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1.1 - Introduction
With largest number of life insurance policies in force in the world, Insurance happens to be a mega
opportunity in India. It’s a business growing at the rate of 15-20 % annually and presently is of the order
of Rs 450 billion. Together with banking services, it adds about 7 % to the country’s GDP. Gross premium
collection is nearly 2 % of GDP and funds available with LIC for investments are 8 % of GDP.
Yet, nearly 80 % of Indian population is without life insurance cover while health insurance and non-life
insurance continues to be below international standards. And this part of the population is also subject to
weak social security and pension systems with hardly any old age income security. This itself is an
indicator that growth potential for the insurance sector is immense.
A well-developed and evolved insurance sector is needed for economic development as it provides long
term funds for infrastructure development and at the same time strengthens the risk taking ability. It is
estimated that over the next ten years India would require investments of the order of one trillion US
dollar. The Insurance sector, to some extent, can enable investments in infrastructure development to
sustain economic growth of the country. The growing number of wealthier as well as aging Indian middle
class is set to offer a strong business potential for the country’s untapped life insurance market.
Insurance is a federal subject in India. There are two legislations that govern the sector- The Insurance
Act- 1938 and the IRDA Act- 1999.
The insurance sector in India has come a full circle from being an open competitive market to
nationalization and back to a liberalized market again. Tracing the developments in the Indian insurance
sector reveals the 360 degree turn witnessed over a period of almost two centuries.
As the twentieth century has come to a close and we have move into the third millennium, we can see
many developments and changes taking place around us with all the industries and firms within each
SIVA SIVANI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT 1
industry trying to keep pace with the changes and diverse needs of the people. Though for decade
together, marketers have regarded ‘customer’ as the king and evolved all activities to satisfy him or her,
giving this concept a momentum it is necessary to understand the Perception and Expectations of the
customer in respect various aspects & attributes so as to design a successful and an acceptable product or
service.
This can largely be attributed to the prevailing market situation. Not only has competition become
intense but over and above with the market being flooded with many me-too products, the challenge
before the marketer is to understand the diversity of consumer expectations and offer goods/services
accordingly. Today the company image is built and made known by its customers. Thus the success of the
firm will be determined by how effective it has been in meeting the diverse consumer needs and wants by
treating each customer as unique and offering products and services to suit his or her needs.
Therefore today all the firms are engaged in a process of creating a lifetime value and relationship with
their customers, a step towards developing knowledge regarding its customers needs is the utmost
important. The current study is an attempt to measure the various parameters as perceived by the
customers and to help the company in serving its customers in a much better and efficient manner.
For every problem there is a research. As all the researches are based on some and my study is
also based upon some objective and these are as follows :
I ) To test the awareness of customers on various aspects of life insurance policies offered by LIC
and other private sector insurance companies and find whether there is any relation between
them.
II ) To study the service quality being offered by LIC and private sector insurance companies and
test if any relation exists.
III ) To analyze various problems confronted by the policyholders of LIC and private sector
insurance companies and determine the relation between the two.
IV ) To clearly understand the rationale behind the investment in policies of LIC and private
sector insurance companies.
V ) To analyze the various aspects of LIC and do a complete SWOT analysis of the organization.
1) Retention of the Customers is the essence of Insurance business, Imtiyaz.H Ltd.VASI DO,
Insurance Times (Pg 20).Feb 2007-:
Retaining a customer is four time cheaper than acquiring a new one. The retention of the customers is of
utmost importance in the insurance industry in specification. Insurance business is of the relationship
building process. were one customer leads to the building of other one. A satisfied customer is like a word
of mouth advertisement for the company. The needs of the existing customers should be identified and
satisfied well rather than only concentrating at the new accounts. All possible measures needs to taken to
retain the customers as it is lesser costlier as well as provides stability to the business .
