Summer Internship Report

SUMMER INTERNSHIP REPORT 2015
“A STUDY ON LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY AS A
CHANGE AGENT TO ADAPT TO THE EMERGING
ENVIRONMENT AND INCREASING THE OVERALL
EFFICIENCY OF THE DIRECT MARKETING CHANNEL”
SHAISTA EQBAL
ROLL NO. 145
BATCH 20
A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award
of Post Graduate Diploma in Management
Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship

Certificate
I hereby affirm that this project report titled
“A study on leveraging technology as a change agent to adapt
to the emerging environment and increasing the overall
efficiency of the direct marketing channel”
Being submitted to the
Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore
In partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of the
Post Graduate Diploma in Management
Is a bonafide work carried out by me.
Bangalore
Date Shaista Eqbal
Forwarded By
Mr. Indraneel Ganguly
Faulty Guide

Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore
Acknowledgement
I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to Honorable
President Prof. J. Philip of our college for his guidance, monitoring and constant
encouragement throughout the course of this project.
I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to Director, Dr. Jayekar
Vedamanickan for his cordial support, valuable information and guidance, which helped me
in completing this task through various stages.
I would like to express my profound gratitude to Sr. Dean, Prof. S.D. Tyagaraj for giving
me the opportunity and facilities to carry out this project work.
I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude and regards to Mr. Indraneel Ganguly
(Faculty Guide, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore) for his
support and guidance in this endeavor. I also thank our summer internship program co-
coordinator, Mr. Vijaykumar for his support and guidance throughout.
I put on record my sincere and deep gratitude to Mr. Samrat Rudra, Regional Manager for
Direct Marketing channel (Project Coordinator) and Mr. Aftab Ansari, Sales Manager for
the direct marketing channel of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Kolkata-West Bengal
for their valuable suggestions and opinions in my interaction with them.
I am grateful to XIME for providing this opportunity and allowed me to learn during the
period of my project work.
Lastly, I thank almighty, my parents, family and friends for their constant encouragement
without which this project work would not have been possible.

Table of Content
Sr.No Content Page Number
1 Executive summary 1
Objectives 2
Findings 2
Conclusion 3
2 Methodology 4
Questionnaire 4
Direct calls 4
Sampling plan 5
Sampling size 5
Sampling duration 5
Sampling technique 5
Data collection procedure 5
3 Introduction 7
Overview of the use of technology and insurance industry in India 7
Rising internet penetration a boon to market growth 8
Technology and insurance 9
Reasons for growth of technology in the insurance sector 11
Scope of technology in ICICI Prudential 13
Direct marketing channel 15
Structure of the DM Channel 18
The magic wand of technology in the channel 19
Major roadblocks of the DM channel 26
How technology does helps in solving the roadblocks? 26
Other technologies used in the direct marketing channel are 39
4 Data Analysis 42
A: Market Potential 42
B. Employees 46
C. Customers 57
5 Quantitative Analysis 63
6 Findings 65
7 Limitations of the study 68
8 Recommendations 69
9 Conclusion 72
10 Appendix I 73
Questionnaire for employees 73
Questionnaire for customers 76
Questionnaire for customers 2 80
11 Appendix II 84
About company 84
12 References 87

Table of Figures
Sr.No Figures Page No.
1 FIGURE 1 – The growth of online insurance market in India. 7
2 FIGURE 2 – The growth of the use of internet in India leading
to increase in online insurance
8
3 FIGURE 3- The successive increase in the spending of IT in
insurance industry
10
4 FIGURE 4- Figure showing the successive decrease in cost of
ICICI Prudential over the years through consistent use of
technology.
14
5 FIGURE 5 – showing how the direct marketing channel works 15
6 FIGURE 6 – Graph showing the successive fall in call rates
after installing in BIUs
22
7 FIGURE 7 – The interface of the LMS applications 23
8 FIGURE 8 – various features of the LMS application 28
9 FIGURE 9 – Graph showing the performance of Employees
after implementation of LMS
36
10 FIGURE 10 – ineo+ application 38
11 FIGURE 11 – ineo+ application 39
12 FIGURE 12 – Claim Settlement ratio 41
13 FIGURE 13- Graph showing the breakup of perceived online
benefits by different insurers.
43
14 FIGURE14- Figure showing the online services offered 45
15 FIGURE 15 – Figure showing the change that insurance
industry undergoes
46
16 FIGURE 16 – Figure showing the response of the innovative
technology being used in the insurance industry
47
17 FIGURE 17 – Figure showing frequency of meeting existing
customers
48
18 FIGURE 18 – Figure showing response on if thinks technology
is taking away personal touch with customers
49
19 FIGURE 19 – Figure showing response on if more windows
should be open to sell insurance policies like ecommerce sites
50
20 FIGURE 20 – Figure showing Impact of more use of online
module on insurance
51
21 FIGURE 21 – Figure on frequency of customers called on
assistance
52
22 FIGURE 22 – Figure showing response of employees facing a
free look or complaint
53
23 FIGURE 23 – Figure showing average rating out of 5 on
Performance vis a vis technology
54
Performance vis a vis sales
55

Performance vis a vis relationship with customers
55
26 FIGURE 26 – Figure showing feedback on online service
offered by ICICI Prudential
57
27 FIGURE 27 – Figure showing number of policies taken 58
28 FIGURE 28- Figure showing source through which policies are
taken
59
29 FIGURE 29 – Figure showing factors taken into consideration
while deciding for a particular campaign for purchase of policy
59
30 FIGURE 30 – Figure showing requirement of more services
from relationship manager on a regular basis
60
31 FIGURE 31 – Figure showing reasons for reconsidering while
switching providers
61
32 FIGURE 32- Figure on views on EIA 62
List of Tables
Sr. No Tables Page
Number
1 TABLE 1– Gender Ratio 16
2 TABLE 2– Table showing the no. of calls dropped in different
years
21
3 TABLE 3 - Table shows the performance of the sourcing
managers before the LMS and ATLAS was being used for lead
management
32
4 TABLE 4 – Table shows the performance of the sourcing
managers after the LMS software was introduced
34
5 TABLE 5 – Table showing the breakup of the perceived online
benefits provided by different insurance companies.
42
6 TABLE 6 –Table showing the online services offered 44
7 TABLE 7- Factor loadings and reliability 63
8 TABLE 8- Age break-up of respondents 64
9 TABLE 9 -Correlation between using online insurance services,
technological and service attributes
64

Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Page 1
1. Executive summary
From standing in queues for railway tickets to easy online booking, from shopping in
overcrowded markets to convenient ecommerce sites, from one landline connection in home
to many mobile connections, from PCs to tablets and hard bound books to e-reader,
technology has changed the face of everything.
Today the way business is conducted has been changed totally because of the invasion of
technology and is a major reason for its successes. Technology when used in the right way
can help save time and improve the efficiency of the work to a great extend.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance being the pioneer in private sector life insurance is a joint
venture between ICICI Bank, India and Prudential plc, UK. The company provides life
insurance, pensions and health insurance to individuals and groups in India. ICICI Prudential
has been using digitization to a great extend to improve sales effectiveness across multiple
platforms and devices.
With the increase in per capita GDP over the years in India, disposable income of the people
has increased. It is forecasted that the discretionary spending of consumers in India will rise
from 52% in 2005 to 70% in 2025.
This shows that India is moving from a savers market to a consumers market. This can raise
alarms for people to look options to lock their money and to see insurance as a serious
investment. Thus ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has taken steps to ease business both for its
employees and customers to generate greater revenue for the company through leveraging of
technology.
Today in India only 4% of the people are insured, this leaves ICICI Prudential with a vast
unexplored ocean to capture. As consumers become more aware and knowledgeable, it is
very important to provide them correct up-to-date information about the markets before they
decide to invest. This is where technology plays a very crucial role in making the consumer

understand the mechanism thoroughly.
In ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, a seamless flow of technology along with personal face to
face selling is undertaken as a strategy by them to become market leaders. The study tries to
examine how technology and its attributes is giving ICICI prudential an edge and helping
them overcome challenges.
Objectives:
 To analyze how ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is using technology of various kinds
to increase its effectiveness and be ahead of its competition.
 To observe the impact of technology on both employees and customers and its
positive effect on the overall channel.
 To determine the ease of business by the company through effective synergy of
technology and personal selling.
 To find out whether the performance of employees have increased through use of
technology.
 To understand whether customers are happy and satisfied using with company‘s
technology.
 To find out the reasons why some customers are switching.
 To find out about the different customer complaints.
Findings:
 The performance of employees in the direct marketing channel has increased due to
use of technology
 Many issues of the employees could be easily resolved through extensive use of
technology
 Customer are more aware today and demand transparency in operations

 More than 2/5 of the customers demand an online module of insurance and are easily
adapting it.
 From the survey, it was found that more than 1/3 of the customers are mostly neutral,
i.e neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, with respect to the service provided to them. Care
needs to be taken that these can be turned to satisfied customers rather than
dissatisfied customers.
Conclusion:
This research attempts to find a correlation between the use of technology and the efficiency
of the channel that contribute to both satisfaction of employees and customers. The point of
using the questionnaire technique was to ensure that the analysis is bias free and accurate.
After the analysis, it can be concluded that technology has not only driven down the cost of
overhead and capital costs of insurance, it has also lead to increase in performance of
employees and in resolving major issues.
Extensive use of technology and optimization of resources can lead to happy and satisfied
employees which in turn will generate more revenue and sales.

