80% consumers rely on personal recommendations for purchasing insurance: Study

financialexpress.com:

Even though a fear of the unknown triggers thoughts and conversations around insurance, eventually it is a push from friends and family that leads one towards serious purchase consideration. A little later in the purchase journey, while potential consumers turn to online channels for research and comparison, a high preference for purchasing from human agents continues to be visible across categories, according to a consumer insights report by Policybazaar.com.

The report titled ‘How India Buys Insurance’ provides a comprehensive view of consumer awareness, needs and frictions when it comes to the purchase of health and life insurance, and highlights that it is important to build trust at every touchpoint of the consumer journey.

As per the report, personal recommendation from friends and family or a known agent is the top trigger for insurance consideration for approx. 80% of the respondents. For 56%, a recommendation from friends and family was the main trigger for purchasing health insurance, while the number stood at 54% for life insurance.

Awareness and Ownership Levels for Health Insurance

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Brand familiarity is important: Apart from this, brand familiarity and vintage seemed to play a key role in trust building. 58% and 64% respondents said that they trust the brands they are familiar with or the brands that have been around for a long time, both while purchasing health insurance and life insurance, respectively.

Affordability issues and lack of product understanding key barriers: Two key reasons that deterred the purchase of both health and life insurance included affordability issues and difficulty in understanding the product. While more