2) Trends in Life Insurance Business—Unit Linked Insurance Plans, IRDA annual report 2007-08,
box item 1, page no. 15 -:
It wasn’t too long back when the good old endowment plan was the preferred way to insure oneself
against an eventuality and to set aside some savings to meet one’s financial objectives. The traditional
endowment policies were investing funds mainly in fixed interest Government securities and other safe
investments to ensure the safety of capital. Thus the traditional emphasis was always on security of capital
rather than yield. However, with the inflationary trend witnessed all over the world, it was observed that
savings through life insurance were becoming unattractive and not meeting the aspirations of the
policyholders.
The policyholder found that the sum assured guaranteed on maturity had really depreciated in real value
because of the depreciation in the value of money. The investor was no longer content with the so called
security of capital provided under a policy of life insurance and started showing a preference for higher
rate of return on his investments as also for capital appreciation. It was, therefore found necessary for the
insurance companies to think of a method whereby the expectation of the policyholders could be satisfied.
The object was to provide a hedge against the inflation through a contract of insurance. Decline of assured
return endowment plans and opening of the insurance sector saw the advent of ULIPs on the domestic
insurance horizon. Today, the Indian life insurance market is riding high on the unit linked insurance
plans.
At national as at individual level the excess of income after consumption level savings as funds for
investment. Surplus funds can be invested in either real asset or in financial assets. Purpose of investment
is to protect one’s wealth against erosion of value due to inflation and to earn risk adjusted return. There
are three motives which drive people to purchase insurance products in India.
_ Desire to cover risk
_ Tax benefit
_ Saving motives
It is argued that in this paper that in the changing scenario for the insurance sector there is going to be a
good opportunities for insurance sector to expand its market base. For this purpose there is need to
improve the features of the insurance products to make them more liquid or short term schemes could be
increased. It is shown that although rewards implied by the insurance products particularly by the tax
benefits are quite close to those observed in banks and small saving scheme of the governments. The
performance of mutual funds which come in many different types is found to be reasonable compared to
the risk involved. The survey indicates that it may not be very difficult to win over the confidence of small
investors towards insurance policies if good marketing techniques are adopted to educate the targeted
population about the uses of insurance policies from investment point of view.
4) Samuel B Sekar, Research associate, Academic wing, The ICFAI University, Customer – driven
innovation in insurance products, Insurance Chronicle, page 33, July 2006-:
Insurance is one product which is not demanded by a customer, but supplied to him by massive education
and drive marketing. Insurance ought to be bought not sold. The new concept of demand side innovation
focuses more on customer’s social and economic reality striving to deliver maximum value to the
customer at an affordable price. Therefore, when the customer becomes the primary focus including him
in the invention process becomes mandatory. But, there are certain areas of insurance innovations where
the customers cannot be involved. A case in point is the recent insurance product invention called
Telematic Auto Insurance. It’s a product by the Progressive Auto Insurance, which monitors the driving
behaviour of its auto insurance policyholder. The new machine grabs information and automatically
Insurance in India
The Britishers opened general insurance in India around the year 1700.
The first company, known as the Sun Insurance Office Ltd. was set up in Calcutta in the
year 1710.
Insurance companies like Bombay Insurance Company Ltd was established in 1793.
Nationalization was justified on the grounds that it would create much needed funds for rapid
industrialization.
Most of the private insurance companies are joint ventures with recognized foreign players across the
globe. Over the last eight years, consumer awareness has improved. Competition has brought more
product innovation and better customer servicing. This made a positive impact on the economy in income
generation and creating employment opportunities in this sector.
At present there are a total of 21 companies in the life insurance business in India and only LIC is in the
public sector and rest all 20 companies are in the private sector.
Besides Life Insurance, all the above-mentioned companies provide coverage in Medical Insurance,
Automobile Insurance, Accident Insurance, Home Insurance and many others. In short, the future of
insurance companies in India looks bright.
The table below shows that India is doing well in comparison to several countries but still the life
insurance penetration is still low and there is a huge scope for growth in the insurance industry.