2. Methodology
The research employs mostly primary data. The main core of information was obtained
through direct face to face conversation with the relevant employees and customers of
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Later data analysis was done using this primary data.
The following methods were adopted for the research:
 Questionnaire
 Direct calls
Questionnaire:
The employees of the direct marketing channels were given a questionnaire to fill in order to
access their performance and attitude towards changing technology.
Another questionnaire was prepared for the customer to understand their satisfaction level
about their reaction towards the constant change in insurance industry.
Considering the purpose of the study, questionnaire suited the purpose best. The main reason
for choosing a questionnaire was to keep the study free from bias. The researcher‘s own
opinion will not influence the respondents to answer questions in a certain manner because
the questionnaire is characterized by uniform question presentation and no middle-man bias.
It was impossible to achieve the goal of no-bias by some other research ways, like focus
group discussion and interview, because the verbal or visual clues expressed by the
researcher.
Direct calls:
Sales calls by sourcing managers to meet the prospective customer were another method to
obtain information. During the calls, the nature, attitude and behavior of both the employee
and customer were observed. It was easy to analyze the constraints and objections through
such face to face conversation. Direct Calls provided deep insights about the customer‘s
perceptions, behavior, and purchasing decision.

Sampling plan:
For the requirements of study, one set of employees and one set of customers were taken.
Employees consisted of those working in the direct marketing channel and have been
subjected to different technological changes in the channel.
Customers consisted of all those who gave appointments for sales call as well as those who
responded to telecalling and few were even cold call customers.
Sampling size:
In case of employees, there were 50 who included in the sample who replied to the
questionnaire and 75 customers who replied to the questionnaire were included in the sample.
Sampling duration:
The full scale survey was conducted from 15th
June, 2015 to 29th
June, 2015
Sampling technique:
Convenience sampling technique was used.
Data collection procedure:
Identification of key variables - the following can be the variables which will be considered
during the study:
 Different kinds of application invented by the company for the ease of business for
the employees (examples - Ineo+, LMS, navigator and so on) and its impact.
 Ways through which digitization is making customers life easy and how customers
gauge it.( example - online form, Electronic Insurance Account, online payment,
switching option and others)

 Before and after performance of employees to understand the effectiveness of
employees.
 Face to face interaction with customers details leading to increase in face to face
conversion percentage.
 No. of policies sold in a day through the direct marketing channel.
 No. of policies that are sold online initiated by the customer itself.
 The average ticket size (ATS) of the company over the years.

3. Introduction
Overview of the use of technology and insurance industry in India
“With extensive use of technology and a committed team of employees, we
strive to be the preferred choice of customers for their protection and saving
needs” – Chanda Kochhar, chairperson for ICICI Prudential life
With over 250 million internet users, close to 100 million Facebook users and about a billion
mobile phones in circulation, it is safe to say that India in going digital. In fact, digitization in
the country is by far one of the most significant technological innovations for customer facing
businesses. And even though digital sales represent less than 10% of overall sales in most
industries, they strongly influence consumers in pre- and post-purchase decisions, especially
when it comes to product information, discounts, reviews, and trouble shooting. One industry
where the influence of digitization can be seen clearly is in life insurance. The online life
insurance market in India is growing at a CAGR of 25.36% thanks to some significant
advances in technology, rapid urbanization and changing consumer demographics in the
country. Part of the reason that life insurance is seeing such big success in the online sphere is
because of the amount of information that potential buyers are seeing pre-purchase, which
includes information on the types of policies available and their benefits, policy comparisons,
branch details, and the credibility of the insurer and the policy.
FIGURE 1 – The growth of online insurance market in India.

Rising internet penetration a boon to market growth
The major driver for the growth in online life insurance is coming thanks to expansion of
internet services in India. A number of projects are underway to bring internet connectivity to
non-urban areas. While internet penetration is still low in comparison to developed nations,
the penetration rate is increasing rapidly, thanks to various government initiatives such as
NeGP, SWAN, and CSC. The private sector is also exploiting the untapped market by rolling
out plans such as Google Internet Bus project.
Insurance providers are clamoring to capitalize on the boom in connectivity in India. Almost
all the leading national and private life insurers have introduced mobile apps that are easy to
access, provide detailed policy information, allow customers to buy and renew policies, and
assist in tracking policy status. All of these activities are expected to have a significant,
positive impact on the online life insurance market in India through the projected period.
FIGURE 2 – The growth of the use of internet in India leading to increase in online
insurance

Technology and insurance
Rapid advances in information technology are changing the way business is done
everywhere. Digitization has made it possible to process and communicate information faster,
cheaper and more easily and reliably than ever before. Businesses using information
technology to improve quality, to lower costs and to design new
products and services. It is a powerful tool for competitive advantage in increasingly
competitive, global markets. The insurance business is being changed by information
technology too. Exactly where the change is leading is unforeseeable, but change is
inevitable, and intelligent participants in the insurance business will want to take advantage
of it. Insurance has been no stranger to technological change. Over the years, the business has
lowered expenses by embracing new technologies in communications and automation.
Insurance has brought to the public the economic benefits of declining loss costs as other
technologies brought better health, longer lives, fewer fires and safer factories and highways.
In recent years, information technology has lowered the capital costs of insurance through the
unbundling of insurance products and through the risk management movement. Over and
over again, consumers benefited. Competitors who rode the changes gained over those who
resisted or ignored them.
Insurance companies face problems which can be totally ducked with the use of technology.
The insurers who are conventionally have been quick to adapt latest developments in the field
of IT. The scope of information technology will vary between insures. The IT has constantly
played a very imperative role in the operations of every insurance company. The fact is that
of all the business establishments in the facility sector, of the life insurance companies were
the first to adopt Computerization as an incontrovertible part of their operation all over the
world.
The swift innovation in the area of information and communication technology has stood
with serious challenges for the insurance industry in India. The practice with the application
of information technology in comprehensive variety of guarantor‘s operations has now
become strategic in the sense that it has direct impact on the efficiency of resources, and a
steepening impact on reducing the case of various activities.

With the entrance of private insurance players, the competition has become more powerful
and an important role is being played by the insurance sector. The use of information
technology is not new to the insurance sector, yet we may find constricted computerization
regarding the use of information technology in various departments of the insurance
companies including the major players from past several years.
The most evident departments are accounting, Legal issue and servicing, claim processing,
sales management etc.
FIGURE 3- the successive increase in the spending of IT in insurance industry
The life insurance landscape in India has been constantly evolving since opening up in 2000
and is at an exciting juncture today. This journey has seen the sector transform significantly
in almost all aspect be it the customer proposition, distribution approach, regulatory
framework, competitive intensity or scale of the industry.
ICICI prudential Life has taken up the mantle to convey the positive changes in the life
insurance to its customer by offering a superior value proposition through their

comprehensive product suite, transparent approach superior investment returns and
convenient service delivery.
Reasons for growth of technology in the insurance sector
Creating efficiencies: There has been a big shift in the industry by implementing insurance
technology to improve workflow.
In the past, insurance companies have mostly relied on paper-based processes. Paper files
have been used for the entire policy administration process, including:
 Policyholder applications
 Claim forms
 Statement updates
 Payout cheques
Firms have traditionally sent information and documents to policyholders via snail mail,
received claims by paper form, issued payouts by cheque, and archiving the folders in paper-
based files. But this process is changing.
Today several sophisticated insurers are investing in enterprise-wide systems that digitize the
entire policy administration process. Rather than collecting information and documents in
paper form, the system gathers info digitally, from the initial agency sale to claim
submissions and the eventual payouts.
In some cases, companies use high volume document conversion to turn those millions of
daily paper transactions into consolidated electronic folders.
Improving communication: This transformation has a direct benefit for the customer
experience. Perhaps the single biggest benefit of insurance technology is empowering more
efficient communication with customers.
For example, many companies are now offering web-based forms to submit claims. It makes
their process quicker to submit and easier for policyholders to follow the progress of their

claims. Similarly, digital signage solutions allow customers to sign their documents
electronically rather than using a traditional paper signature.
Insurance technology offers the benefit of connecting with customers by pushing information
out to them. E-mail, text messages, and mobile communications are efficient methods for
giving customers key information such as:
 Payment due dates
 Status of claims
 A targeted offer of interest
Customers value convenience and these methods are key to enhancing customer convenience
and satisfaction.
Leveraging mobility: Insurance technology offers a key competitive advantage – mobility.
Mobile technology offers the opportunity for greater connection with customers, field agents,
and management. Some insurers have even offered kiosks in emergency zones so
policyholders can quickly file claims, access information, and check the status of payments.
It‘s a valuable use of technology to improve convenience and customer service
Harnessing the data: Finally, companies are leveraging insurance technology to realize the
strategic benefit of big data. The daily transactions of applications, claims, and payouts
provide a mountain of market data that can be used for strategic decision-making.
With drill-down and drill-through abilities, this insurance technology provides valuable
information for product development, strategic direction, and daily decision-making.
Drives business growth: Insurance technology drives business growth by cutting costs and
increasing customer communications. The key trends include:
 An automated approach to the entire policy lifecycle
 Digitizing the millions of documents
 Improving customer communication, including push-out communications
 Harnessing the big data for strategic insight

