BE BUSINESS SMART.No one knows your business better than you, but are you capitalising on every opportunity? We can help. With our expert advice and range of helpful tools, you could maximise growth, improve business quality and performance. We’ve invested more than £1 million into our Business Quality programme so we can help you deliver the best outcomes for your business.

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NO REASON TO LEAVEWe know how challenging it can be to retain clients. That’s why we’ve spent time and effort discovering why they leave, and developing ways to keep them. Our business quality and retention programme can provide you with solutions to help stop them from leaving.

Whether they simply forget to make a policy payment, or they look elsewhere for a product, we can equip you with effective strategies and tools to help drive positive change for your business, giving your clients every reason to stay.

BETTER BUSINESS, BETTER RELATIONSHIPSImproving the service you deliver to clients will have a positive effect on their loyalty. Respond to their needs, answer their questions, keep in touch and help them with information and they’ll see you in a whole new light. But how do you fit all that into your business?

Our experts have the experience to help you develop a business model so you can take it all in your stride. You’ll soon be operating your protection business more efficiently, improving client experience and relationships.

Since 2010, our Early Warning System has helped clients claim £125.3m on 1,990 policies. These clients might not have received payouts if the adviser had not acted on the alert to keep their policies from lapsing.

TO KEEP CLIENTS, TALK TO AN EXPERT.

We all want to keep clients and increase sales. Our market-leading programme can help you work smarter – not harder – to help improve your protection business.

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OUR BUSINESS QUALITY PROGRAMME CAN HELP:• Warn you of potential policy lapses

and cancellations, so you can keep them to a minimum

• Improve application quality with accurate client information

• Identify inefficient practices and offer you improved work processes

• Maintain long-term relationships with client retention strategies

• Award your business for good practice through our exclusive Business Quality Awards.

BUILT AROUND YOUR CLIENTYou can be reassured that your clients are in good hands with us. They are at the heart of everything we do, and we work hard to build long-term positive relationships with them. We’re:

• Simplifying application procedures, making it quicker and less stressful

• Improving the quality of our client communications

• Maintaining an efficient and compassionate claims service

• Helping clients manage their assets through digital platforms

• Providing clients with products and services that are relevant to their lives.

Looking after clients is central to our programme, and it’s designed to help you build trust and confidence with your clients.

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WORKING SMARTER.

Building a relationship with your client will help improve their loyalty. Our programme recognises this, and helps improve business quality by making work practices more efficient. You get more time to engage with clients, as well as the tools to help deliver positive outcomes.

THE BENEFITS OF IMPROVING BUSINESS QUALITYImproved work practices and systems are good for everyone:

For your clients:• They’ll feel more engaged and valued

• Every part of their life stages is covered.

For you:• Work more easily and more efficiently

• Fewer lapsed clients and cancellations

• Less compliance risk.

We’d all like to devote more time to our clients, and make sure that time is well spent. Our programme can help your business be more effective in engaging with clients, making them feel more valued.

Respond to their needs, answer their questions, keep in touch and help them with information and they’ll see you in a whole new light.

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To get new clients many businesses buy marketing leads to introduce their services to interested consumers. Making the most of these leads with our Business Quality programme means you have the opportunity to ultimately build repeat business.

BUILDING YOUR CLIENT BASE.You’ve worked hard to get new clients, so it’s a good idea to have plans in place to keep them. Our client retention strategies can help you convert them into long-term clients.

Here are a few points to help you when you’re buying leads:

• Always carry out checks on a lead provider before you buy

• Talk to your lead provider’s clients, if possible

• Ask for testimonials or evidence of success

• Take up any offer of a lead volume and trial

• Check for refund or replacement policies

• Don’t buy more leads than you can handle

• Work to a budget

• Track the quality and persistency of the leads you’ve bought.

Making the most of these leads with our retention programme means you have the opportunity to ultimately build repeat business.

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HOW IT WORKS.Each of our programme’s strategies and tools has a dedicated purpose, with the common aim of improving your protection business.

Our programme is designed to address different aspects of your protection business. That’s why our experts offer to visit you at your office. They’ll discuss business models, retention strategies and online tools that can work together for you and your clients.