Table 1 -
Chart 1 -
14
12
10
2005
8
2006
6
2007
4
2
0
A
Y
D
A
A
N
A
Y
DI
AL
IN
D
N
AN
US
PA
AN
NA
LA
IN
CH
IT
JA
M
G
FR
CA
ER
EN
G
Insurance penetration is measured as ratio (in per cent) of premium (in US Dollars) to GDP (in US Dollars)
Interpretation – The above table shows that since the total premium collected is just 4% of India’s
GDP in 2007 as compared to France, Japan, England which have very high
penetration so there is a great scope for growth of life insurance in India .
Expansion of Offices
The number of offices of the life insurers has increased dramatically in the year 2007-08 from 5373 at the
beginning of the year to 8913 by the end of the year, showing a growth of over 65 %. A major portion of
this expansion was in the private sector whose offices more than doubled from 3072 to 6391. LIC’s
offices increased at a more modest 10 % from 2301 offices to 2522.
TOTAL
Figure in bracket indicates the growth over the previous year in percent.
120
100
80
60 LIC
40 Private Companies
20
0
2007-08 2006-07 2005-06 2004-05 2003-04 2002-03
-20
New policies underwritten by the industry were 508.74 lakhs in 2007-08 as against 461.52 lakhs during
2006-07 showing an increase of 10.23 %. While the private insurers exhibited a growth of 67.40 %,
(previous year 104.64 %), LIC showed a decline of 1.61 % as against a growth of 21.01 % in 2006-07.
The market shares of private insurers and LIC, in terms of number of policies underwritten, were 26.07%
and 73.93% as against 17.17% and 82.83% respectively in 2006-07. We can clearly see that private
companies are catching up as they are registering a continuously high growth rate as compared to LIC
which is a matter of concern.
Chart 3 -
Growth Rate over past years
350 310.59
300
250
200 178.83 LIC
147.65
150 Private companies
87.08 95.19
100 82.5
40.79
50 17.19 20.85 18.25 16.3 9.65
0
2007-08 2006-07 2005-06 2004-05 2003-04 2002-03
Interpretation -From the above table 4 and chart 3 we can clearly see that private companies are
registering encouraging growth rates in terms of total premium collection over the past few years as
compared to LIC’s normal and ordinary growth.
TOTAL
LIC 82.98 1.32 0.05 15.85 100.00 -
TOTAL
Chart 4 -
The share of corporate agents which was 8.42 % in 2006-07 has increased to 12.33 % in 2007-08. Within
the corporate agency channel, while the banks’ share grew from 5.46 % in 2006-07 to 7.97 % in 2007-08,
the others grew from 2.96 % to 4.36 % in the corresponding years. The share of corporate agents in the
new business premium procured by the private life insurers was significant at 29.92 % in 2007-08 as
The number of policies written at the industry level declined by 7.78 %. While the number of policies
written by LIC declined by 23.36 %, in the case of private insurers they grew by 44.00 %. Of the total
premium underwritten, individual business accounted for Rs.10995.90 crores and group business for Rs.
3324.30 crores. In respect of LIC, individual business was Rs. 5275.71 crores and group business was
Rs.2248.85 crores. In the case of private insurers, they were Rs.5720.19 crores and Rs.1075.45 crores
respectively. The market share of LIC was 52.55 % in the total premium collection and 63.88 % in
number of polices underwritten, lower than 68.58 % and 76.87 % respectively reported in the previous
year. Under the group scheme 56.13 lakhs lives were covered recording a growth of 8.51 % over the
previous period. Of the total lives covered under the group scheme, LIC accounted for 38.96 lakhs and
private insurers 12.77 lakhs. The life insurers covered 12.50 lakhs lives in the social sector with a
premium of Rs.17.10 crores and underwrote 13.53 lakhs policies with a premium of Rs.1275.78 crores in
the rural sector.