Scope of technology in ICICI Prudential
“As a company we focused on protection as a critical element of our business
and leveraged technology to reach out to locations where physical presence is
a challenge. The effort has been to challenge status quo.” – Sandeep Bakshi –
CEO of ICICI PRUDENTIAL LIFE
During the last year India has witnessed some significant changes taking place in our country
which have had a positive impact on the economy. To begin with, we have a central
government with a strong mandate; the overall macro-economic environment is positive and
seems to be changing for the better with a focus on economic development and stability. The
other big positive is the passage of the Insurance Bill amongst other legislations. It indicates
the commitment of the government to push the economic revival agenda forward. As the
Indian insurance industry expands there will be a need for additional capital to build scale
and increased FDI limit will be of great help. This positive economic environment bodes well
for the financial services sector, a revival in the household savings rate has brought about a
definite impact on the contribution towards financial savings. A growth oriented environment
is nudging Indians to actively pursue financial asset classes.
Life Insurance is a critical area when it comes to financial savings – it provides the benefit of
financial protection while facilitating building a corpus over the long term. For an emerging
economy such as ours, financial protection assumes greater significance. A look at the
percentage of protection to GDP of India, in comparison to that of other developing countries
will show that we have to work towards bridging the existing gap.
The demand for life insurance will increase as the financial savings and per capita income in
the country rises. The regulatory environment has been a catalyst of sorts for improving
efficiencies, providing superior quality products and services. This falls in perfect sync with
our motto of offering the best value to our customers. Another big initiative rolled out was
dematerialization facility in the form of electronic Insurance Accounts (EIAs). This is a big
step towards making life insurance a digital product and only means that the future of the

business will be more organised and spell convenience for policyholders. This will facilitate
building a central repository of KYC for the life insurance industry,further smoothening the
on-boarding of and claim settlement for customers.The challenges involved with maintaining
physical policy documents will be a thing of the past.
Cost reduction through leveraging technology:
ICICI Prudential Life has been successful in reducing its costs over the years through
leveraging technology. Administration costs have gone done significantly along with the total
expense ratio. Despite challenges in the life insurance industry, they have managed to grow
by over 41% on a retail weighted received premium (RWRP) basis on the back of customer-
centric products. They have continued on their journey of building efficiencies with cost to
RWRP ratio being 49.1%, one of the lowest in the industry.
Figure 4- Figure showing the successive decrease in cost of ICICI Prudential over the
years through consistent use of technology.

Direct marketing channel
Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising which allows businesses and
nonprofit organizations to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques
that can include cell phone text messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online
display ads, database marketing, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, targeted
television commercials, response-generating newspaper/magazine advertisements, and
outdoor advertising. Amongst its practitioners, it is also referred to as direct response.
Direct marketing messages focus on the customer, data, and accountability. Hence, besides
the actual communication, it is integral to a direct marketing campaign to create actionable
segments, use pre- and post-campaign analytics, and measure results. Characteristics that
distinguish direct marketing from other types of marketing are:
FIGURE 5 – showing how the direct marketing channel works

In ICICI Prudential:
Direct marketing is the backbone of proprietary sales force channel. The psf channel deals
mainly with direct sales for ICICI Prudential which involves both walk in customers which is
the service to sales channel (S2S) as well as lead generated ones which involves the direct
marketing channel.
The direct marketing channel (Gariahat branch) has a target of Rs. 40 crores for the financial
year 2015-2016 and a minimum persistency level of 85%.
The total structure of employees in DM channel, Gariahat branch is as follows:
GENDER TOTAL
Male 43
Female 20
TABLE 1 – Gender Ratio
Thus total 63 employees working in this channel and all the employees have been provided
tablets by the company.
How does the channel work?
 DM operates on the lines of pre-fixed appointments (PFAs)
 PFAs are generated by telecallers operating from Mumbai and Delhi
 They reach out to the new or existing customers of icici prudential and seek
appointments which are forwarded to the respective Senior Branch managers of
different zones across India
 Senior Branch managers then allocate the PFAs to the sourcing managers

Campaigns
They are basically five campaigns on the basic of which PFAs are generated.
1. Ibank – this campaign involves seeking appointments with a view to provide services to
customers who have purchased policies from ICICI Bank. It also includes those customers
who hold debit/credit cards of ICICI Bank.
2. Internet- this involves seeking appointments from people who visit various online sites to
buy or compare insurance products. It also includes people who visit the site of ICICI
prudential and go for SMAs i.e., send me an advisor.
3. Services: in this type of campaign services are provided to customers on their existing
policies. This campaign generates 65% of the total business of DM.
4. Inbound : appointments are fixed with customers calling upon the customer care seeking
guidance on their existing policies.
5. Upsell-telecallers fix up appointments with the existing customers with the objective of
explaining any new fund or policy that can be of interest to the customers.
Nearly 1500-1600 PFAs are generated every month for DM Kolkata, operating from
Gariahat, Kolkata. These are allocated to the 63 employees working in this channel.

Structure of the DM Channel
The head of the PSF is the regional manager who looks after the direct marketing channel and
service to sales channel. Each regional manager has two area managers reporting to him and
each area manager has 8 sales managers working under them. Each sales manager has a team
of about 8-10 sourcing managers to directly meet the customers on a daily basis.
The sourcing managers are given leads by their respective sales mangers on a daily basis.
Each sales manager has a target to achieve which he gets by driving his sourcing managers
force. The area managers are in charge of gearing the sales managers to achieve their targets
and gets revenue for the company. The area managers target is the cumulative target of the
sale managers. The regional manager is accountable for the overall performance of the
channel and ensuring that everyone meets its target and in doing so, he meets his own target.
regional manager
area manager
sales manager
sourcing manager

The magic wand of technology in the channel
Digitization has been a major cornerstone of our strategy to deliver superior value to our
customers. The end to end use of technology from on boarding of customers to payouts has
yielded significant gains.
In order to understand how technology has helped this channel substantially, first we need to
understand thoroughly how the business was conducted in this channel from inception and
how things started changing for them. The existence of a direct marketing channel in ICICI
PRUDENTIAL LIFE is about eight years old and those times the structure would be just
sales head driving to get customers through a sales force and the mode of selling was not so
aggressive.
Stage 1 – Lead Generation
This is the stage where all the back-hand work for the channel is done. This stage acts as a
lubricant to facilitate business in the channel. The leads are generated here through various
contacts and campaigns. This lead generation stage has undergone changes to be more
efficient and technology has been a savior to realize its full potential.
 Goldmine – In the early stages of business conducted through direct marketing
channel, a software goldmine was used. It was a Customer relationship management
new business applications initiated using the digital
platform stood at 92% for FY2015
50% of the renewal premiumpayment was
completed through online payment mode and
standing instructions
92% of the payouts were made through electronic
mode

(CRM) software and herein leads were generated though this software using various
contacts and directories. These leads generated were then given given to the sales
manager in bulk to take appointment from those after prospecting and qualifying
those leads. After getting the appointment from the leads, the sales manager would
then allocate those leads to the sourcing managers to meet the qualified customers.
Disadvantages
 However this software was very inefficient and the leads generated were raw
data that required a lot of work.
 Time was wasted by sales managers trying to convert the leads into PFAs
 Most of the leads generated by the goldmine were a waste as the data was very
outdated.
 Many calls were dropped due to bad quality of leads generated.
Thus, ICICI Prudential required a better lead generation system for its operational efficiency.
 BIUs – The business intelligent unit is an improvement upon the goldmine software
and led towards much greater operation efficiency. Business Intelligence (BI) means
exploiting all data assets - whether internal or external - for operational excellence
and decision support, where the ultimate purpose is contributing to efficiency. It was
implemented in 2011, in the direct marketing channel .These business intelligent units
of ICICI Prudential had their telecaller base set up in Delhi and Chennai through
where they operated. The BIUs uses their data centre and warehouses efficiently to
generate leads through various different campaigns for the DM channel pan India.
These leads are then forwarded to the telecaller team, group of experts who takes raw
data from the leads and convert them into pre fixed appointment (PFAs) which are
then forwarded to the sales manager directly through the system. With the conversion
of leads into PFAs, the efficiency has been increased by almost 50% in terms of calls
dropped and the quality of leads. Calls drops are basically those leads generated that
could be converted in to appointment to meet the customers and needs to be dropped.

The below table shows how the calls drops have been successively reduced year after year
after the implementation of the BIUs for the lead generation in the DM channel. On an
average about 19000-20000 leads were generated every year for the direct marketing channel
and out of which 6800 were being dropped due to inefficiency of lead generation system.
This significantly improved after installing the BIUs.
Year No. of calls dropped( in a year)
2010 6800
2011 4300
2012 2100
2013 1750
2014 890
2015 573
TABLE 2 – Table showing the no. of calls dropped in different years

FIGURE 6 – Graph showing the successive fall in call rates after installing in BIUs
Stage 2: Lead Delivery and Management Stage
This is the stage where the leads generated tapers down to the people who would go out and
use them to generate business. This stage becomes essential because it is necessary to ensure
that leads are managed properly and in an organized order to get maximum benefit.
Technology has helped a lot in managing the leads.
 ATLAS - AUTOMATED TRACKING OF LEADS AND SERVICES
 This was the up gradation of technology done from gold mine and it was structure on
which the entire operation of DM was built.
 PFAs generated by telecallers get reflected in the ATLAS of the sales managers.
These sales managers then allocate theses PFAs to the sourcing managers.
 Each PFAs is identified with an opportunity ID. After allocation, these PFAs are
shown in the ATLAS of the sourcing managers as a fresh opportunity.
 The sourcing managers study the details of the customer and visit the customer on the
scheduled time and place. This is known as F2F i.e., face to face.
No. of calls dropped( in a year)
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
2015
6800
4300
2100
1750
890
573
No. of calls dropped( in a year)

