Affinity Solutions

Press

Bob Hand (Chairman of Affinity Solutions): " Fortis and Age Concern recognise that their partnership needs to work with older people, and not to discriminate against them " Agetimes.com, 13th June 2008

Could you present yourself and your company?

Fortis is an international provider of banking and insurance services to personal business and institutional customers. Our company delivers a total package of financial products and services through a variety of distribution channels including major affinity groups. I have responsibility for affinities and partnerships within Fortis UK where we have established a strong reputation for developing partnerships with a wide range of affinity groups.

I am also Chairman of Affinity Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis, which has been active in the affinity market since 1995. In Affinity Solutions, we have built a team of professional and experienced consultants who are passionate about affinity marketing and combine creativity with a pragmatic approach. Our team’s background spans an array of industries, including insurance, not for profit, banking, commercial finance, and travel and life stage sectors. We have been particularly active in the mature market, and have worked with Help the Age, The Royal British Legion, Age Concern, RIAS, The Daily Telegraph and other UK specialists in the sector

Fortis has been active in the over 50’s market for a considerable time, primarily through its subsidiary RIAS which now insures approximately 1 million people in this age segment. As a group we have nearly 2 million policyholders aged 50 and over, and we are completely committed to understanding the needs of this growing segment of the population.

You have an agreement with Age Concern to offer insurance to their members. Could you explain?

In 2005 Fortis entered into a 10 year agreement with the major UK charity Age Concern. Age Concern is the largest organisation in the UK serving the interests of the older population, and has had a track record of providing relative products and services to older people for many years. One of their specialism’s is the provision of low cost general insurance, and the charity selected Fortis to be their insurance solutions provider for home, motor , travel and other general insurance products. The charity is responsible for marketing the products and services to the older population, through a network of approximately 200 major age concern groups. These are located in all the major towns and cities throughout the UK and provide access to older people in their local communities. Fortis acts as the manufacturer, underwriting the insurance products and providing all the back office operations and administration through direct computer links into all of the major Age Concern locations. This is a true partnership, and the key personnel from both Fortis and Age Concern meet on a regular basis to ensure that the scheme runs smoothly and to plan future activity together.

How has the partnership developed and how successful is it?

Age Concern was already offering financial services to its customer base before it entered the partnership with Fortis. What was important for Fortis was to ensure that Age Concern maintained a competitive position, particularly for the less well off older person who is not able to afford to pay very much for their insurance cover. Also as this is a nationwide scheme, Fortis had to ensure that it maintained a reasonably competitive in most areas, including some parts of the country where there are higher risks e.g. of flooding. It was vitally important that Fortis worked with Age Concern to ensure that no substantial part of the older population was excluded from the scheme, although obviously some people have to pay more than others, depending on the overall level of risk.

Fortis also had to recognise that new technology was needed to link in with the local Age Concern groups, and a new software system was installed to allow good communications and transfer of data between the local Age Concern group and the Fortis operation. These improvements in administration have left more time for Age Concern personnel to concentrate on the customer and this has been shown in the increased insurance traffic, particularly in areas such as travel insurance where there is rapid growth as more and older people find time to take more holidays. Fortis is also developing more internet applications recognising that older people are beginning to transact business on line, even if this is still a lower percentage than the general population.

More than half a million people are now insured through the Fortis Age Concern partnership across the various products

What is important for an insurance company such as Fortis to take into account when dealing with older customers?

Obviously, Fortis already had quite a bit of experience through its RIAS operation and was well prepared for some of the issues, which are particularly relevant to the needs of older customers. In particular, you need to recognise that you cannot limit the length of calls, as generally speaking older people like to spend more time discussing their insurance than other age segments. The insurer also needs to ensure that people are properly trained, and in this case, Age Concern provided people from their organisation to come and train Fortis personnel to ensure that they understood how to handle the particular needs of this age segment. Generally speaking call centre staff may well be in their 20’s dealing with individuals who can be 80 plus! Fortunately the relationship is often like that between a grandparent and a grandson or daughter and Fortis has experienced very few problems in this respect.

With claims handling, it is often the case that older people will suffer more hardship, as was the case in 2007, when large parts of the UK were subject to severe flooding. Fortis made sure that people were available to handle the claims quickly and payments made without delay, often in situations where older people had to be moved out of their homes and temporary accommodation had to be found for them. Indeed, Fortis won a prize for their claims initiative of the year, for the use of a digital pen, which was used to transfer information immediately from the scene of the claim, to the Fortis HQ to help speed up claims handling.
It is also important to tailor cover for older people, and the Age Concern policy has been developed over a number of years to properly reflect the particular needs of older people.

Finally, Fortis and Age Concern recognise that their partnership needs to work with older people, and not to discriminate against them. Many insurance policies still have severe restrictions when people get older, particularly in areas such as travel and health insurance. Age concern is committed to work against age discrimination and Fortis supports this objective.

Neil Batley, Managing Director of Affinity Solutions Ltd was recently approach to contribute his affinity marketing knowledge to an article entitled “Partnerships pay”, The Marketer, April 2008

“If, as a supplier, you went in to a partnership thinking it was about the data, you wouldn’t be taken that seriously. There are very few organisations that would be prepared only to provide or sell data.”

Batley – whose company client list includes BT, Cornhill, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Mirror Group Newspapers and Powergen – says that sometimes the strength of affinity between prospective brand partners can be hard to judge. It’s important for marketers to think about the product fit as well as brand and audience compatibility. He points to Ryanair, which has enjoyed success with travel insurance, but whose recent move in to car insurance under the No Nonsense brand with partner FBD Insurance may be a stretch too far.

Affinity deals must be well researched to ensure success, according to Bob Hand, chairman of Affinity Solutions.

"Good marriages are made in heaven, but many partnerships end up in hell," said Mr Hand, who insisted that it was not just about volume.

"The size of the database of client information is important, but you also have to look at the degree of fit between the partners' products and the insurance products. For example, it's okay for the RSPCA to sell pet insurance, but could it sell household or motor insurance?"

Mr Hand explained that not all partnerships are successful, and customers' needs are not fully understood. He added: "The overall proposition development and research is still lacking. Partners need to allocate more resources, there is still too little emphasis on building long-term relationships. With a three- to four-year deal, you always get the issue over customer ownership once the deal is over."

Paul Bridgwater, now Principal Consultant at Affinity Solutions Ltd was recently quoted in The Post Magazine’s “To affinity and beyond” article in November 2007:

“Paul Bridgwater, Senior Consultant at Affinity Solutions, comments: “One of the first questions is always about the claims operation, and this is the reason that many people have gone to a single insurer rather than set up a panel.”