It published a comprehensive claims report earlier this year, including real-life case studies, details of the types of claim it pays and those it declines, and information about the types of people who receive payment.
In addition, the insurer has added the report to its website so it is easily available to intermediaries and customers.
“We believe we have a duty to make claims information readily accessible rather than simply to produce statistics in a once-a-year press release,” says Emma Thomson, product strategist at British Friendly.
She also says publishing claims statistics should just be part of the strategy to drive sales.
Other initiatives include raising awareness of the importance of protection through real-life case studies and more education around the financial risks of relying on good fortune and the welfare state.
Greater use of social media could also help to get the message out to consumers.
Mr Edwards says that using video to get behind the scenes of claims departments would help to create greater transparency.
“It would need to be an interesting story but it could help to make insurers more human,” he says.
As well as flagging up more imaginative ways to promote the industry’s claims record, there are also calls for insurers to use the same approach when they publish statistics.
Comparisons can be tricky when one reports a figure for claims across its protection range and another separates out the different products.
Adopting some form of standardisation would also help improve consumer confidence. With just one format it would dispel suspicions that the statistics were being manipulated to present the insurer in the best possible light.
More than marketing
Beefing up the communication campaign is part of the solution, but Martin Shaw, chief executive of the Association of Financial Mutuals, says the perception problem is down to something more fundamental. “The cause of frustration for customers is not whether a claim will be paid but whether the product is claimable,” he explains.
To illustrate this, he points to claims statistics for income protection provided by mutuals. “In 2018, 94 per cent of claims were paid, but only a small minority of policies generated a claim in that year,” he says.
“To pay a premium all through your working life and not get anything back feels like an all-stakes game, with the odds not much better than winning the lottery.”
Insurers are already taking steps to improve the perceived value of protection products, with many adding services that policyholders can use without needing to make a claim.
These include health and wellbeing information and helplines, bereavement counselling and second medical opinion services.
Taking inspiration from the mutuals, a profit-share mechanism such as that on a Holloway-style income protection contract – offered by friendly societies, combining a low level of income cover with a savings pot – could also be deployed. This would reward policyholders if they did not need to make a claim.