The total capital of the life insurers at end March 2008 stood at Rs.12296.42 crores. The additional capital
brought in by the existing private insurers during 2007-08 was Rs.3787.01 crores and the two new
entrants, brought in equity of Rs.385 crores making the total additional capital brought in 2007-08 by the
private insurers to Rs. 4172.01 crores. Of this, the domestic and the foreign joint venture partners added
Rs.3160.12 crores and Rs.1011.88 crores respectively.
LIC Nepal
A joint venture company formed in September 2001 with the Vishal Group of Industries with a capital
base of Rs.250mn. It is one of the largest capitalized insurance companies of Nepal. It has joint share
between LIC of India (55%) Vishal Group (25%) and has a public participation to the extent o 20%.
A joint venture company formed in 2003 with the Bartleet Group of Companies, it is one of the oldest and
reliable institutions in Sri Lanka. The combined strengths of these two formidable companies has enabled
LICL to emerge as the premier provider of Life Insurance in Sri Lanka. The Indian-based blue-chip also
has offices in UK, Mauritius, Fiji, and in all Middle East countries.
Vision
“To emerge as a transnationally competitive financial conglomerate of significance to societies and be the
pride of India “ .
Mission
Explore and enhance the quality of life of people through financial security by providing products and
services of aspired attributes with competitive returns and by rendering resources for economic
development.
Board of Directors
Chairman TS Vijayan
Apart from the corporate group insurance business the pension& group schemes is responsible for
‘Aam Aadmi Bima Yojna’,a social security schemes for the rural landless households under the aegis of
the Government of India.LIC has been investing a major portion of its funds in socially-oriented sectors
with a view to reach every insurable person in the country and provide adequate financial cover against
death at a reasonable cost. Another goal is to mobilize people’s savings adequately attractive.LIC has
recently tied up with Policybazaar.com an insurance portal that enables the consumers to get detailed
information on the policy. It is one of the leading online non-life and life insurance aggregator to sell its
policy Jeevan Aastha on the internet.
The following insurance plans are on offer. They provide the most suitable options that can fit customer’s
requirement.
Unit linked insurance plans (ULIPs) are insurance plans that combine the benefit of investment
with insurance. They give the investor an option to put a part of their premium in various investment
portfolios and derive the benefits depending upon the performance of the funds chosen by them. ULIPs
were launched at an opportune time when stock markets had just taken off. Being market- linked, they
were major beneficiaries of the secular rise in stock markets. ULIPs have gained high acceptance due to
the attractive features they offer. These include:
Traditionally, endowment plans have invested in government securities, corporate bonds and the money
market. ULIPs however, have a broader choice. They invest across the board in stocks, government
securities, corporate bonds and money market instruments. Of course, within a ULIP there are options
wherein equity investments are capped.The common types of funds available in ULIPs are Bond Fund,
Protector Fund, Secure Fund, Balanced Fund, Growth Fund, Index Fund, and Enhancer Fund. Depending
on one’s risk appetite one can choose the fund. However the investment risk is borne by the investor.
The common type of charges, fees and deductions in ULIPs are Premium allocation charges, Mortality
charges, Fund management charges, Policy/administration charges, Surrender charges, Fund switching
charges and Service tax.
Insurance companies are required to declare the NAV of various ULIPs on a daily basis. The movement of
NAV enables the policy holder to assess the performance of his investment and accordingly make
intervention in the form of switches, withdrawal and top-ups. After opening up of the insurance sector,
Unit-linked insurance policies (ULIPs) have become increasingly popular.
Chart 5 -
Interpretation – The above graph shows that during the past few years ULIP plans have become more
and more popular among the investors because of the returns they provide in addition
to the insurance cover.
The corporation has crossed many milestones and has set unprecedented performance records in
various aspects of life insurance business. The state- owned corporation is targeting a business of over
Rs.3,00,000 crores by2011-12. The life insurance major expects its assets size to grow about
Rs.6,00,000cr or 75% in the next three years.
