Extending insurance service is the key to improve the competitiveness of insurance companies.

The service innovation of insurance companies is multi-faceted and multi-level. It includes not only the innovation of service concept and service means, but also the innovation of system.

(A) the innovation of insurance service concept

The core of the service concept is that the development strategy of insurance companies should shift from business orientation to customer orientation. All the activities of the company, including the design of insurance products, insurance marketing and insurance claims, are based on the principle of customer first.

The design of insurance products with service concept as the core should reflect the needs and preferences of customers and change with time. Consumers' needs come from consumers' subjective preferences and the objective state of their environment. Different consumers have different preferences as independent individuals due to the influence of multiple variables such as age, gender, nationality, education level, growth process and humanistic environment. With the change of economic situation and social culture, the demand of consumers will also change. For example, with the deepening of China's market economy, the reform of social security system, the change of family structure and the intensification of population aging, new risks and new insurance demands will emerge constantly. At present, the types of insurance that people urgently need are old-age care insurance, medical accident insurance, special disease insurance, credit insurance for lenders, and special function insurance for human organs. These types of insurance are almost blank in the current operation of China insurance industry. Although some types of insurance have been tried out in some insurance companies, there is still a big gap with the market requirements.

Insurance marketing that pays attention to service concept should change from traditional trade marketing to relationship marketing. Transactional promotion emphasizes obtaining sales orders, but ignores the period after sales. Relationship marketing emphasizes the whole life cycle of products or services, and buyers and sellers are partners. Relationship marketing is a long-term agreement between buyers and sellers to reduce conflicts and promote the interests of both parties. Through partnership, buyers should get products and services with quality assurance, and suppliers are responsible for ensuring buyers' orders. This cooperative relationship can ensure that buyers and sellers benefit from mutually satisfactory prices for a long time. The marketing idea of applying relationship marketing is to improve customer loyalty. Having loyal consumers is the key to the long-term success of enterprises. In a highly competitive environment, the benefits of maintaining existing customers are more significant than developing new customers. After investigating many industries, Bain Consulting found that if the efforts to keep loyal consumers increase by 5%, the income of enterprises can increase by 25%- 100%. This situation is particularly obvious in enterprises that provide complex products or services. The economic value created by striving to maintain loyal customers is mainly reflected in the following aspects: the achievements made by enterprises in maintaining loyal customers directly affect the development of new customers; Over time, loyal customers will gradually increase the scale and quantity of their consumption. For example, after buying auto insurance in an insurance company, someone may go to the company to buy property insurance or other insurance. The cost of providing services to long-term customers is relatively low, and these consumers are familiar with the company's practices and rules and regulations, so the resources consumed will be reduced accordingly. Loyal consumers are the best "oral publicity team". According to the survey of western business circles, 70% of the reasons why customers switch from one enterprise to another are service quality problems. If a business person neglects a customer, it will affect 40 potential customers, and a satisfied customer will bring 8 potential businesses, including at least 1 transaction. In the highly competitive insurance market, it is the best policy to retain old customers and attract new customers with services.

Pay attention to the service concept, and demand quick, accurate, timely and thoughtful claims, and do not hesitate to pay or overpay. The basic function of insurance is economic compensation, and the form of compensation is claim settlement. Claims service allows enterprises that have suffered losses to survive and unfortunate families to rebuild happiness. For the insured, the most concerned thing is whether the compensation can be obtained in the event of an accident and whether the compensation is timely and accurate. There is a phenomenon of "insurance and claim settlement" in the domestic insurance market, which is also the main reason why policyholders are dissatisfied with the insurance industry. According to the staff of the insurance company, the claim settlement procedures include reporting, registration, investigation and evidence collection, providing important documents, filing, review and approval. Only 2-3 of them need the direct participation of the insured. However, judging from the registration of the report, the people of the insurance company may not immediately enter the stage of investigation and evidence collection, and need to arrange time to do it, which invisibly delays the process of claim settlement. After investigation and evidence collection, whether to do the paper immediately, whether to review it immediately after doing it, and whether to approve it immediately after reviewing it, there may be delays during the period. Over time, complaints that insurance claims are slow and troublesome have been formed, which have been reflected in the society. If insurance companies truly establish a customer-centered service concept, these phenomena should be gradually eradicated.

