Aquarium Believes Pet Insurance Industry Could Profit from Employee Benefits
(PRWEB) April 27, 2015 -- As more British based companies follow America’s lead in offering health and dental insurance as part of their employee benefits packages, pet insurance technology thought leader Aquarium Software believes that such a strategy might be the perfect way for the pet insurance market to boost its popularity and profitability in the UK.Mark Colonnese of Aquarium Software believes the issue is likely to prove one of the hot topics at the forthcoming North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA) Summit on 26-28 May 2015.
The US and Manchester (UK) based firm believes it has the perfect technology platform to enable the implementation of such staff benefit programmes, which in the long run will help keep employees happy through a caring approach towards their four-legged friends.
Some insurance brands, including AXA, have pulled out of the pet insurance market because of a lack of profitability and low margins, but with many US insurance companies offering policies as part of employee benefits packages, Aquarium believes this method of internal marketing should be further explored. US brands such as VPI and Pet Plan offer pet policies as employee benefits, with the approach seen as a cost effective alternative way to keep the workforce happy – over and above traditional employee benefits.
“Employer subsidised plans could be a great benefit to both the pet market and the pet owners,” said Mark Colonnese, Sales and Marketing Director at Aquarium Software, “In the US, consumers are very used to buying all manner of insurance products in this way and it comes as no surprise that pet insurance providers have targeted this same avenue. It would seem this channel to market in the UK could be equally successful.”
In the US selling insurance through the employee benefits package is seen as a key way of retaining staff with them offering not only health and dental insurance, but also extending their benefits to home, motor, and now pet insurance coverage.
The UK market has also begun exploring this as a way of selling insurance, however with the exception of health and dental insurance which is regularly on the menu in the UK, pet insurance is still an exception rather than the rule.
Offering insurance as part of an employee benefit package can present additional challenges as policies may be delivered via brokers and managed by third party administrators. What is important is that all interactions are tracked, managed and auditable.
“It is a huge task to manage registrations, collect premiums and handle all the admin and exceptions that follow when it comes to implementing insurance into employee benefits schemes,” said Mark. “This is where Aquarium can help all parties involved manage the complexities from initial quote, buy, policy administration right the way through to claims processing.”
Aquarium is an expert in supplying bespoke insurance software to the insurance industry with a strong emphasis on the pet sector. Its technology utilises the cloud and methods such as “management by exception” to deliver the most efficient process designed to improve the customer journey for the pet parent whilst ensuring that all of the necessary administrative processes, including relevant fraud checks and management of claims leakage, are carried out effectively.
“With a major presence in both the US and the UK markets, we understand not only how the industry works but how technology is used to implement pet insurance products into employee benefits packages both sides of the Atlantic,” said Colonnese. “For the insurance company this should act as a very attractive proposition with them being able to offer a competitively priced product, via an employer to a captive market.”
Aquarium Software is currently being implemented by a number of key insurers, and affinity partners in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada. For further information contact Aquarium Software on +44 (0)161 927 5620 or visit http://www.aquarium-software.com
Jon Gardner, BeyondPR, http://www.beyondpr.co.uk, +44 1142756996, [email protected]
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