In the current fiscal year, the company has recruited about two lakhs insurance agent across the
country, which is more than double of the 90,000 agents hired in the previous fiscal. It has also hired
4,500 development officers in the current fiscal year and 5,000 new officers could be hired in the next
fiscal.
It has bagged various awards which include Loyalty Award 2009, Golden Peacock Innovative
Product/Service Award 2009, Readers Digest Trusted Brand Award 2008 in the Platinum Category,
CNBC ‘Awaaz’ Consumer Awards 2008 and NDTV Profit Business Leadership Award 2008.The
Market Share in %
Chart 6 -
2001-02 99 1
2002-03 98 2
2003-04 95 5
LIC
2004-05 91 9
Private companies
2005-06 86 14
2006-07 82 18
2007-08 74 26
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
The bar graph clearly indicates that market share is continuously declining for LIC over the past few
years.
As on
Type of investment 31-3-2006 31-3-2007 31-3-2008
Strength :
It is the oldest and most well experienced player having a Pan India presence.
LIC has a strong and very well developed distribution network.
It is having a huge consumer base and is evolved as one of the most powerful brands of the
country.
It has a large product portfolio and claim settlement is easier to get.
It has the advantage of government guarantee is accompanied with it.
Weakness :
Its employees and other staff are lethargic and least motivated to render prompt and sincere
customer service.
After sales customer grievance redressal mechanism is inefficient.
Agents not taking into account the needs of people and promote policies having high
commissions only.
Very slow decision making process and internal problems between top management and lower
cadre staff.
The top management or bosses are mediocre and there is large scale corruption in main office.
The development officers and agents who are the foundation pillars of LIC are not provided with
extra funds and powers to promote its products aggressively.
Opportunity :
Emergence of a huge middle income consumer market in the country
People becoming more aware and demanding so there is scope for a whole lot of innovative
products.
Pension markets, health insurance and large real estate portfolio.
Threats :
There is too much internal discord.
Entry of new private players in industry.
Red-tapism is very much persistent.
The organization having a such a huge size has to have a well defined hierarchical structure and LIC is not
an exception to this fact. A well defined proper organization structure with officials with exact knowledge
of their duties is a must for an organization to prosper. LIC has a vast network of offices across the length
and breadth of our country and abroad so it has defined and maintained its organizational structure in the
following way.
LIC has its main central head office at ‘Yogaakshema’ Jeevan bima marg at Mumbai. Then it is followed
by eight zonal offices namely central zone, eastern zone, east central zone, northern zone, north
central zone, southern zone, south central zone, western zone respectively. After these eight zonal
offices there are several divisional offices under each zonal office and these divisional offices are mostly
in each big city. At last comes the branch office and there are several branch offices under each divisional
office. At all the branch offices there is a branch manager and several departments and the major function
of these branch offices is sales and servicing of the policies.
In a branch office the top most is a branch manager and under his control are seven different departments
with each of these departments functioning independently to each other. These seven departments are as
follows :
1. Sales Department – This department is mainly concerned with the sale of new policies and is headed
by Assistant Branch Manager Sales(ABMS). The internal agent of LIC is the
Development Officer who has the job of communicating and training the Free
Lancing agents. It is the development officer who continuously encourages the
agents to get new business and the income, performance and commission through
policy selling comes under the jurisdiction of this department.
2.New Business Department – This department performance the very important function of underwriting
new policies which are sent to it for authentication. It checks that all the information
provided by the customer is true and the proposal form and all other details and
proofs are legal. After scrutinizing the new policy it issues the first premium
receipts(FPR) and then issues the policy bond. If anything is found insufficient the
proposal form is sent back to the sales department to correct the mistake and again
submit it.
Zonal Office
Divisional
Office
Branch
Office
Sales
Dept. Claims
Dept.
New Business
Dept. Office Service
Dept.
