that insurance terms and conditions can be.

Alongside this, Post will be bringing together a #TrustInsurance Taskforce consisting of consumer champions to offer a customer view on insurer progress.

I’m delighted to confirm Joanna Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service, as our first member and further members will be revealed in due course.
The campaign aims to encourage insurers to better engage with customers and inspire staff, so get involved and tell us what you are doing to make customers trust the industry again.

Stephanie Denton, editor