 During the meeting a number of services are provided to the customer as per the
needs of the customer.
 Services usually pertain to the existing policies. Solutions are provided and new
policies pitched as per the requirements of the customer.
 Post the F2F the sourcing managers are required to update the details of the meeting
in their respective ATLAS.
Disadvantages
 Once a lead has been dispatched by the sales managers to the sourcing
managers, it becomes a cumbersome work for the sales manager if he needs to
track that particular lead. There is no smart search option in ATLAS to find
quickly which lead has been assigned to whom.
 In order to update a call, there is a long process to be followed which is time
consuming.
 Since ATLAS is available only on the computer servers at the offices,
sourcing managers need to come back to their office to update their calls
profile.
Another system was needed to improve efficiency of employees and better management of
leads and this gave birth to LMS.
 LMS – LEAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
FIGURE 7 – The interface of the LMS applications

With the increasing demands of business, the management of data had become
very difficult, as it lay disorganized in the manual systems and basic
applications. A lot of time was consumed in tracking leads or turning them
into customers. And as the tele-calling operations of the organization are
outsourced, the efficiency and accuracy of information was not very high. Or,
the correct information was not tagged at the correct place. The organization
took the right step forward in going for a completely automated telesales lead
management solution. As a result, a powerful Web-based system was formulated,
which helped ICICI Prudential Life Insurance to streamline operations, achieve
effective lead management and control as well as ensure smooth functioning. The
new Web-based system takes care of all processes like generating standard
forms/policies from the information gathered from the customer, converting it
into PDFs and then distributing the leads to sales staff/agents. The admin
module is intelligent enough to allocate policies from a particular region to
someone from that region only. You can also set parameters and logics to enable
the allocation of particular types of policies to a selected set of people. The
time taken in all intermediate processes has been shortened considerably, and
now when an agent gets the policy PDF, all he has to do is to get a printout and
get it signed by the customer. The system is currently operational in more than 19 cities
where it is giving practical control over productivity. Real time MISs can also be captured
through this system. The system works on Oracle 9i as the database, Apache 2.1 as the Web
server,
Web Logic 8.1 as the application server. The deployment has been done on a Solaris 5.9
server and the Web interface used is J2EE.
In Gariahat branch Kolkata, LMS was installed on 10th
may, 2015 and ATLAS was
terminated after the deployment of LMS.

Features of this Application:
 This is a 100% application based work which is available across all Smartphone. It is
an application developed to helps easy management of the leads.
 Every sourcing manager has its unique user name by which it uses the LMS
application.
 Leads would be received directly to the sourcing managers by the system. This would
lead to elimination of the sales managers and the conceived notion of partiality.
 Auto allocation of PFAs to sourcing managers as per logic based on:
 Vintage
 Super high net worth individual/ high net worth individual/ normal
 Maximum PFA cap based on designation
 LMS works on real time so it updates regularly.
 It contains enriched details of customer along with product details to help the sourcing
managers to do pre call planning.
 Any sourcing manager, who rejects a PFA more than 3 times, will stop getting leads
from the system.
 Performance based lead allocation would be given so sourcing managers doing good
work will get better leads.
Advantages:
 Productivity increases for the sourcing managers as he gets leads directly by the
system due to elimination of sourcing managers.
 It works online as well as offline.
 The need for diary maintenance goes away.
 The leads allocation at Sales manager‘s discretion goes away.
 Performance of the overall channel increases through performance based lead
allocation.

Major roadblocks of the DM channel:
The direct marketing channel faces many road blocks that acts as a constraint in utilizing its
full potential.
 15% of PFAs on an average every month rejected by the sourcing managers. This is
because a sourcing manager has preconceived notion about the quality of the leads
which makes them reject leads which they perceive are not of good quality. Each lead
generation costs about Rs. 500-1000 and the rejection of such a lead results not only
to loss of company‘s money towards generating that lead as well as loss of revenue
for the company when a potential lead is rejected.
 Sales issue includes issue of employees on not able to perform to their full potential.
In DM channel the sales issue is as high as 18%. These include issues faced by the
employees mainly the sourcing managers as well as the issues faced by the telecaller
team due to their operational inefficiency.
 The sourcing managers have insufficient information about the existing customers
they go to meet. This creates a huge gap as they are not aware of the products the
customers have and they take a lot of time while trying to get details out of customers
and then providing them with an apt solution.
15% of the PFAs
rejected due to
prejudegements.
sales
issueexcluding
customer issue as
high as 18%
insufficient
information of
existing customers
by the sourcing
managers.

How technology does helps in solving the roadblocks?
Solving the issues with LMS and other technology in the DM Channel
 With LMS coming into picture, the rejection of the PFAs would be reduced to a
considerable extent. This is because if a sourcing manager rejects three PFAs, he
would no longer get leads from the system. This would act as a major improvement
towards reducing the no. of PFAs rejected by the sourcing managers. It would reduce
the loss of company‘s money and increase their revenue. Moreover performance
based lead allocation would further improve this condition as the sourcing managers
would get better quality leads depending upon their performance.
 On a one to one rendezvous with the employees, it was found that the major reason
for the high percentage of sales issue was that the employees were unable to reach the
customers at the appointed time due to faulty addresses provided by the call centre
team. Due to the difficulty in finding places, the sourcing manager are not able to
reach the customer for a face to face conversation (F2F) on time and so the meeting
gets deferred. With LMS a new feature is attached to it which involves a GPRS
tracker system and each sourcing manager‘s location would be tracked. So leads
would be given to the sourcing managers which are near to the location they are
currently at. This would ensure that the sourcing manager would easily and quickly
identify the address and reach the customer on time.
 For the faulty addresses generated by the telecaller, the company is working towards
the operational efficiency of call centre through a segmented telecaller basis. The
company plans to open up callcentres in all the metros and cosmos to have better and
accurate details of the leads and customer profile.
 LMS will have a feature known as profile and it will have details of all the customers
that comes as a lead to them. It includes both existing and new customers. The data in
the profile will be enriched with all customer details such as his date of birth and the

product details, the time of inception, different premiums paid and so on. This is done
so that before a sourcing manager meets a customer he has sufficient knowledge
about his needs and requirements.
 With LMS, the updation of calls becomes very easy as now sourcing managers would
not have to come to office to update; they could easily do it through the LMS
application available on their tabs.
 Their productively increases by a great extent because the sourcing mangers need not
come to their office to get calls by sales managers, the server would automatically
send them their PFAs for the day and they would be able to meet more customers in a
day.
 They get alerts in the form of notifications and messages whenever a lead is sent to
them by the system. So they do not miss their appointment by overlooking the leads.
There is a minimum gap of 2 hours between any PFA send by the system to any
sourcing manager so they schedule their time accordingly.
 Sometimes two sourcing managers used to get the same lead because of the
negligence of the sales manager leading to time and efforts wastage. This issue would
be completely avoided because now system will directly send the leads to each
sourcing manager.
 Makes the entire work organized and synchronized. Sourcing managers can set alarms
in the LMS to remind them of their appointments and follow ups. The need to
maintain cumbersome diary is now over. They can oversee their entire month
calendar and mark their appointments.

FIGURE 8 – various features of the LMS application
The following tables shows a before and after performance analysis of the sourcing
employees with respect to the LMS application. Two months data has been taken before LMS
was implemented and after LMS was installed.
No. of sourcing managers – 51
o F2F- face to face and it means how many customers a sourcing manager met out of
the leads provided to him expressed in percentage.
o Conversion – it is the percentage of how many customers were converted to do
business by the sourcing managers.
o PFAs – they are pre fixed appointments received by the sourcing managers.
o Sales issue – the issues faced that sourcing manager on not being able to meet the
customer on the appointed date and time.
The table below shows the performance of the sourcing managers before the LMS was
introduced and ATLAS was being used for lead management. Data pertains to two months
March and April, 2015.

Name of the
employee
PFAs
received
PFAs
attended
Conversion
%
F2F% Sales issue
Subhronil
das
45 38 5% 84% 4%
Shoumi
banerjjee
50 42 4% 84% 3%
Shamita deb 32 25 2% 78% 6%
Sutanu
mukerjee
35 25 3% 71% 8%
Habib ansari 52 48 8% 92% 2%
Dipan ghosh 42 40 11% 95% 2%
Sumanta
bhatta
38 30 9% 79% 9%
Tushar sinha 32 28 20% 88% 4%
Imraan khan 35 29 9% 83% 4%
Irfan mullick 30 28 16% 93% 2%
Jayanto banu 28 25 15% 89% 3%
Arka das 49 31 8% 63% 14%
Anjan de 55 50 21% 91% 2%
Anirban
ghosh
69 54 19% 78% 9%
Akshay
ghosh
64 52 24% 81% 5%
Amit basu 61 59 16% 97% 2%
Kumar
pallav
31 27 8% 87% 3%
Amit sinha 25 20 5% 80% 5%
Shabbir ali 40 35 9% 88% 5%
Disha de 44 34 8% 77% 5%
Tapoja roy 42 38 11% 90% 4%