Introduction :
Being a comparative study of public and private sectors, the researcher selected LIC of India from the
public sector and the private sector insurance companies. The study is mainly based on primary data
collected from field source. The primary data is collected through a comprehensive interviews, schedules
and discussions with the customers of LIC and customers of private companies. Secondary data is
collected from various bibliographical sources such as journals, novels, magazines, publications and
various websites including the official website of IRDA, LIC and various other company websites. The
published research reports and market studies also helped the researcher to guage into the problem.
Research design :
The research is divided into two parts. The first part helps us to understand the level of awareness, service
quality, problems faced and the investor’s motive of investment, the second part deals with extracting
important findings from this information and analyzing the measures required to correct problems if any.
Research sample :
A sample of 300 respondents, 151 from LIC and 149 from private sector were identified randomly for
detailed study and analysis. The researcher used stratified random sampling technique for collecting the
primary data. The population of Lucknow city is divided into three stratums such as old, new and cantt
area and an equal number of samples are drawn from each stratum.
Keeping the above mentioned objectives in mind and to have a disciplined direction to the
enquiry, the following hypotheses have been formulated:
I) Ho : There exists a relation between the awareness level and the type of company customers
choose for taking up an insurance policy.
II) Ho : There exists a relation between the level of satisfaction by the service quality and the type
of company customers choose for taking up an insurance policy.
III) Ho : There exists a relation between the grievance redressal mechanism and the type of
company customers choose for taking up an insurance policy.
IV) Ho : There exists a relation between the claim settlement process and the type of company
customers choose for taking up an insurance policy.
In spite of every care taken on the part of the researcher there were certain limitations which
could not be overcome and are as follows :
The demographic profile of the respondents is analyzed on the basis of age, gender, occupation,
educational qualification and annual income. The age distribution of sample respondents is shown in
Table 7 below :
Table 7 – Age Group Distribution
Chart 7 -
160
140
120
100
80 Number of Respondents
60
40
20
0
Below 20 20-40 40-60 Above 60
Interpretation
It is clear from Table 7; a vast majority of respondents (85%) fall in the age band of 20-60 years. Out of
300 respondents around 50% are between 20-40 years and 38% are between 40-60 years of age.
Chart 8 -
Sex of respondents
Female
32%
Male
68%
Interpretation
Out of the 300 samples drawn 205 (68%) are male and it depicts the domination men in the life insurance
sector. Only 95 (32%) of them are females.
Chart 9 -
Occupational Distribution
160
140
120
100
80 Number of Respondents
60
40
20
0
l
ee
re
s
na
es
tu
oy
sio
sin
ul
pl
ric
es
Bu
Em
Ag
of
Pr
Interpretation
Occupation wise, around 46% of respondents are employees and the rest are equally represented by
professionals, businessmen and agriculturists.
Chart 10 -
160
140
120
100
80 Number of Respondents
60
40
20
0
e
te
al
ol
ov
ho
ia
c
ni
ab
ed
Sc
ch
rm
&
Te
h
ee
te
ig
In
H
gr
to
De
Up
Interpretation
It is also revealed from Table I, that more than 60% of the respondents are graduates or technically
qualified. Remaining 22% are intermediate and only 16% are high school passed.
Chart 11 -
140
120
100
80
Number of Respondents
60
40
20
0
00
0
0
00
00
00
00
,0
,0
0,
0,
0,
40
60
,2
,8
,4
2,
-1
w
-1
-2
lo
e
00
00
00
ov
Be
,0
,0
,0
Ab
60
20
80
1,
1,
Interpretation
Around 60% of the respondents have an annual income below 1,20,000 and only 17% have income in the
range of 1,20,000-1,80,000. Also 11% have income above Rs 2,40,000.
Chart 12 -
Type of Policy
180
160
140
120
100
80 Number of Respondents
60
40
20
0
t
IP
fe
s
nd
ck
en
er
Li
UL
Fu
Ba
m
th
le
O
on
ho
ey
do
i
on
W
ns
En
Pe
Interpretation
Out of the total population more than 50% of the respondents have unit linked insurance plans (ULIP) and
only 18% have money back policies and endowment plans are with only14% of customers.
