With over 4,50,000 customers acquired in 2 years, Future Generali bets big on the channel’s growth in the new insurance distribution landscape.
Kolkata, December 1, 2010: Future Generali, the insurance joint venture between India’s Future Group and Italy’s Generali, has made significant gains through their unique Mallassurance™ channel, a sales channel the Company introduced for the first time in India, two years ago. The Mallassurance™ delivery channel enables customers to buy insurance across the counter at over 165 Future Group retail outlets across the country. Future Generali offers ‘Total Insurance Solutions’ addressing customer needs across both- Life Insurance and General Insurance.
Against the backdrop on the new IRDA regulations introduced on September 1, 2010, this existing alternative channel advantage, could be an ace up their sleeve for Future Generali, vis-à-vis other industry players.
For the period April- Oct 2010, Future Generali’s Mallassurance channel has seen a 23 percent M-O-M growth in terms of lives covered with 1,66,168 policies sold at stores and a 25 percent increase in premium collected YoY at Store level.
The Mallassurance channel was introduced by Future Generali with the key objective of capitalizing on the over 2 crore unique footfalls the Future Group retail outlets across the country receive every year. Given today’s trend where Malls have become leisure and entertainment destinations for entire families to shop, entertain and bond. Future Generali has also earned a very positive response from customers to this proposition that offers the convenience of choosing, buying and servicing a whole gamut of insurance solutions best suited to individual needs at the same place where they shop regularly for their home needs.
Atul Mehta, Head Mallassurance, Future Generali, said, “We have adapted our systems and processes to ensure customers can buy a policy at the store and get the insurance certificate issued within 5 minutes. The model we’ve adopted for Mallassurance™ is to Acquire (at the store), Maintain and Upsell (telesales & direct). Our average daily leads in this fiscal have increased from less than 200 to over 450 per day. The closure rate, through the Mallassurance leads, has gone up to almost 5% netting Rs. 16 crore for April-Oct 2010”. On the claims side, the experience has been very good and the clams in Personal Accident Policies have been settled well under set TAT.” What started with just 11 Pantaloon outlets in May ’09 has today expanded to 165 stores in 53 cities and Future Generali is now focusing on expanding the Mallassurance network to cover more Future Group retail outlets across the country, with five more getting added by the end of November.
Speaking on the occasion, Deepak Sood, MD & CEO, Future Generali India Life Insurance Co Ltd., said, “There has been much talk about the more traditional insurance distribution channels like Agency and Bancassurance, but Mallassurance has remained a feature unique to Future Generali India. Since inception, we have continuously monitored and modified our strategy and offerings in line with our observations and customer feedback. Today customers at Big Bazaars and Pantaloon outlets buy insurance like any other product they purchase in-store. This initiative has helped not just to bring sales from customers looking to buy insurance but also helping create and grow awareness about insurance as a category, helping bring in a new set of customers via cross-sell & up-sell opportunities. We are confident that the channel will continue to see significant growth in line with the growing footprint, customer base and intense customer goodwill enjoyed by Future Group’s retail formats”
The average ticket size for life products sold through Mallassurance is Rs 18,495 for Apr-Oct 2010, registering 20% increase, primarily due to an increased focus on pension products and ULIPs. Furthermore, the channel has already acquired 1500 unique customers from the stores for Future Generali Select Insurance Plan (FG-SIP) which it launched end September 2010. One of our key focus areas over the next few months will be HNI customers and we would focus to make the stores an Insurance Destination. More products in offing are OTC Home Insurance, Extended Warranty etc. Besides, the company would strive to make available renewal quote, claim intimation and query corner at the stores,” added Mr. Sood.
On the General Insurance front, Future Generali has found Personal Accident policies attracting maximum interest levels from customers, given that no documentation is required, products are available for as low as Rs 199 and policies are instantly issued across the counter.
Over the past year, Future Generali has brought in some innovative changes in Service and Process levels to manage, supervise and maintain resources and relationships. The Plan is also to make maximum products available through all Future Group retail outlets across India.
Future Generali’s Life Insurance business earned overall premium of Rs 541 crores for FY 2010, while the General Insurance arm closed the year with premium earnings of Rs 386 crores.
The liability of Future Group and the Generali Group is limited to the extent of their shareholding in the Company. Insurance is the subject matter of Solicitation.