Debrupa
dutta
45 37 7% 82% 8%
Dona roy 38 33 9% 87% 4%
Pamila roy 39 34 7% 87% 4%
Ritu kumar 40 33 13% 83% 3%
Shreya ghosh 44 32 12% 73% 6%
Neha himal 42 31 9% 74% 6%
Hemant jain 50 25 10% 50% 16%
Suvaghata
das
56 47 17% 84% 4%
Abhik roy 54 47 21% 87% 3%
Anjana das 52 45 20% 87% 2%
Amir ali 51 51 10% 100% 0%
Oindrella de 38 38 14% 100% 0%
Aftab ansari 34 25 7% 74% 6%
Biswajit das 37 29 6% 78% 8%
Shontu
shayal
39 38 8% 97% 2%
Ketan gaurav 40 35 18% 88% 3%
Piyush sinha 42 42 11% 100% 0%
Aditya
kumar
55 50 19% 91% 2%
Asif pradhan 46 42 8% 91% 2%
Amrit kaur 65 61 17% 94% 1%
Victor
sameul
22 20 7% 91% 2%
Asharfi
mullick
25 21 6% 84% 7%
Ayesha ansar 21 21 8% 100% 0%
Shagufta
mullick
26 22 7% 85% 2%

Upahar
biswas
66 60 13% 91% 1%
Aheli dey 55 50 9% 91% 2%
Rinky kapoor 62 60 13% 97% 2%
Rahul roy 55 49 12% 89% 3%
Bimal
chowdhury
29 21 6% 72% 10%
TABLE 3 - Table shows the performance of the sourcing managers before the LMS and
ATLAS was being used for lead management
 From the table above, it has seen that the sales issue was pretty for many sourcing
managers. Only 3 respondents had no sales issue in these two months and there were
3 respondents whose sales issue was greater than 10% in these two months.
 Along with that the F2F percentage which should ideally be 100% was quite low for
many sourcing managers and only 4 respondents had achieved that 100% required.
 When inquired about the low percentage onF2F and high percentage on sales issues,
most respondents replied that they were late for meeting to customers due to reasons
like faulty addresses. For some F2F was as low as 60%.
The table below shows the performance of the sourcing managers after the LMS software
was introduced. Data pertains to the two months May and June, 2015.
Name of the
employee
PFAs
received
PFAs
attended
Conversion% Sales
issue
F2F%
Subhronil das 52 48 5% 4% 92%
Shoumi
banerjjee
51 50 4% 2% 98%
Shamita deb 38 35 3% 6% 92%
Sutanu
mukerjee
43 33 2% 7% 76%

Habib ansari 55 55 10% 3% 100%
Dipan ghosh 52 52 11% 2% 100%
Sumanta
bhatta
43 39 9% 9% 90%
Tushar sinha 38 31 23% 4% 81%
Imraan khan 38 34 7% 4% 89%
Irfan mullick 38 35 19% 2% 92%
Jayanto banu 25 21 14% 1% 84%
Arka das 54 42 8% 11% 77%
Anjan de 55 50 20% 2% 90%
Anirban
ghosh
65 55 19% 7% 84%
Akshay ghosh 64 59 22% 4% 92%
Amit basu 65 63 18% 2% 96%
Kumar pallav 25 21 8% 3% 84%
Amit sinha 30 24 5% 4% 80%
Shabbir ali 42 38 7% 4% 90%
Disha de 45 38 8% 5% 84%
Tapoja roy 40 36 12% 4% 90%
Debrupa
dutta
44 40 6% 8% 90%
Dona roy 40 40 9% 4% 100%
Pamila roy 43 41 7% 4% 95%
Ritu kumar 38 33 11% 3% 86%
Shreya ghosh 44 30 12% 5% 68%
Neha himal 35 26 15% 5% 74%
Hemant jain 50 39 10% 12% 78%
Suvaghata das 55 51 20% 2% 92%
Abhik roy 55 55 21% 1% 100%
Anjana das 50 38 20% 2% 76%
Amir ali 53 53 10% 0% 100%

Oindrella de 48 48 11% 0% 100%
Aftab ansari 44 39 8% 4% 88%
Biswajit das 40 38 9% 7% 95%
Shontu shayal 39 38 8% 2% 97%
Ketan gaurav 41 38 18% 3% 92%
Piyush sinha 42 42 15% 0% 100%
Aditya kumar 56 55 14% 2% 98%
Asif pradhan 48 48 14% 2% 100%
Amrit kaur 66 64 16% 1% 96%
Victor sameul 20 14 5% 2% 70%
Asharfi
mullick
29 25 6% 5% 86%
Ayesha ansar 28 28 8% 0% 100%
Shagufta
mullick
29 27 7% 2% 93%
Upahar
biswas
69 55 12% 1% 79%
Aheli dey 55 50 8% 2% 90%
Rinky kapoor 60 60 13% 1% 100%
Rahul roy 54 45 12% 3% 83%
Bimal
chowdhury
26 18 7% 8% 69%
Table 4 – Table shows the performance of the sourcing managers after the LMS
software was introduced
 From the above table, it can be seen that the performance of employees increased
after using LMS application.
 The sales issued has decreased for 52% of the respondents and the F2F % has also
gone up for 64% of the respondent and 9 employees achieved 100% compared to the
three employees before the implementation of the LMS.

 PFAs attended have gone up for 88% of the employees and even the conversion ratio
has gone up for 23% of the employees.
Thus it can be analyzed that deployment of software just two months back had a good impact
on the performance of the employees because their work became easy and organized with
technology and over the years this trend will be continued to have a great impact on the
overall efficiency of the channel.
Quantitative Analysis of the performance of Employees
Dependent variable – F2F after
Independent variable – F2F before
Variables Entered/Removed
b
Variables Variables
Model Entered Removed Method
1 F2F before
a
. Enter
All requested variables entered.
Dependent Variable: F2F after
Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model R R Square Square the Estimate
1 .761
a
.580 .570 5.59023%
a. Predictors: (Constant), F2F before
ANOVA
b
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 1853.467 1 1853.467 59.310 .000
a
Residual 1343.778 43 31.251
Total 3197.244 44
Predictors: (Constant), F2F before
Dependent Variable: F2F after
Coefficients
a

Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 26.685 8.327 3.205 .003
F2F before .742 .096 .761 7.701 .000
a. Dependent Variable: F2F after
Thus we can see there is a strong correlation between the F2F after and F2F before. It can be
safely concluded that implementation of LMS would lead to increase in performance of
employees. The graph below shows that the performance of employees with be for the better
in the future and the trend of future increase of F2F done by employees can be estimated.
Figure 9 – Graph showing the performance of Employees after implementation of LMS

Stage 3: Client Meeting
This is the F2F stage where the sourcing managers meet the customers and try to get
business. This is the most important stage as it generates revenue for the company. This
stage is where the actual sales start. I personally had gone for 45 calls with the sourcing
managers and met clients and what I observed was that along with personal selling ability, the
sourcing managers need to be very adept with using technology to get a deal. The reason
being that customers today are both technologically aware and savvy and need prompt
solutions to their financial needs. I found today are equally knowledgeable about markets and
they require accurate answers to their needs.This can only be provided with up to date
technology that is trusted and authentic.
In the direct marketing channel, all employees have been provided tablets by the company
and various applications are installed for improving their efficiency. One such application is
ineo+ which the sourcing managers use for pitching products to the customers.
The one and only- iNeo+ by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co ltd is a State of the art
application for end to end life Insurance planning on Tablets. Experience being empowered
with convenient features to boost your sales.
With the help of ineo+, the sourcing managers are able to a need analysis of the customers
through eight minutes pitching available on ineo+.
Sourcing managers first identify the stage a customer belongs to i.e. single, married with
young children, married with grown up children and retired or nearing retirement. Through
the stage, a customer is in, the sourcing manager plans his or her financial needs taking in
mind the risk he or she wants to take in future. Keeping in mind the customer need for
investment and external factors like inflation, the sourcing managers recommends products as
shown by the application. These recommendations provided by the application is the most apt
for the customers keeping in mind his needs.

Figure 10 – ineo+ application
Apart from eight minutes pitching, there are various other functions that can be done by
ineo+ which helps both the customer and the sourcing manager. The features are as follows:
 Sign in – customers, partners and employees can sign in by entering ID and password
to have access to the details required by them by just a click of a button.
 Buy online – through this feature a customer can browse through the wide range of
products like wealth plans, protection plans, traditional plans, term plans and other
ULIP plans and read about their features along with other details to get a clear
understanding.
 Application tracker – here by just providing your application number, customers can
track the latest status of their application and can also complete the application
process of incomplete forms.
 Customer need analysis – through this feature customers get comprehension financial
planning to get to know what right for them in just three simple steps and it provides
the ideal life cover of the person keeping in mind inflation and the risk taken. It takes
into factors of the current monthly expenses a person is incurring and what will he
need to incur after 10 years with the same lifestyle so that he prepares for the future.
 Customer service – this feature provide an online 24*7 policy services for customers
like online renewal of premiums, automatic transfer of policy from debt to equity and

vice versa, NAV value, e-statements, top-ups and various other services that are
needed by the customers.
This application is a major resource in the DM channel both for customers and employees.
Many closures have happened because of presentation through ineo+ and the effectiveness of
the channel has increased.
Figure 11 – ineo+ application
Other technologies used in the direct marketing channel
are:
Ipresent :
This is a unique combination story selling concepts that help advisors and sourcing managers
to generate instant tailor made plans which are best suited for their customer‘s investment
requirement.
Both gain through the use of this technology extensively. Sourcing managers gain through
strong customer proposition, increased Upsell opportunities, and sustainable long term
income. Customers gain through getting instant quote, goal based saving, easy to understand
and customized financial plans.
Customised protection on click:
The sales strategy is to understand the needs of customers, on the basis of various parameters
such as current income, long term goals, liabilities, life stage etc., and offer products which
will enable them to achieve their financial goals. More importantly, it builds awareness