Chart 13 -
Periodicity of Policy
140
120
100
80
Number of Respondents
60
40
20
0
5 years 5-15 years 15-25 years Above 25
years
Interpretation
The table spells that around 80% of the respondents have policies with a maturity period of 5 to 25 years
and only 12% have policies with a maturity period of more than 25 years.
Chart 14 -
Awareness Level
No 48 83
LIC
Private Company
Yes 103 66
Interpretation – From the graph it is clear that 68.2% of respondents of LIC are aware of all details of
their policy where as only 44.3% of private company policyholders know about all
their policy terms and conditions.
Hence it is gratifying to note that LIC is more transparent and divulge concrete details about policy and
empower its policy holders in a much better way.
a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 65.06.
Here since the Chi-square value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 so there exists a relation between the
awareness level and type of company one chooses for investing his money. Hence the null hypothesis is
proved.
Table 15 -
LIC Private Total
Company
Fully Satisfied 85 50 135
Partially 43 57 100
Satisfied
Not Satisfied 23 42 65
Total 151 149 300
15%
28%
34%
Fully Satisfied Fully Satisfied
Partially Satisfied Partially Satisfied
28% 57%
Not Satisfied Not Satisfied
38%
Interpretation – From the above tables it shows that 57% customers are fully satisfied with LIC’s
service quality and comparatively only 34% are satisfied by private companies. Also
38% in private and 28% in LIC are only partially satisfied and remaining are not
satisfied.
It is evident that customers, in general, are satisfied with the quality of services provided by LIC and there
is significant difference in the service quality across both sectors.
Testing hypothesis II :
Chi-Square Tests
Here also the Chi-square value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 so the null hypothesis that relation exists
between the level of satisfaction and type of the company one chooses for buying a policy is proved.
Yes No Total
LIC 102 49 151
Private 117 32 149
Company
Total 219 81 300
Chart 16 –
21%
32%
Yes Yes
No No
68%
79%
Interpretation – LIC clearly lags behind from private companies as only 68% customers against 79%
of private company customers say that employees of the company are always
accessible.
Yes No Total
LIC 92 59 151
Private 79 70 149
Company
Total 171 129 300
Chart 17 –
39%
Yes 47% Yes
No 53% No
61%
Interpretation – In LIC 61% customers feel that the formalities for opening a policy are too complex
and the documentation is time taking but only 53% feel this in case of private sector.
Hence in all there is more or less the same response about the complex formalities in
both the sectors.
26%
30% 33%
28% 41%
Interpretation – From the above figure it is clear that 42% and 26% customers are fully satisfied with
the grievance redress mechanism of LIC and Private company respectively. But also
an alarmingly high % of customers of LIC and Private company i.e. 30% and 33%
respectively are not satisfied with their process.
Testing hypothesis III :
Chi-Square Tests
a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count
is 47.18.
Here the null hypothesis is proved since Chi-square value 0.01 is less than 0.05 and so there exists a
relation between the grievance redress mechanism and type of company.
Yes No Total
LIC 125 26 151
Private 105 44 149
Company
Total 230 70 300
Chart 19 –
17%
30%
Yes Yes
No No
70%
83%
Interpretation – It is a matter of concern for LIC that around 83% say that it makes undue delay in
claim settlement where as for private companies this % is 70%.
Testing hypothesis IV :
Chi-Square Tests
a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 34.77.
Yes No Total
LIC 104 47 151
Private 124 25 149
Company
Total 228 72 300
Chart 20 –
17%
31%
Yes Yes
No No
69%
83%
Interpretation – According to the figure we can infer that where 83% customers of private company
the agent provides them with correct information only 69% say this in case of LIC.
