Measuring Channel Partners Experience in Bancassurance: An Empirical Study

Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development Journal. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0) ABSTRACT Purpose– This study attempts to investigate bancassurance channel experience with respect Insurance Company. Design/Methodology/Approach– The study is based on primary data collected using a structured questionnaire from bancassurance channel in the city of Kolhapur in the state of Maharashtra, India. Cronbach’s alpha was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Statistical tools, such as mean, correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were used to attain the objective of the study. Findings and implications– The study found that customers have favorable experiences when buying life insurance through the bancassurance channel. There are five core factors that affect customer experience in bancassurance channel partners: satisfaction on service, opinion about staff, recommendation for business, satisfaction on documentation process, customers overall satisfaction. Insurance company should devise a strategy to sustain favorable experiences of their bancassurance channel, as this enables Insurance Company to retain their existing bancassurance channel while also attracting new ones. Limitations– The study is restricted to bancassurance channel partner of XYZ insurance company in Kolhapur, India. Therefore, longitudinal and cross-sectional research is needed to generalize the findings. Originality– The study is first of its kind and hence original in nature.


Introduction
In today's Indian Insurance market, the challenge to insurers and intermediaries is building faith about the company in the mind of the client. In today's scenario, life insurance companies have adopted different channels for distributing their products. A broad categorization of channels currently being used in the distribution of life insurance products is agency, bancassurance, direct marketing, broker, work site marketing, internet marketing, and corporate agency. In this study researcher studied factor affecting on business recommendation by bancassurance channel of insurance company. Four factors are considered for this study namely satisfaction on service, opinion about staff, recommendation for business, satisfaction on documentation process, customers overall satisfaction. Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression analysis was carried.
Marketing of life insurance product is most critical and complex for various obvious reasons that include time span, periodicity and potentiality of claims and higher brand switching costs affecting the buying behavior. In the current scenario in India, insurance companies are facing problem of transiting from a perceived selling activity to a structured strategic marketing activity. Insurance marketing is basically just the marketing of life insurance products. Insurance marketing emphasizes the importance of the channel Partner. A major objective of Life Insurance Company is to generate the maximum business from channel partners.

Objectives of the study:
To study the factors affecting on recommendation for business by bancassurance channel of Insurance Company.

Hypothesis of the study:
1. There is no significant relationship between recommendations for business by bancassurance channel of Insurance Company and Satisfaction on Service. 2. There is no significant relationship between recommendations for business by bancassurance channel of Insurance Company and Opinion about staff. 3. There is no significant relationship between recommendations for business by bancassurance channel of Insurance Company and satisfaction on documentation process. 4. There is no significant relationship between recommendations for business by bancassurance channel of Insurance Company and customers overall satisfaction.

Instrument
The survey instrument was a design questionnaire for this study. The content in questionnaire was validated by experts of General Insurance Companies. Instrument was pre-tested among the respondents to establish its validity and reliability. The instrument consists of six sections namely demographic information, satisfaction on expectation, opinion about staff, recommendation for business,

Reliability Tests
Questionnaire was pre-tested among 30 respondents from different business partners of XYZ General Insurance. They were asked to note down the items or statement which are difficult to understand. After the feedback, the questionnaire was pre-tested again. The pre-test revealed the reliability of items for each section in the questionnaire which was evaluated using internal consistency approach (Cronbach's Alpha). From the analysis, results shows that reliability for each section was above 0.7 which indicated that the questionnaire were reliable. Data Analysis SPSS Version 20 software was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics were used to illustrate demographic information of the respondents. A regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between satisfaction on service, opinion about staff, recommendation for business, satisfaction on documentation process, customers overall satisfaction . All statistically analysis was carried out at 95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval. Sample Size is 150 channel partners  There is a positive correlation between all varibles namely recommeded for business, satisfaction on service, opinion about staff and satifaction on documentation at significance level 0.01. Opinion about staff has shown highest correlation with Customer experience (r = 0675, p < 0.01) and second highest correlation with Satisfaction on Service (r = 0641, p < 0.01). Opinion about staff has shown lowest correlation with Satisfaction on Documentation (r = 0.329, p < 0.01). Correlation matrix shows low to moderate correlation among the variables. The t-test as measures of whether the predictor is making a significant contribution to the model. In our case t-test associated with b-value is significant at p<0.05, Hence we can say that the predictors is making and significant contribution to the model.
Opinion about Staff: The value indicates that at opinion about staff increased by on standard deviation recommendation for business increased by 0.464 standard deviation.
Satisfaction on Documentation: The value indicates that at satisfaction on documentation increase by on standard deviation then recommendation for business increased by 0.401 standard deviation.
Recommended For Business = b0 + b1 Opinion about Staff + b2 Satisfaction on Documentation = 0.529 + (0.121) Opinion about Staff + (0.248) Satisfaction on Documentation Conclusion The study found that channel partner has favorable experiences when dealing with XYZ life insurance through the bancassurance channel. There are five core factors that affect channel partners experience in bancassurance: satisfaction on service, opinion about staff, recommendation for business, satisfaction on documentation process, customers overall satisfaction. Recommended for business depends upon opinion about staff and satisfaction on documentation process.