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Tag Archives: NIB

How NIB uses BIG DATA to rip-off small kids…

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, BIG DATA, Branding, Customer Service, Marketing, small data

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advertising, BIG data, branding, customer service, marketing, NIB, small data

Continuing on this week’s posts about the rotten attitude of insurance brands towards the people who pay their salary – their customers – here’s how NIB lets any telephone sales clerk access your children’s personal medical records.

I’m an NIB customer – well my whole family is covered under some family policy. Each year they increase the cost and reduce the service. They advise this using weasel words and deceit, as I’ve shared before.

preexisting-conditions

Recently my 13 year old daughter went on a holiday with friends to the UK/Europe. Yes I know what you’re thinking dear reader, I went camping two hours up the coast at her age. The highlight being catching prawns with my father in the full moon run at midnight, at The Entrance – but I digress.

midnight prawning

Midnight prawning at The Entrance

We obviously needed to get travel insurance. NIB offer discounts to customers, so my bride rang them.

The sales clerk started asking a few questions and when my bride got to the part about ski cover, the clerk opened my daughter’s medical records and poured through them – all without permission of course – unless it was covered in some double-speak in the recorded message at the start of the phone call?

How can a sales clerk have the right to inspect children’s personal medical records? What a BIG DATA abuse.

file clerk

She noted my daughter had injured her leg a couple of years ago. And she was right. My daughter broke her ankle. But she was treated professionally in hospitals, by surgeons, nurses, specialists, physios and the like. In fact NIB paid the physiotherapy bills we received for treatment of the injury.

The sales clerk claimed this old fully-healed injury qualified as a pre-existing condition, so the policy would cost an additional $90.

pre-existing-coverage

My bride explained the injury had healed. My daughter has since gone skiing, plays hockey, basketball and runs cross country. But none of that mattered, because this clerk has now labelled it a pre-existing condition.

If you believe that ridiculous notion, then there isn’t an NIB customer who hasn’t a pre-existing condition. In fact, nobody on the planet could be insured as we all have pre-existing conditions.

I broke a toe when I was 7 years old. Does that mean I cannot get travel insurance? Imagine if I was to trip over while in a foreign country – it could be linked to my pre-existing condition? I could get an injury in the snow on a trip to Queenstown – it could be related to me getting hit by a snow ball in 1978, an obvious pre-existing condition.

preexisting

One has to ask NIB – do you trust the medicos to heal patient’s injuries? After all, they study for years at university to become doctors. And you pay the gap in the medical bills to your customers, so you must have some confidence in their ability to heal wounds and injuries?

Or NIB, do you believe the medicos can’t do what they’re trained to do and fix injuries? Do you believe they are incompetent and just pay their bills because, well, that’s the system?

Either way, allowing sales clerks to access a child’s personal medical history, so you can screw them out of a few bucks on a travel insurance policy, is a low grubby act at best. You need to respect people’s (particularly children’s) privacy and stop fabricating lies to make money out of non-existing conditions.

How do you people sleep at night? Maybe you could bottle it and give it to people who struggle with pre-existing insomnia?

insomnia

Some of you may know NIB loves its marketing jargon (and reality TV too) – it even has its very own hashtag #itsgoodtobehuman. As against #itsgoodtobealien? Or #itsgoodtobemammal?

If they really want people to believe their marketing speak, they should change it to #itsbadtobeaNIBcustomer. I’m sure the whole population – those people with pre-existing conditions – would believe them.

The only good thing to come from this was getting a cheaper policy from another insurer. They didn’t consider falling over as a kid to be a pre-existing condition to living a healthy life.

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At NIB #itsgoodtobehuman, but #badtobeacustomer…

21 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, BIG DATA, Branding, Content Marketing, Copywriting, Customer Service, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Automation

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content marketing, customer service, direct mail, direct marketing, itsgoodtobehuman, marketing, NIB

Yesterday I received a letter from my health insurer NIB. I’m a customer and a shareholder, so they are investing my money in this stuff.

In the first sentence they told me they were stopping my cover in November – no questions asked, whether I like it or not. Stuff you.

cancelled-policy 304

The next paragraph of corporate-speak, once deciphered, explained they are doing this because they are completely incompetent. Apparently their actuaries are not very good at their jobs.

The letter tells me they have created a policy that is unsustainable. It’s my policy and it pays $1.28 in claims for every $1.00 in premiums it receives. And because they are so useless, I now have to change policies to one that provides far less cover, but costs me far more per month.

In other words, their customers have to pay for their stuff-up.

Here’s what they are doing to me (and I assume all others who had the same policy):

  • Increasing my monthly premium by 6.9%
  • Reducing the percentage refund I get on claims by 11.8% (85% to 75%)
  • Reducing the total annual amount I can claim on a number of services, including a 50% reduction in the healthier lifestyle benefit (gym fees, quit smoking, etc) by $1,400 PA*

*The total amount I can claim PA on the current policy is $14,100 (plus unlimited preventative dental), under the new more expensive policy I can only claim $12,700.

They recommend I take this more expensive policy. And why wouldn’t they – they’ll make more money and have given me no choice.

Even worse, are the weasel words they use to fool you. Here’s one example from the FAQ’s:

Question: “What happens to my premium?”

Answer: “Your new premium will take effect from 17 November 2014. Please note that the amount of your first payment may be different from the amount detailed in your letter, as the new price is effective on 17th November 2014 and your first payment will be adjusted over this period.”

Notice how this doesn’t answer the question. It talks about the first payment amount, not the premium. The premium is the amount you pay annually, so the answer should tell you if it has gone up, down or remains unchanged. The answer given is close to dishonest, or just plain incompetent. Probably written by lawyers.

truth

I’m not sure why the people at NIB don’t get it, but customers prefer the truth. Given NIB’s attitude, here’s something they could have written that is more truthful and explains the situation accurately:

“Your premium? What do you think will happen to it you stupid fool? We are going to rip you off mercilessly. Why should we pay for our mistakes? We’re going to increase your annual premium, reduce the percentage of refund per claim and reduce the amount you can claim each year, so just pay the invoice and don’t ask any questions. And BTW #itsgoodtobehuman.”

This is precise and explains the position clearly to the customer. The customer can then decide which wall they will bash in sheer frustration and anger, so as to ensure the resulting injury is covered under the existing policy – because it obviously won’t be covered under the new one.

NIB hashtag crap

In case you’re wondering about the strange #hashtag stuff, this is where the efforts of the marketing team are focused at the moment. After all, social media is far more important than being honest, or protecting customers against policies that fail. “Hey, let’s get social, join the conversation, cliche, cliche, blah, blah, blah, #itsgoodtobehuman.”

The million dollar mistake

As a shareholder I am a tad concerned about the letter, so I’m going to raise the problem at the next AGM. After all, other shareholders need to know how their investment is being wasted by the actuaries and marketers. Here’s why:

Just consider the consequences of this communication. The lifetime value of my membership, which is a family one for at least another 10 years, then another 30 years for my bride and I, plus the lifetime value of my 2 children for at least 60 years as adults.

This equates to 10 + 30 + 60 + 60 = 160 years

Using the current annual premium and not factoring any imposed price increases or inflation, or single/family memberships, a simple estimate of my family’s lifetime value is at least a conservative 160 x $6,000 = $960,000+

That’s a lot of premium. It’s certainly a lot to risk on such amateurish communications.

I must admit though it is good to be human. We can vent our frustrations when companies screw with us and we can stop using insurers for life when they treat us appallingly.

Where’s my Google? I need to search for health insurers…

P.S. In case you’re interested here’s the letter and FAQs:

NIB letter

NIB FAQs

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