Table 21 -
Tax Benefits 3 4
Child Welfare 5 5
Table 21 shows that the most important drive for taking an insurance policy by a customer is the
individual risk coverage irrespective of the sectors. The rationale behind taking an insurance policy is
almost same in both the sectors. The most proximate reasons are risk coverage, tax benefits, children’s
welfare and growth and return of investment. Advertising of the company, classes or seminars conducted
by various organizations and influence of the peer group do not play a major role in the investment
decision of the customer.
1) Refering table 7 and chart 7 it is clear that the majority i.e. more than half of investor’s investing in
insurance are the young people in the age group of 20-40.
2) Refering table 8 and chart 8 it can be said that males dominate in having life insurance policies.
3) Referring table 9 and chart 9 it can be said that majority of people having life insurance are
employed.
4) The most preferred plan among the investor’s is unit linked plans because of its high returns.(refer
table 12 and chart 12)
5) Almost 80% of the policies sold have the periodicity of 5-25 years.(refer table 13 and chart 13)
6) It is very much clear that the awareness level of the customers of LIC is much higher than that of
the private sector.(refer table 14 and chart 14)
7) A greater number of customers of LIC are either fully or partially satisfied but there is not much
significant difference across sectors in terms of service quality satisfaction level.(refer table 15 and
chart 15)
8) Employees or agents of LIC are not easily accessible when compared to private sector and
customers have to try several times in order to meet LIC employees etc.(refer table 16 and chart
16)
9) Most of the respondents of LIC feel that formalities for opening a policy are too complex and take
longer time.(refer table 17 and chart 17)
SIVA SIVANI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT 53
10) Two fifth of the customers of LIC are fully satisfied with its grievance redress mechanism while
only one fourth are fully satisfied in case of private sector.(refer table 18)
11) It is a threat for LIC that more than four fifth of the customers of LIC feel that it unduly delays in
claim settlement.(refer table 19 and chart 19)
12) Also a lesser number of customers of LIC feel that their agent provides them with the correct and
relevant information in comparison to customers of private company.(refer table 20 and chart 20)
13) From table 21 it is evident that individual risk coverage is the most preferred criteria among the
investors irrespective of both the sectors. Hence the rationale behind investment is more or less
same.
Recommendations :
To increase the level of insurance penetration LIC may focus on bringing products that suit to the
rural customers.( refer table 1 and chart 1)
The company if possible should invest in advertising, conduct road shows, and spend money on
hoardings, so that it can better propogate awareness about its various lesser known products.
LIC should also tie up with several other banks apart from the existing ones to sell its products i.e.
through bancassurance ( refer chart 4)
The company has the option of tying up with local NGO’s for selling its rural insurance products.
Customer friendly documentation i.e. it should be made easier and faster( refer finding 9).
LIC should keep a check that its agents equally promote all its products( refer finding 14).
LIC may provide additional funds to its development officers and agents( refer finding 14).
All the hidden charges should clearly be stated in the form and explained by the agent and LIC
should provide better training to its agents. (refer finding 12).
Claim settlement process should be made fast and must not involve lengthy decision making
process( refer finding 11).
Some special focus should be laid on individual risk coverage while designing the products.(refer
table 21).
This project has given me a good opportunity to learn a lot about the insurance sector in general and LIC
in particular and especially about the basic technicalities involved right from selling to servicing and lastly
the claim settlement process. I also had a chance to see how closing takes place in insurance companies.
While dealing with retail customers I had a really enriching experience. I learnt how to judge a customer
and offer him/her a product which would interest him. Also working in a real office environment provided
me an enriching experience.
Conclusion :
The entry of private sector insurance companies into the Indian insurance sector triggered off a series of
changes in the industry. Even with the stiff competition in the market place, it is evident from the study
that the public sector giant LIC dominates the Indian insurance industry. In today’s competitive world,
customer satisfaction has become an important aspect to retain the customers, not only to grow but also to
serve. Increased competition, wide range of product offerings and multiple distribution channels cause
companies to value satisfied and highly profitable customers. Customer service is the critical success
factor in a company and providing top notch customer service differentiates great customer service from
indifferent customer service.