Listening and learning

In August, Norwich Union announced that Chris Elliott would take over from Nick Pierson as head of household products. As the industry's official spokesman on the issue of flooding, Pierson was high profile and is regarded as having done a good job.

So, a tough act to follow. But Elliott has a strong track record, holding a wide variety of roles since joining the company from university in 1988. And if he is daunted by his new role, he does not show it. He seems composed and relaxed with his new responsibility. It is hardly surprising as he was previously head of product development for the broker channel, so the area is not unfamiliar to him.

As for departures from Pierson's style, Elliott warns us not to expect sudden change: "There are things underway that have been underway for a long time that we will carry on doing. Just because I have moved into this role does not mean everything suddenly goes out of the window," he says.

"There will be a personal style and I might do things in a different way, but it does not turn our product strategy upside down overnight."

Top of the agenda for product strategy is the new "broader approach" NU is taking to product development, Elliott explains enthusiastically. "We very much feel product development is not just about what is traditionally the insurance product," he says.

"We are looking to develop things that help customers much more broadly than that, so that in terms of home insurance we are looking to say we want to give value to all our customers through the course of the year."

He explains that the vast majority of customers never claim, but NU wants to have a relationship with all its customers, so that they feel they are getting value for money. Elliott wants customers to have contact with NU through the policy term, even if there are no claims.

Understanding customers

Elliott's team has been exploring ways of increasing customer contact and cites Tapestry (the high net worth product launched last year) as an example. He explains that rather than emulating established products, his team tried to really understand the customers. "We thought a lot of those customers were going to be busy, professional people. So how could we give them accessible, timely advice? That is why we built things into the cover like 24-hour GP advice."

NU also launched Home Doctor earlier this year to give customers advice via their brokers about looking after their homes.

"Home Doctor is a banner that we are going to use going forwards that we will keep evolving and growing to be a support for the customer when they need us," Elliott says.

It is relatively new, but he says that Home Doctor has been very positively received by customers that have used it so far.

It is one thing offering a wide range of extra services, but are customers actually taking NU up on them?

Elliott says it is early days. He refers back to Tapestry and says that it has been going for nearly a year and while some services have had a good take up, others have had a less good response.

He stresses that they are adaptable and responsive and says they will think again on some services if customer demand is not there.

As for developing entirely new products, Elliott says his team's work will start with refining existing products first.

Household market

While last year's Tapestry product launch catered for the top end of the market, the rest remains to be tackled.

"We have been doing work this year to look at the rest of the market - the mass household market - and there will be changes coming through next year to our products for that sector, Home Plus and Your House," says Elliott. Home Plus and Your House are NU's established home and contents policies that are sold through brokers.

The catalyst for some of these changes comes from the broker research NU has carried out recently, he says.

NU has not been known for listening to brokers in the past, so some may be sceptical about Elliott's apparent commitment to them.

But Elliott talks passionately about brokers' importance and says that their business is crucial. In fact, one of his aims over the next year will be to grow broker business, he says.

The research NU carried out with brokers focused on how they felt about the household products and their needs in terms of having to sell them.

An important finding was not that the products were lacking, says Elliott, but that the benefits they held were not being conveyed well enough to the customer.

"We are pleased with where we are, but I think we can sell and promote better some of the things we already have. So we will be looking to tackle that next year," he says.

Clearly defined

There will be innovative products coming up, but brokers and customers will have to wait until the second half of next year, says Elliott.

"They will probably be in the mould of Tapestry in that we will take a really clearly-defined customer group, who have a particular set of needs we can identify and deliver a particular product to complement the standard products."

In his new position, product development will not be the only thing on Elliott's agenda. Before him, Pierson was a flooding spokesman for NU.

Flooding has long been a big issue for NU. It responded to public demand earlier this year, launching the Home and Dry campaign to give people advice on what they could do about flooding and how they could set up lobby groups.

Elliott says it has been a success: "It has gone very well and is getting national coverage. It had a really big impact when it launched in the spring and, as you can see, it is still out there."

The ABI recently announced its Statement of Principles - a move, says Elliott, that is a good stepping stone.

"It is helpful that we have a good dialogue with the government and the ABI and we are in regular meetings.

So what does the next year hold? Elliott says he will be concentrating on two main themes - one is making known the good things NU already has to offer, and the other is pursuing its new wider perspective on products.