WHY CLIENTS LEAVEWhen clients buy a protection product they do so for the best of reasons – to protect themselves and their families. So why do many policies lapse, sometimes just before they are needed most? With the busy lives that many of us lead some simply forget to pay, while others have more specific reasons.

We’ve looked at why clients leave and have devised solutions to address each one:

Early Warning System to alert of lapsed payments

Online Direct Debit Reinstatement Tool to reinstate payment details, quickly and easily

Direct Debit Collection Calculator to remind clients

Literature on a range of protection products

Client letter templates for you to keep in touch

Online expert podcasts to help inform clients

Research documents to remind clients of the importance of protection, eg. Value of a Parent

Underwriting advice and online guides to help you to improve application quality

OUR SOLUTIONTHEIR REASON

Forgot to pay premium

Bank details change

Forgot payment date

Shopping around

Lack of knowledge

Cover is deemed unnecessary

Lack of contact

Failed claim

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OUR RETENTION TOOLSConvenient, quick and easy to use, these industry-leading online tools can help increase long-term client retention by reducing inactive cases, cancellations and lapses.

Early Warning SystemWe understand how easily clients can be lost through administrative errors or simply if you haven’t been informed of a change in their bank details.

Our Early Warning System is a secure online system that provides real-time information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If clients do lapse or cancel their policies, the Early Warning System will identify these policies and notify you within 72 hours.

Early notification gives you the opportunity to recapture policies, saving clients’ protection and your commission. With the Early Warning System you can also help clients maintain a continuous level of cover.

Online Direct Debit Reinstatement ToolIf your client’s premiums are in arrears or their direct debit has bounced this tool makes it easier for you to reinstate their payment details. This quick and simple online process will help to save time, increase your reinstatement success rate and provide better and more efficient service to your clients.

Direct Debit Collection CalculatorThis tool lets clients know when their direct debit will be collected, helping ensure that premiums are collected on time. Keeping clients informed can also help them keep track of their monthly expenses.

Here is a snapshot of our programme showing some of the many benefits.

With its range of strategies and tools, our Business Quality programme is comprehensive and flexible to fit in with your business.

Business Qualityprogramme

Support and

Recognition

Business Quality Awards

Medical Underwriting

Technical Advice Line

Data and

Literature

Medical Underwriting

guides

Sales and Marketing

communication

Online expert podcasts

Client dataHow to Guides

Tools

Early Warning System

Direct Debit Reinstatement

tool

Direct Debit Collection Calculator

Retention Calculator

Online Trusts Hub

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AVOIDING PITFALLS.

In today’s tough market, there are challenges that many in the protection industry face. As well as helping to retain clients, managing business quality can help adviser businesses face these potential issues and stay competitive at the same time. Trends that we observe businesses facing include:

• INCREASED PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY COSTS. Without quality management practices in place, a business is more likely to face cases of negligence, pushing up their professional indemnity premiums.

• CLAWBACK. Client’s expectations about level of service are increasing, especially in the ever more digital world. Not meeting their expectations may leave them feeling undervalued, leading to cancelling policies.

• LOSING CLIENTS. Inefficient practices could easily alienate clients, and in a competitive market they’ll have plenty of alternatives to turn to.

• NEGATIVE REFERRALS AND DAMAGE TO YOUR REPUTATION. Intermittent client service, careless administration and passive business management can all take their toll through word of mouth, especially in social media.

• LOSING INCOME AND LOWER EMBEDDED VALUE. With lapsed clients, cancelled policies and higher professional indemnity premiums, the bottom line could be affected, decreasing the book value of a business.

• GOING OUT OF BUSINESS AND BANKRUPTCY. Noting the warning signs around client retention is especially crucial in today’s competitive market. Negative impacts can snowball quickly, causing business failure.

