The questions in the survey that show how we are helping customers choose the right products are those that are about our sales people, and our sales process.
Around half of our customers rate us positively for our sales process. There have been improvements in the clarity of written information and ease of completing paper work, with both increasing by 2 percentage points.
However, we are disappointed that our scores for our sales people and advisers have fallen this year, and are now below the industry average. Understanding the needs of our customers has fallen from 72 percentage points to 67 percentage points. On a positive note, following up after completion of the sale increased by 2 percentage points.
Rating of our sales people and the sales process
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How would you rate the overall performance of the salesperson or adviser who sold you the policy or product?  |
How would you rate the sales process overall (by that I mean the way in which you bought the products)?  |
% Rating Excellent/Very Good
Base = Those who bought a product in the last 9 months
Some scores may be subject to rounding
Source: ORC International
The role of the Adviser
Last year we introduced principles for our Employed Sales Force. Our Adviser principles are:
- Put customers’ interests first;
- Use customer friendly language;
- Be open and fair;
- Develop a lifetime relationship.
Throughout 2008 we continued to work towards improving the experience our Advisers deliver to our customers. We now undertake regular independent customer surveys that provide valuable views on the performance of the Adviser and the sales process. These results give ‘real-time’ continuous feedback and will help us to ensure that appropriate training and development is provided to our Advisers to help to improve customer experience in 2009.