amongst customers on the need to have a disciplined approach to building a savings pool
while providing protection. The underwriting, KYC validation and policy decision is virtually
real-time. The digital platform has ironed out legacy challenges faced by customers while
purchasing life insurance. All this has been possible due to the adoption of technology and
simplifying the process. They will continue to build on the digital platform to deliver better
value to our customers.
Products to meet changing individual needs:
The need for protection and financial security changes with changing life stages. The
products portfolio is developed on the basis of research and regular engagement with
consumers and policyholders. For customers, who want to benefit from exposure to capital
markets, they have a suite of unit linked insurance plans (ULIPs). Customers with a low risk
profile can choose endowment or traditional products which provide regular income. It has
been their endeavour to offer the best products to our customers; product innovation therefore
assumes greater significance. To keep pace with the changing needs of customers we
introduced an innovative product – ICICI Pru Smart life. This product provides the sum
assured to the nominee on death of the policyholder. Importantly, on maturity the fund value
is given to the nominee. Effectively, it enables the family or dependants to tide over the
immediate crisis as well do not jeopardize their long term financial goals. Our focus on
technology has simplified the customer on-boarding process.
E-KYC – documentation a thing of the past:
Technology has been the enabler for us to deliver superior service to customers to further
strengthen the trust they have reposed in the Company.
Through e-KYC we have been able to provide customers with a hassle free onboarding
experience and virtually eliminate paperwork. The success of this process is reflected in the
reduction in policy issuance time. More importantly, this process delights customers as it is
convenient and rationalizes their time. As a result of using the digital platform, the degree of
engagement and interaction level with the customers has grown significantly. Further, it has
improved the efficiency levels of our distribution network on parameters of customer service
and productivity.

Technology at the forefront for claim settlement
At ICICI Prudential Life it is considered that the claims settlement process to be one of the
service differentiators. Their endeavor is to ensure that claims are settled in a hassle-free and
time bound manner. A sale affected on the basis of matching products to needs of customers
ensures a satisfied customer for the long term. This effectively translates into reduced
turnaround time at the time of claim settlement. Apart from a 24x7 claim care call centre, the
digital platform provides convenience as nominees can raise a claim from the comfort of their
homes. For the last three years we have consistently maintained a high claims settlement
ratio. The following graph gives the claim settlement ratio since FY2013. The total quantum
of claims settled in FY2015 is ` 123.64 billion.
Figure 12 – Claim Settlement ratio

4. Data Analysis
A: Market Potential
Analysis of perceived benefits of information technology integration in Insurance Business
Total no. of respondents – 81
To analyze the market potential for online insurance and benefits of online services offered
by different insurance companies as perceived by customers, a study was done taking in 81
respondents through telephonic conversation and through sending emails to find how what
benefits do customers enjoy the most in terms of online insurance and which companies are
offering it. Before getting into study of the employees and customers to show the correlation
between the use of technology and increase in the efficiency, it was imperative to do a
research analysis to find what were the market considerations in regards to technology and
online insurance.
Benefits of
online
insurance
LIC ICICI
PRUDENTIAL
LIFE
MAX
NEW
YORK
LIFE
HDFC
LIFE
OTHERS total
Convenience 8 10 4 2 0 24
Time saving 3 5 2 1 1 12
Transparency 3 19 2 2 2 28
Cost saving 3 9 2 2 1 17
Total 17 43 10 7 4 81
TABLE 5 – Table showing the breakup of the perceived online benefits provided by
different insurance companies.

BENEFITS OF ONLINE INSURANCE
FIGURE 13- Graph showing the breakup of perceived online benefits by different
insurers.
The data has been collected from primary sources through questionnaire given over telephone
and emails sent to customers to rate their level of agreement on the above parameters. Total
81 respondents data were collected who were asked about the benefits online insurance
provided by different insurance companies. Out of the 81 respondents, 43 respondents voted
for ICICI prudential on the total online benefits provided by them, followed by LIC. This
shows that ICICI Prudential has a good name for online benefits in the market which can be
further leveraged.
Further it can be seen that customers today are becoming technology aware and demand
greater transparency in operation as 19 respondents has said transparency to be their major
benefit of online insurance because mis-selling is also a concern in India, where a belief
persists that distributors are sometimes more focused on selling products to trigger
commission payments than on meeting customers‘ needs. There is a further idea that agents
do not always share the correct information on returns or the timeframe in which payments
will be made. This implies that many consumers feel confident at the time of purchase, but at
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
convienience
time savings
transparency
cost savings
total
insurance companies
No.ofrespondents

a later date realize that some features of the policy are not in line with what was promised by
the agent.
Analysis on the perceived benefits that respondents get from the online insurance services
TABLE 6 –Table showing the online services offered
The table above shows the online services offered by different insurance companies and what
feature is considered the most important to the customers.
Online services Respondent choice
SEEKING
PRODUCT AND
RATE
INFORMATION
10
CALCULATE
PREMIUM
PAYMENT
INFORMATION
6
DOWNLOAD
APPLICATION
9
CHECK FUND
VALUE ONLINE
13
APPLY FOR
INSURANCE
LOAN ONLINE
6
INTER ACCOUNT
TRANSFER
11
ONLINE
PREMIUM
PAYMENT
20
OTHERS 5
total 81

FIGURE 14- Figure showing the online services offered
 81 respondents were interviewed and out of which 20 voted for online premium
payment as the best feature.
 13 respondents for checking fund value online which is a change in behavior of
customers from being passive investor to being highly active.
 11 respondents voted for inter account transfer which means transfer of the funds
from debt to equity and vice versa based on market conditions shows how
technological friendly and advanced a customer.
 10 for seeking product and rate information, 9 for downloading applications, 6 for
calculating premium payment and apply for insurance loan and 5 for others .
 To respond to customers‘ desire to research products independently and to help
customers make appropriate choices, companies need to provide simpler and more
transparent information via their own agents, online or social media channels.
10
6
9
13
6
11
20
5
81
Respondent choice
SEEKING PRODUCT AND
RATE INFORMATION
CALCULATE PREMIUM
PAYMENT INFORMATION
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION
CHECK FUND VALUE
ONLINE
APPLY FOR INSURANCE
LOAD ONLINE
INTER ACCOUNT
TRANSFER
ONLINE PREMIUM
PAYMENT
others

B. Employees
Total no. of respondents - 51
When the employees of the DM Channel Gariahaat branch were given questionnaires how is
technology helping them to perform and do better. Questions were also asked on how the
channel‘s effectiveness is improving through better improved technology. Results have been
analyzed to show the correlation between the use of technology and increase in the
effectiveness of employees.
Q1. What do you think about the constant change that insurance industry undergoes?
FIGURE 15 – Figure showing the change that insurance industry undergoes
From the graph, it can be concluded that more than 80% of the employees feel that the
constant change that the insurance industry undergoes is for the better. 42% of the
respondents said that it helps that keep updated while other 42% said their work processes
becomes easier with new changes. 16% of the respondents felt that constant change makes
adaptation difficult for them affecting their performance and overall effectiveness.
42%
16%
42%
It helps to be updated
with the environment.
It makes adaptation to
new changes very
difficult.
Work processes become
easier with new changes

Q2. What do you think of the innovative technology being used in the insurance
industry?
FIGURE 16 – Figure showing the response of the innovative technology being used in
the insurance industry
When asked about the innovative technology being used in the industry and the channel in
particular 70% of the respondents felt that it makes work easier and faster. It can be analyzed
that employees are receptive towards technological advances in the channel and they would
want to be use it for their effectiveness. The rest 30% felt that technology complicated things
for them and adapting to newer technology was an issue. Care needs to be taken for these
30% respondents and it be should be understood that where they are facing problems so that
it can be rectified. The need for proper training the people also arises so that they do not have
issues adapting to new technology and it should come to them naturally.
70%
12%
18%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
It makes work easier
and faster
It complicates things Adaptability to
technology is an issue

Q3.How often do you go to meet your existing customers?
FIGURE 17 – Figure showing frequency of meeting existing customers
Through this question serious issues have come to the front which should be taken care
immediately for the overall effectiveness of the channel. Only 36% of the employees go to
meet or speak to them once in two months. Sourcing managers are relationship managers as
well and it their primary objective to build a long lasting relationship with customers through
trust. After any sales, every sourcing manager should be in constant touch with their
customers to provide service and security.
The data shows that 28% of the employees meet their customer when they request them to.
This is alarming for the company and can create customer retention issues. A customer
should be provided regular service and the service manager should always be in contact with
them to create the service differentiator. 14% of employees meet their customers once in 6
months while 22% of employees meet their customers once in a year. A sourcing manager
should not meet the customers only for upsell purposes but also for other purposes like
providing solutions.
Consumers were very clear about where carriers could improve service. The claims process
was cited by more than half of the consumers, general administration by a third and response
times and communication followed very close behind. These issues reflect the parts of the
value chain that are most critical to the customer. In particular, there is a high level of
consumer dissatisfaction with delays in claim settlement and under-payment
36%
14%22%
28%
Once in two months Once in six months
Once in a year On request

