Is phone insurance convenient or annoying?

Perhaps you have been in contact with telephone insurance. Can you accept this convenient and fast way to buy insurance? Have you ever been troubled by telemarketing insurance? How do you feel about the way insurance is sold over the phone, the way your credit card is charged? With the rapid momentum of insurance telemarketing today, how do we view this new thing?

Typical and atypical three encounters

“At that time, when I was having dinner with my friends, a phone call came to sell me insurance, saying that it could be debited by credit card.” Ms. Qin described her experience .

The salesperson stated that he was a bank clerk and was conducting telephone sales of insurance and credit card debits. After introducing some features and conditions of the insurance on the phone, the staff said that they could send the insurance text to Ms. Qin. If approved, Ms. Qin would sign and send it back to the insurance company to confirm the purchase. In the future, the bank will deduct from the credit card month by month. corresponding premium.

Of course, from beginning to end, Ms. Qin didn't see any faces, except the courier.

The experience of Mr. Lin in Beijing is another story. At the end of 2005, Mr. Lin received a call from a telemarketer. The other party said on the phone that Mr. Lin received a lucky reward and presented a three-month accidental injury insurance with an insured amount of 10,000 yuan.

Subsequently, the insurance company asked Mr. Lin to provide his personal information by attaching an insurance policy. Afterwards, Mr. Lin found out that he had entered the insurance company's customer tracking system, and sales staff would call him at regular intervals to sell him new products. Although he declined many times, the insurance company staff persevered. Finally, Mr. Lin bought a cancer insurance in February this year. Afterwards, Mr. Lin received the insurance application form from the courier company. After signing and confirming that the insurance application form was sent to the insurance company, he received an original copy of the insurance policy.

Like Ms. Qin, Mr. Lin, of course, did not meet salespeople from insurance companies or banks.

Ms. Qin and Mr. Lin's experience is actually a normal telephone sales and purchase process. But Ms. Wang's experience in Shanghai was less conventional.

Ms. Wang is a credit card customer of a bank. Some time ago, she received a call from Ding, a salesperson of the bank's credit card center, recommending the accident insurance products of China Merchants Cigna Life Insurance, and said that it would be delivered within a week. An accident insurance product with less coverage. Half a month has passed, and the accident insurance policy that was promised at the beginning has never been seen. When Ms. Wang called back to inquire at the number left by Ding at that time, it was the phone number of the China Merchants Cigna Insurance Switchboard.

Ms. Wang also called the China Merchants Bank Credit Card Center to inquire about Ding according to the work number, but there was no result. Ms. Wang began to worry, thinking that someone might have obtained her information and pretended to be a bank to sell insurance, and she was even more worried that her credit card account had been debited for insurance premiums. Fortunately, the premium was not deducted. It was just such an experience that she was quite critical of the standardization of telephone insurance.

Telephone insurance is surging

In Shanghai, many insurance companies have begun to vigorously develop the telemarketing market. From the "first crab" Haikang Insurance learned from its parent company's experience, and cooperated with the call center of China Merchants Bank (CALL CENTER) to sell insurance; to Haier New York Life, which performed quite well; and then to Luen Thai MetLife (formerly Citi Life) and China Mobile, etc.; to the latest China Merchants Cigna Life Insurance (the company currently only specializes in telemarketing insurance, and the Chinese shareholder is a company under China Merchants Group, which can be described as a "cousin" with China Merchants Bank. "). In addition to these few companies that have already taken action, several insurance companies are also eyeing this sales channel, and they seem to have great courage.

It is understood that telemarketing is the focus of business innovation for various insurance companies this year. Telemarketing has a good cost advantage. Through telemarketing, sales costs can be reduced, and the commission ratio to agents is generally lower than that of personal agency channels. What is important is that, under the current situation of fierce competition in the insurance market and serious loss of agents, the development of telemarketing channels can reduce the degree of dependence on traditional sales channels and become an important support point for diversified marketing.

The problem arises and needs to be solved urgently

In fact, telephone sales and credit card payment are very common insurance sales models in foreign countries. This approach not only brings new channels to insurance companies, but also enables consumers to purchase some simpler types of insurance more conveniently, saving purchase costs. Sometimes it is indeed a good choice for consumers.