In addition, the implementation of the service concept is also reflected in the extended service field of insurance. Insurance extension service is an extension of general insurance service, which means that insurance companies use their own resource advantages to provide customers with additional services beyond insurance responsibilities, such as risk consultation, risk management, disaster prevention and loss prevention, etc. For example, insurance services related to credit consumption, insurance companies can use their professional and talent advantages to provide customers with some extended services related to investment consulting, financial consulting and information exchange. Insurance extension services related to pension and medical insurance include regular free physical examination, health consultation and additional rehabilitation care. Some large insurance companies in Europe and America even have their own emergency hospitals and rehabilitation centers, where customers can enjoy preferential services and customers with large insurance coverage can enjoy free recuperation. Insurance extension service has become the main means of competition for foreign insurance companies.

(B) Innovation of insurance service means

Because China's insurance industry has just started, compared with the hundred-year history of foreign insurance industry, our gap is still very big. This requires us to give full play to the advantages of backwardness and learn from the advanced experience of foreign insurance companies; On the other hand, we should combine the specific development stage and social and cultural environment to create our own service characteristics.

By introducing and learning the advanced service methods of foreign insurance companies, the domestic insurance service has made great progress. From 65438 to 0992, AIA entered the insurance market in China, taking the lead in introducing the individual salesman system, and domestic insurance companies followed suit, which started the vigorous development of the life insurance industry. Shortly after AIA launched overseas claims, overseas claims settlement, American international support service, computer tailored policy service, national 24-hour free telephone inquiry, online service, automatic telephone inquiry and answering service and one-stop service, other domestic insurance companies also followed suit quickly.

Of course, foreign insurance companies themselves are constantly innovating, and new service technologies emerge one after another. For example, foreign life insurance policies are credit cards the size of IC cards. The small card contains all the insurance clauses, payment status, cash value, etc. It can be used for claim settlement, payment, loan, even credit guarantee, request for emergency assistance, etc. On the Internet, all countries and regions are universal. Moreover, our insurance policy is still in the form of documents, which brings a lot of inconvenience to the insured. Paperless is the inevitable trend in the future. In addition, most domestic insurance companies have also established their own websites, trying to let customers directly apply for insurance and consult through the network. But compared with mature e-commerce abroad, we are still in the primary stage. For example, in order to enhance its competitiveness, the national insurance company of the United States decided to combine the Internet with other channels of communication between the company and customers, such as telephone service centers and exclusive agents. Because of the concentration of customer information, sales agents can focus more on the individual requirements of customers; At the same time, customers have the ability to quickly obtain quotations, request services, apply for claims and directly insure through the Internet. In addition, whether it is the quotation and insurance information provided on the website or the consultation obtained from any other channel, customers have received perfect, unified and coordinated services. The company has a more complete understanding of its customers. By analyzing customers' information, purchase history and updating habits, companies can design more targeted or personalized promotional activities. Insurance salesmen are no longer "Mr. Running errands", but become professional financial advisers.

In view of the special social and cultural environment in China, domestic insurance companies have also launched their own special services. For example, many domestic insurance companies have opened a national service hotline starting with "955" to provide customers with consultation, complaints and return visits 24 hours a day, so as to establish their own professional service brand and image. In the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, domestic insurance companies cooperated with their Korean counterparts to provide overseas fans with accident investigation, claim settlement services and foreign emergency rescue services. Some insurance companies set up awnings outside the college entrance examination room to provide drinking water and rest places for parents of candidates, and actively assist local education departments to maintain order outside the examination room. In recent years, some knowledgeable and experienced agents began to combine the company's products organically according to the different situations and needs of customers, and designed scientific and reasonable protection schemes for customers. Some agents teach themselves knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, or hold customer salons to provide opportunities for customers from all walks of life to exchange information.

(3) The innovative service of the insurance service system is not only to provide services for customers, but also to manage employees within the company. The development of the company depends on the expansion of loyal customers, and the expansion of loyal customers depends on loyal employees. Then, for employees, service innovation is mainly reflected in the change of incentive mechanism and restraint mechanism. The design of incentive mechanism should reflect the concept of customer-centered, whether for internal employees or field employees, whether for management or ordinary employees. For example, at present, the commission of insurance agents mainly comes from direct commission. The first commission accounts for a high proportion of the total commission and the first premium. The initial commission accounts for more than 80% of the total commission of each insurance business and 30%-40% of the initial premium. This commission system undoubtedly makes agents pay more attention to quantity rather than quality in the process of insurance promotion, which is not conducive to maintaining long-term relations with customers, and what is more serious is that it will deceive customers.

Further reading: How to buy insurance, which is good, and teach you how to avoid these "pits" of insurance.