Q4.Do you think technology is taking away personal touch with customers?
FIGURE 18 – Figure showing response on if thinks technology is taking away personal
touch with customers
When asked that whether technology is taking away the personal touch with customers, 42%
of employees responded that with the help of technology, their personal selling abilities have
increased because technology brings in the right understanding with customers. 38% state
that the personal touch still remains even the use of technology which means that technology
is helping customers understand better and they start believing in the sourcing managers to a
greater extend.
However intensive a technology is used, sourcing mangers should never forget to maintain
that personal touch. Another interesting finding from the research is customers‘ willingness
to pay for advice. Only 26% of customers in India say they will not pay for advice,rest say
they would. This underlines the importance that consumers in India attach to advice
when buying life products. The fact that customers are willing to pay emphasizes the true
value they attach to high-quality advice, both to support the purchasing process and with the
ongoing management of the policy.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Yes, it makes
the work very
mechanical
No, the
personal touch
still remains
Technology
brings in the
right
understanding
with customers
20%
38% 42%

Q5. Do you think that more windows should be open to sell insurance policies like
ecommerce sites?
FIGURE 19 – Figure showing response on if more windows should be open to sell
insurance policies like ecommerce sites
To generate greater sales and transparency, more windows like ecommerce sites can be used
to sell insurance policies. 42% of the employees said that it would be helpful if ecommerce
sites were used to sell policies. That means employees are reacting positively towards
digitization which removes human interface entirely. However a great %( 36) said that selling
through ecommerce sites is not possible as they fear that digitization to such an extent would
leave to loss of jobs and 22% responded positively by stating there is scope for such
digitization in the insurance sector after 10 years. To respond to customers‘ desire to research
products independently and to help customers make appropriate choices, companies need
to provide simpler and more transparent information via their own agents, online or
social media channels.
42%
36%
22%
Yes it would be indeed helpful
No it is not possible
Maybe after 10 years
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Q6.With more and more customers adopting an online module to do insurance, what
impact would it have on the insurance sector?
FIGURE 20 – Figure showing Impact of more use of online module on insurance
Customers these days are adapting to an online module of doing insurance by having
electronic insurance accounts (EIAs) and paying premium online. When employees were
asked about their reaction towards it, 44% said that it leads to fewer malpractices as
fraudulent activities can be taken guarded with improved technology. 32% said that the
performance of the industry would increase as there would be reduction in administration
costs. While 24% said that the performance would decrease as there would be reduction in
human interface.
The
performance
of the industry
will increase
32%
The
performance
of the industry
would
decrease
24%
Online
module would
lead to less
malpractices
44%

Q7: How often do customers call you for assistance?
FIGURE 21 – Figure on frequency of customers called on assistance
Through this graph, we can see that 36% of customers call employees for assistance every 6
months and only 14% of the employees on their own visit customers every six month. Thus
there is need and demand for service by customers every six months. In order to create a
service differentiator, sourcing managers should on their own visit for service and build
relationship. It can also b seen that 24% of the customers never call for service. These
customers need to be tapped and be provided constant service so they do not become
dissatisfied. As customers become used to genuinely customer-centric business models such
as those of pure internet businesses, they will increasingly demand similar engagement with
insurers — access when and where they demand it, intelligent use of their data to recognize
and respond to their needs, and rewards for loyalty. Insurers need to respond to customers‘
desire to take more control over the buying process by better understanding customers,
tailoring products to customers‘ needs and making online information easy to access and
understand.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Once in
two
months
Once in
six
months
Once in a
year
Never
28%
36%
12%
24%

Q8.If you have faced a free look or a complaint for it, why do you think it happened?
FIGURE 22 – Figure showing response of employees facing a free look or complaint
Free look is a period of 15 days from the date of purchase within which the customer can
withdraw his policy in case he has certain complains against the product or he finds himself
dissatisfied after buying it. When analyzed the reasons for free look faced by sourcing
managers from customers, it was found that 54% of the free look was because the customer
was unable to understand what the sourcing manager explained and later felt cheated. In
order to reduce this miscommunication gap, sourcing managers should make the customers
read the E-brochures available online in the company‘s website in great detail. So that they
have a clear understanding of the features and benefits of each products and they can
accordingly make the decision. 20% of the employees said that the need analysis done
through Ineo+ was inaccurate and it did not provide true representation of the customers need
and hence the product pitching was inaccurate. Efforts should be taken by the company to
understand where the glitches have occurred in the system and try to eliminate it.
The customer was unable to
understand what I said.
The product pitching was
inaccurate.
The need analysis done through
technology was not correct
0%
20%
40%
60%
54%
26%
20%

Q9. Please indicate your level of agreement on the following parameters. 5 is the highest
score to give and 1 is the lowest.
Performance vis a vis technology:
FIGURE 23 – Figure showing average rating out of 5 on Performance vis a vis
technology
The respondents have ranked their level of agreement in terms of how their performance has
increased with the used of increased technology. Respondents have given an average rating of
4 which speaks that they are happy with the user friendly technology provided by the
company and it has affected their performance positively.
4.02
3.8
3.9
4.04
4.04
Has your performance improved with
the use of technology
I feel I have less work to do with
technology into picture
I am satisfied with the technology
used by the company
My work becomes faster and easier
My customers are happy with the
technology I use.
3.65 3.7 3.75 3.8 3.85 3.9 3.95 4 4.05 4.1
Average rating out of 5

Performance vis a vis sales:
FIGURE 24 – Figure showing average rating out of 5 on Performance vis a vis sales
Through the use of technology, it can be seen that the sales of the employees seem to have a
positive impact. Technology is helping to a great extend from providing spot solutions to
customers to leading to spot closures.
Performance vis a vis relationship with customers:
FIGURE 25 – Figure showing average rating out of 5 on Performance vis a vis
relationship with customers
With technology I am able to pitch and
sell more products
I am able to show returns on products
and their performance on spot…
Customers get satisfied with the
presentation on tablets and are…
With technology, I can give on the
spot solution to their needs.
3.7 3.8 3.9 4
4.1
3.92
4.06
3.84
4.08
Average out of 5
My relationship with customers is
very cordial and they get…
I am able to create a personal
touch with customers always.
I am courteous to customers who
are rude and unfriendly
3.5
4
4.5
4.32
4.1
3.88
Average out of 5

Relationship remains the most important aspect in any selling and under no circumstances
should an employee distort their relationship with their customers. A healthy relationship
with customers means chances of upsell and referrals apart from building brand image of
your company. However we see an average of 3.5 was given by employees on the point that
they are courteous to customers was unfriendly. This means the rest quite a number of them
retort back angrily leading hampering of the relationship. Employees should be given training
by the company to help employees understand customer psychology and manage them
productively.
The study revealed that larger, more successful organizations tend to be more frequent users
of sales and marketing technology. Additionally, their investment in these tools is likely to
grow, compared to smaller organizations and to those whose revenues are stagnant or
shrinking. The results point to a technology-related performance gap in the insurance
industry, which will only continue to grow, according to the investment plans of the agencies
surveyed.
However, the report also found that many of the most effective sales and marketing
technologies are still underutilized by agencies of all sizes, creating an opening for industry
laggards to leap to the forefront.
Revenue and Productivity Gains:
 Channels that rely heavily on sales and marketing technology tend to have greater
revenue growth and sell more insurance policies per producer (up to 43 percent more)
and per household (up to 13 percent more).
 Heavy users of technology are two times more likely than non-users to have better
sales processes.

C. Customers
Total no. of respondents: 81
During my study, I met 45 customers on a face to face meeting and had telephonic
conversation with the rest 36. They were given questionnaires to fill to enable us to
understand what are the parameters they consider while purchasing policies with ICICI
Prudential, how do they observe services provided by them, what is their changing behavioral
trends and how technology can be used to help and serve them better.
Q1. Do you like the online services offered by ICICI Prudential?
FIGURE 26 – Figure showing feedback on online service offered by ICICI Prudential
About 1/3 of the customers responded indifferent towards the services offered. They were
neither happy, nor sad i.e neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Efforts should be made to convert
these neutral customers into satisfied ones through providing great service. Service is a key
factor. Providers need to develop customized service propositions for different segments.
This means more personal contact for agency and direct customers; more transparency for
high-net-worth and investment policyholders and improved services for middle income
customers and pension-product holders.
57.81%
10.95%
31.24% Yes
No
Neutral

Q2.How many policies have you taken with us?
FIGURE 27 – Figure showing number of policies taken
There are more than 35% of customers who have taken more than 5 policies with us in last
one year. They are the loyal customers who turn back to us whenever they have an
investment need. In India, our research shows that customers are reluctant to switch because
it is inconvenient. Only 19% of respondents changed providers in the past five years.
However, 9% of respondents say that they are very likely to switch providers in the future,
with 22% fairly likely. Insurers need to increase their focus on retention. Thirty-three
percent of the respondents cited poor service is the primary reason for changing providers.
This figure rises to 50% for motor customers. Other factors are a change in needs (32%),
which is particularly true for accident and home insurance customers, and better price (29%),
which is particularly true for older and online customers.
42.86%
21.43%
35.71% 1-2 policies
2-4 policies
More than that

Q3.How did you take those policies?
FIGURE 28- Figure showing source through which policies are taken
It can be seen that the highest % of customers have taken policies through ICICI bank i.e.
those customers who an account in ICICI banks. The reason for such high % getting policy
through ICICI bank could be trust as people have more faith in banks than other financial
institutions. About 23% of our customers buy provide online which is a considerably high
number and it means that customers today are moving towards an online module. These
customers can be tapped and increased by providing better online experience to them.
Q3.What factors you decide for a particular campaign for purchase of your policy?
FIGURE 29 – Figure showing factors taken into consideration while deciding for a
particular campaign for purchase of policy
18.57%
11.43%
10%
22.86%
37.14%
0%
Agents
Through voluntary
walk in
through sourcing
managers
Online
40%
4.29%
21.29%
0%
34.42%
Ease and convenience
Clarity of concept
Trust
Cost involved
Technology
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

