PANAJI
But, agents and insurance companies can take heart from the fact that responsive employees and advisers as well as reliability of services have led to increased satisfaction levels among policyholders.
These were some findings by Santana Fernandes, assistant professor at Department of Commerce in St Xavier’s College Mapusa, who was awarded a PhD by Goa University for her research on “Customer Relationship Management, Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Life Insurance Industry in Goa”, under the guidance of Dr Filipe Rodrigues.
PURPOSE
Explaining the purpose of her research, Dr Fernandes, who hails from Carona-Aldona, said: “Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation reforms of the 1990s brought about radical changes in the insurance industry. The monopolistic regime of the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) ended and paved way for competition, with the entry of 23 private life insurance companies.”
“There has also been a paradigm shift in the erstwhile consumer of yesteryears and the knowledgeable one of today. Given such a situation, it is pertinent that insurance providers render highly qualitative services which ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.”
Dr Fernandes said the strategy adopted by insurance providers by way of guidelines, policies, programmes and technology to ensure quality of services and satisfaction of policyholders contributed to Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
“The need was felt to study the dependence of CRM, service quality and customer satisfaction and interrelationships among them in the context of the life insurance industry in Goa,” justified Dr Fernandes.
SURVEY
Dr Fernandes studied the performance of life insurance companies in terms of service quality and its dimensions of tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy, along with levels of satisfaction among policyholders.
“Factors leading to enhancement of CRM were studied from the perception of individual policyholders of LIC and three leading private life insurance companies operating in Goa.”
“The total sample comprised 898 policyholders selected through random sampling covering both districts, both genders, different income levels, educational backgrounds and occupations,” explained Dr Fernandes.
RESULTS
After testing the data with various statistical tests, a number of findings were culled from data analysis.
“Designing and customising products along with rendering timely and quality based services were well received by policyholders. Being transparent in dealings coupled with being trustworthy were considered most crucial factors contributing to enhancement of CRM in life insurance companies,” said Dr Fernandes.
“The perception of policyholders with regards to Service Quality is a result of how they were treated, understood and attended to at every service encounter. Courtesy, politeness and dissemination of authentic and dependable information was appreciated by them.”
Regarding customer satisfaction, Dr Fernandes found that policyholders with high levels of satisfaction were from north Goa, with lower educational background as well as higher income bracket.
“This signalled that policyholders were well aware and not gullible to false claims of insurance providers. Responsiveness of employees and advisers as well as reliability of services led to increased satisfaction levels,” she said.
“The study also concluded that interrelationships did exist among CRM, service quality and customer satisfaction. The strongest relationship was between CRM and service quality, hence insurance service providers should cash on this and contacts with policyholders should be enriched and transformed into long-lasting relationships.”
SUGGESTIONS
Asked to suggest some areas of improvement for the life insurance industry in the State, Dr Fernandes replied: “Use of technology may be enhanced to further and strengthen customer relationships.” “Insurance providers may concentrate on reliability and empathy aspects of service quality.
The role of advisers may be focussed, as it is evident that they play a very crucial role, including as a link, between policyholders and service providers together with new channels of distribution.”
