Stop press...Institute calls for insurance image makeover

Institute calls for insurance image makeover
The Insurance Institute of Ireland's (III) annual conference - Rebuilding trust in the new world - concentrated on the poor image that insurers have in Ireland.

The image problem, also heavily debated at last year's conference, is worse than ever, after a year in which insurers were buffeted by harsh public criticism over rocketing motor and liability rates.

At the same time, they were accused of making obscene profits compared to their UK and European counterparts.

This year the III gathered a series of high profile speakers to offer its members advice on how to remedy the problem.

Trinity College psychology professor Ian Robertson told the institute not to waste its time on public relations campaigns designed to garner trust.

"It's not enough to say `trust me'," he said.

"The only way to build trust is to be seen on occasion to act against your own personal or institutional interests in the service of some principle."

Robertson, whose books on brain rehabilitation and neurosurgery have been translated into eight languages, said this was why nurses and police officers, who did difficult jobs for the public good despite low pay, were trusted.

Irish insurance ombudsman Caroline Gill said there was an "epidemic of distrust of insurers" because insurers did not publicise all the things they did for the public's benefit.

Gill said Irish insurers offered well-educated advisers and easily understood products, promoted transparency and dealt with complaints properly, but were not given credit for them.

She said: "The key to creating trust is communication. Focus on consumers' understanding and acceptance of risk."

Financial services need trust
Financial services companies suffer more than any other industry if they lack consumers' trust, advertising expert Heather Alderson told the conference.

Alderson, planning director at international agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, said the "facelessness" of financial call centres meant consumers had to put their trust totally in the brand name.

Alderson said to improve their brand name, insurers needed to refine their message to consumers.

She pointed out that 822 companies were authorised to carry out insurance business in the UK, making a significant contribution to the 27,500 financial services advertisements displayed every week.

"The consumer is provided with too much choice and bombarded with too many messages," she said.

"Manufacture a point of difference and communicate it."