For the journey

Expectations must be met right through the process

‘One of the challenges of selling a protection policy is that it’s not a physical product and the customer only receives the benefit when they come to make a claim,’ says Martin Napper, Castelan ceo.

‘With the introduction, by the FCA, of the Consumer Duty, we have an even greater responsibility to meet the expectations of the customer, and in the case of protection policies, this is applicable right the way through the journey: from the sale of the policy to the communications sent, the point of claim and beyond.

‘At the point of sale, we support our clients with all they need to deliver the right message in a compliant manner to each customer. Clear communication is akey element of this, and we supply and support with clear literature and wording: this not only helps the customer but also sales colleagues in understanding and explaining what the product offers.

‘We’ve worked hard on our terms and conditions to ensure that they are easy to read, don’t contain too much jargon and, most importantly, point the customer to all the key areas they need to read. This is an important element as far as the regulator is concerned, with nothing hidden in small print. All literature and POS material is checked by our Clear Communications Panel to make sure it is readily understandable for the customer.

‘When it comes to delivering on the promises made to the customer, we are committed to providing an outstanding service. After all, this is what you have sold and it’s our job to deliver it. What does the customer want? They want their call to be answered: we answer 90% of calls within 20 seconds and only 0.5% of calls to us are abandoned. They don’t want to wait too long: we have an average wait time of 10 seconds and, as anyone who has tried to get through to most call centres will know, that’s superb.

‘We’ve designed our products to be the very best in sector and we have the infrastructure and teams in place to ensure that, when we have to deliver our end of the deal, we do it every time.’

Visit: www.castelangroup.com