DATA SECURITYAnother pitfall which is easy to fall into is a lack of understanding for data security. This can have serious implications for your business. Our experience has taught us valuable lessons, so we have put together this list of issues for you to think about:

• Add data security terms and conditions to the staff employment contract

• Set up individual agency numbers for sellers

• Block external memory devices (eg. USB sticks) from being used on company machines

• Introduce a ban on mobile phones at desks for sellers – particularly in a call centre environment

• Set up internet security, for example, Websense

• Set up a `kill switch’ on company devices, so if an employee leaves or the device is lost, the device can instantly be rendered useless

• If possible have a separate customer services/post-sale/admin team away from the sellers and the lead generators

• Security cameras in the office – this would be prudent, not just for data security but for office security as a whole

• Secure Customer Retention Management (CRM) systems, so for example, they can’t be downloaded

• Be aware when purchasing leads. Try to source a reputable provider and remember that quality leads can come at a premium, but may be worth it in the long run.

Looking after clients is central to our programme, and it’s designed to help you build trust and confidence with your clients.

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SUCCESS SO FAR.Our Business Quality programme has proven not only popular, but successful as well.

Our expert team has reviewed over 400 businesses and most now have action plans in place. As a result, more advisers are using our Early Warning System, with our Direct Debit Reinstatement Tool becoming a huge success as well.

LAPSES ARE DOWNA key part of retaining clients is reducing policy lapses. Together with our Debit Card Reinstatement Tool, our Early Warning System has played a big part in reducing one to four year lapses, with a reduction of 4.53% from 2011 to 2015. A massive £750m worth of potential lapses have been prevented or reinstated as a direct result of our Early Warning System.

FOCUS ON GOOD ACCOUNTSSometimes an account can cost more than it’s worth – the hard part is recognising which one. Our Business Quality programme has helped many businesses decide. As a result over 1.6m customers have been put on risk, and stayed in force since the Business Quality programme began.

GOOD PRACTICE AWARDEDEvery year, our annual Business Quality Awards encourage and recognise proven commitment of IFAs and Network Advisers to retention and sales quality best practice. The awards culminate in an event where firms are awarded in a range of categories, gaining them national recognition for their business.

Our Early Warning System is a secure online system that provides real-time information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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Winners at the 2016 Legal & General Business Quality Awards, TopQuote offer advice and quotations on insurance and protection products. Managing director, Guy Codling, tells how the Early Warning System helps their business:

TopQuote, winners of Best Reinstatement Performance at the 2016 Legal & General Business Quality Awards.

“ We chose to do business with Legal & General because of their Early Warning System. We understood that reducing the percentage of business that is lost through cessations was only going to be possible if we had a service that notified us immediately when a client missed a premium, or cancelled a mandate/policy. Early Warning System provides the necessary opportunity for the problem to be solved.”

“ By no means do we feel that we have a perfect system. However, we do feel that there is no insurer out there with a clearer understanding of the importance of managing arrears, or a better system that helps achieve this aim.”

“ Effective arrears management ensures that the client is kept aware of any potential issues during their period of cover and that commissions are retained. These two elements are essential to the profitability of a protection business.”

CASE STUDY.

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Business Quality Infographic (Q54523)

How to Guides:

– How to manage business risk (Q0053464)– How to increase trusts (Q0054142)– How to improve client communications (Q0053329)– How to maximise client opportunities (Q0053387)– How to reduce the risk of misrepresentation

(Q0053004)– How to reduce Checking Your Details (CYD) forms

amends (Q0053005)– How to aid Checking Your Details (CYD) forms

returns (Q0053054)– How to reduce complaint volumes (Q0053144)– How to reduce Cancelled From Outset (CFO)

policies (Q0053050)

– Specific Medical Report (Q0054151)

Underwriting Guides (W14009)

What happens after you apply (W9852)

Underwriting Explained (W10188)

Telephone Contact Centre Check List (W13465)

Occupational Class Guide (W7557)

Tips to avoid Misrepresentation (Q43463)

Age/Sum Assured Medical limits (Q41806)

Hazardous Pursuits underwriting guide (Q41300)

USEFUL LITERATURE.This handy suite of literature is designed to help you with the many aspects of our Business Quality programme and also to improve your awareness of the customer journey.

All literature is available to download at legalandgeneral.com/businessquality

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CONTACT USFor more information, please contact your usual Legal & General representative.

OR:

ifa.retention@landg.com

www.legalandgeneral.com/businessquality

Legal & General Assurance Society Limited Registered in England and Wales No. 00166055 Registered office: One Coleman Street, London EC2R 5AA

We are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. We are a member of the Association of British Insurers.

Q54735 09/16