But this method is relatively new in China. It is precisely because it has just started, so there have been many problems that cannot be ignored. If not solved, it may affect the interests of the insured.

·Is the source of customer information approved by consumers?

Let's talk about the customer's information security first, not to mention the troubles that telemarketing may bring to the customer's daily life. Some cardholders have questioned banks sharing their data with insurance companies. They thought: "The credit card contract requires the bank not to disclose the cardholder's information to a third party without the cardholder's permission. Is this kind of telemarketing a violation of my privacy?"

Through various interviews, The reporter learned that at present, whether it is cooperating with banks, or cooperating with mobile communications or airlines, most of the people who conduct telephone insurance sales are not employees of insurance companies, but telephone callers already owned by banks or other institutions. The customer objects and information they make phone calls also come from the customer data resources already owned by banks and other institutions. Whether they are cooperating as a whole, or transferring customer data to insurance companies on a per-capita basis, cardholders, mobile users and airline users are not given the prior consent. At this point, it is indeed necessary to find a way to give consumers a statement.

·Is insurance sold over the phone cost-effective?

Generally speaking, the insurances sold on the phone are simple and easy-to-understand short-term accident insurance and medical insurance, but as a consumer on the phone end, even these two types of insurance are difficult to understand. Market prices, it's hard to tell right away what a telemarketer is selling.

For example, Ms. Qin mentioned at the beginning of this article, the insurance plan recommended by the sales staff at that time was a one-year accidental injury insurance. There are three types of insurance: diamond plan, platinum plan and silver plan. They are 250,000 yuan, 150,000 yuan and 80,000 yuan respectively. The insured can choose four ways to insure one person, whole family, couple or parent-child. Ms. Qin purchased a family diamond plan (three people) with an insured amount of 250,000 yuan, and the bank deducted 95 yuan from her credit card every month (this expenditure is regarded as consumption, and credit card points are accumulated). From the perspective of the coverage of the insurance, it is reasonable, but compared with similar products on the market, the price of this product is not cheap.

·Are claims and services guaranteed after the event?

“The insurance contract involves a lot of liability and rights clauses, as well as the details of key claims clauses. Can telemarketing be completely clear?” Many consumers still do this question.

Indeed, telemarketing policy personnel can only briefly introduce product functions, and generally do not inform about exclusions and specific limitations. The claims, renewal and other services of this type of policy in the future have nothing to do with the sales bank, and need to contact the insurance company directly through the service phone. This inevitably raises questions about the responsibility of salespeople.

·Is credit card debit safe?

It should also be noted that, although you can enjoy credit card points by purchasing insurance by phone purchase and credit card debit, but at the same time, this purchase amount becomes an "overdraft consumption". In this case, once the buyer fails to pay off all credit card overdrafts in the month in time, various additional charges such as credit card interest and late payment penalty will be incurred, thereby increasing the cost of protection. With traditional debit card debits, the payment obligation ends after the premium is paid.

Another point that consumers cannot accept is that the current telephone sales of insurance are not fully standardized. Some bank staff say that if a customer verbally promises to join an insurance plan, the monthly premium payable will be automatically debited from the credit card. The insurance contract has not yet been seen, and many terms and responsibilities are unclear and have not been signed. Moreover, no insurance company or agent has seen it. Just by phone, it is necessary to transfer the money in advance, which is not in line with the business process and will also Affects issues such as when the policy becomes effective. Although sales calls are recorded with proofs. But that's hardly reassuring.

Rational purchase of telephone insurance

It is precisely because there are still some flaws. Although there is no problem with the insurance types sold by telephone, consumers still need to be vigilant about insurance sold by telephone. Ask a few more whys, make more comparisons, and use your own judgment instead of making a purchase right away.

Also be sure to take advantage of the ten-day hold-off period. That is to say, if you buy an insurance that does not meet your needs, or think that it does not meet your wishes, you can decide whether to cancel the contract within ten days after the official policy is issued. This kind of cancellation is unconditional and unconditional. cost. If the ten days have passed, you will have to pay an additional surrender fee.