This graph depicts what exactly the customers are looking when they purchase policies. 40%
of the customers said that they look for ease and convenience while purchasing a policy and
online module provides this ease. Customers who do not have time to spare or give
appointments, generally prefer to sit with their laptops and browse through the products
conveniently. Technology was another important aspect considered by customers because
they feel it leads to less malpractices and it eliminates the middlemen thereby reducing costs.
Trust is another important factor and hence personal selling through relationship building
should be prevalent.
Q4.Do you require more service from our relationship managers on a regular basis?
FIGURE 30 – Figure showing requirement of more services from relationship manager
on a regular basis
More than 75% of customers respondents that the relationship managers should always be in
touch with them irrespective of the module from which they buy. They feel that a product
like insurance policy involves a lot of relationship selling because a person invests in it
without getting any immediate gains. Thus a service manager should be present at all times
giving him the assurance that he is there for support and guidance at all times. Sales channels
must be effective given the continued need for personal interaction by the majority of
customers, particularly around servicing, it is vital to ensure that sales channels effectively
deliver what customers need. In particular, sourcing managers need to be able to provide the
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
80.00%
No, they
disturb Yes, only
when I need They should
always remain
in touch
3.57%
17.14%
74.29%

right expertise to help customers make well-informed financial decisions. Providers will need
to manage their channel effectively to ensure that managers are appropriately trained
and of high quality so they can offer better advice to the customers.
Q6.What reasons would you reconsider while switching providers
FIGURE 31 – Figure showing reasons for reconsidering while switching providers
The survey indicates that switching behavior may increase as customers become more
demanding that products and service meet their evolving needs and expectations. Over
thenext five years, 33% of customers say that they are likely to switch providers. However,
Indian consumers say that greater transparency about products and performance, more
personal contact with the provider, better offers and better service would persuade them to
reconsider — all of which give considerable grounds for optimism to insurers as these are all
factor that are strongly in their power to influence.
38%
38%
34%
32%
28%
26%
1%
1%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
More transparency about my…
More personal contact with my provider
Better offer on existing product(s)
Confidence that the service I receive…
More frequent communication with me
Advice from my agent
Nothing
Other
Series1

Q9.Is electronic insurance account (EIA) a better way of doing insurance than keeping
physical documents?
FIGURE 32- Figure on views on EIA
People are looking towards opening an EIA these days because they can view all their
insurance policies taken from different vendors under one window. This makes their work
more easy and focused. Although customers are willing to buy more, they expect insurers to
make it easy for them. Customers expect the provider to leverage their knowledge and insight
to offer relevant, related products in one quick and easy sale, rather than in multiple contacts
over a protracted period. Trying to cross-sell after the primary purchase is less successful
because this is perceived as no more convenient than buying from a new insurer. In India,
while many players have taken steps to increase the level of cross-selling, most are struggling
because of a lack of customerinformation. In many cases even basic information, such as
customers‘ contact details, is not available to the insurer and they find it difficult to establish
a direct relationship with the insured.
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
80.00%
Yes, it’s more
convenient as
physical
documents often
get misplaced.
No, physical
documents is the
good old way to do
insurance.
61.43%
38.57%

5. Quantitative Analysis
Through the questionnaire provided to the customer, analysis has been done to show the
correlation between the online consumer insurance shopping behavior and the technical and
service attributes of the company.
TABLE 7- Factor loadings and reliability
Factors Online insurance items
Factor
loading
Factor 1:
Technology
attributes
Web sites of Insurance companies do not provide accurate
information and are inappropriate
0.740
I feel all information I get through company I will also get
through insurance company's Web sites
0.718
I think transactions through insurance company Web sites will
be correct and reliable
0.764
I can access online insurance services where there are no
company branches
0.813
I will be able to learn of new services through company Web
sites
0.813
I think insurance transactions through Web sites are not as safe
as compared with regular transactions with the company people
0.792
Insurance companies‘ Web site services are easy to operate 0.626
Chronbach's α 0.788
Factor 2: Service
attributes
I prefer direct communication with company staff 0.759
I do not like change from my usual ways, as I am comfortable
with traditional insurance service model
0.755
I will use online insurance services when I have no option 0.770
I prefer dealing directly with insurance company staff as they
provide information about new policies
0.687
I do not prefer insurance Web sites due to unfamiliarity of
Internet
0.824
I think online insurance is convenient and a big help 0.642
I feel I will not be able to make all insurance related transactions
through Internet
0.715
Chronbach's α 0.747
Extraction method: Principal Component Analysis.

The first factor was termed ‗technology-related‘ and it taps technology and Web site related
issues of online insurance. The second factor named ‗service/relationship‘ taps items related
to use of online insurance services. The total items for the Technology Factor and
Service/Relationship Factor (after Factor Analysis) were seven each. 78.8 per cent people
were aware of the benefits of online insurance services
TABLE 8- Age break-up of respondents
Age categories Frequency of respondents Percentage of respondents
18–25 years 55 28.6
26–34 years 51 26.6
35–45 years 33 17.2
46–55 years 35 18.2
56 years and above 18 9.4
TABLE 9 -Correlation between using online insurance services, technological and service
attributes
Customer online insurance shopping behavior Technological attributes Service attributes
I will be happy to use online insurance services
Pearson Correlation 0.639**
−0.029
Significance (2-tailed) 0.000 0.692
N 81 81
**
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
. Table shows the results of Pearson correlations between customers‘ preference for using
online insurance with the online insurance attributes of technology and service. A strong
positive correlation (r=0.639, P=0.000) exists between the customers‘ preference for using
online insurance with Web site's technological attributes. There is no correlation between
service attributes and preference to use online insurance services.
Thus the online research activity that a customer using is the result of the technological
attributes, the sales attributes provided by a person has absolutely no role to play in it.
Thereby it can be concluded that in order to generate sales activity from the research activity,
ICICI Prudential needs to concentrate on increasing and strengthening its customer
relationship and relationship managers should be appointed to take care of customers
personally.

6. Findings
 Performance: The performance of employees in the direct marketing channel has
increased due to use of technology like LMS and ineo+. Employees are more eager to
use innovative and advanced technology as they believes it helps them in better
product pitching leading to closures.
 Issues: Many issues of the employees could be easily resolved through extensive use
of technology and they feel more satisfied with their work. Today employees when
they meet their customers they feel more confident in their approach because they do
not have to speak to their bosses to handle objections of their customers. They can
now easily refer to their tablets and get the required data and information needed by
the customers and thereby increasing their sales cycles.
 Changing customer behavior- With the rise in affluence and increased product
awareness, the middle class is fast emerging as the most lucrative segment of the
Indian market for financial services companies. India has a large working population,
with higher disposable income than in the past and therefore a greater propensity to
buy products to meet their growing aspirations. However, due to rapidly evolving
markets, customer loyalty to brands is fickle and very much dependent on price
points, customer service and innovative product offerings. Only one in five Indian
consumers say they are ―extremely loyal‖ to their favorite brands.
 Changing attitudes: as customers are becoming more and more aware their attitude
towards technology is changing. Earlier they bought insurance policies from agents,
however today they are becoming self decisive. Customers knowledge about what
kind of product they need to cater to their needs is changing and they do research
online to get information
 Technologically aware -Customers are more aware today and demand transparency
in operations. They today compare the charges and premium quotations online of
different companies before buying a policy. 74% of respondents indicate that they
conduct detailed research before buying life and pension‘s policies. As buyers take
more control of the buying process, providers will need to ensure they understand
their customers better, tailor products to customers‘ needs and provide details about
the products in a simple, transparent manner. The trend is set to increase; 80% of
respondents indicate they will conduct this level of research in the future. Customers

are increasingly doing their own research, so providers need to focus on giving them
more information and detail about the company, the products it offers and how they
perform in a simple, easy-to-comprehend form.Many customers still feel they need
expert advice in buying insurance as they find the products too complicated and are
unsure of which product best suits their needs. They are looking for transparency and
simplicity through technology and a customer-centric, rather than product centric,
offering through personal selling.
 Online module - More than 2/5 of the customers demands an online module of
insurance and are easily adapting it. They prefer an electronic insurance account
(EIAs) than keeping physical documents. From the report it can also be found that
today consumers are keep on managing their own portfolio from equity to debt to
balanced in accordance with the market risks. This gives an idea how technologically
advanced the consumers are getting.
 Sales activity lags research activity-Online sales lag behind internet use for research
purposes, with only 11% of consumers reporting they bought through a comparison
site, against 20% that considered doing so. This suggests that, for the moment at
least, not all customers believe that speed and flexibility outweigh concerns over
reliability or unfamiliarity. As insurers become better at creating online sales
processes that give customers confidence that they can purchase a reliable product
quickly, more customers will migrate to this channel. Convenience will drive growth
in online sales and Indian insurers should be mindful of how fast and far online use
can penetrate. Direct contact remains important during many phases of the product
life cycle, particularly when extending cover, making a claim or dealing with other
customer service issues. Even with respect to renewals, 50% of the respondents still
prefer personal channels, against 26% who expect to use a combination of personal
and online in the future.
 From the survey, it was found that more than 1/3 of the customers are mostly neutral,
i.e. neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, with respect to the service provided to them.
Care needs to be taken that these can be turned to satisfied customers rather than

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