Name: Nikunj k

shah
Std.: TY. BMS
Rollno. 31
College: KES
Topic :
Customer
Satisfaction On
LIC
Contents
Chapter 1- Introduction and
objective
Chapter 2-industry profile
Chapter 3-company profile
Chapter 4-subject matter
Introduction of
topic
Research
methodology
Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
 INTRODUCTION
LIFE INSURANCE IN INDIA

Life insurance in India made its debut well over 100 years ago.
In our country, which is one of the most populated in the world, the
prominence of
insurance is not as widely understood, as it ought to be. What follows is an
attempt to acquaint readers with some of the concepts of life insurance, with
special reference to LIC
It should, however, be clearly understood that the following content is by no
means an exhaustive description of the terms and conditions of an LIC policy
or
Its benefits or privileges.
What Is Life Insurance?

Life insurance is a contract that pledges payment of an amount to the

person
assured (or his nominee) on the happening of the event insured against.
The contract is valid for payment of the insured amount during:
 The date of maturity, or
 Specified dates at periodic intervals, or
 Unfortunate death, if it occurs earlier.
Among other things, the contract also provides for the payment of premium
periodically to the Corporation by the policyholder. Life insurance is
universally
acknowledged to be an institution, which eliminates 'risk', substituting
certainty
for uncertainty and comes to the timely aid of the family in the unfortunate
event
of death of the breadwinner. By and large, life insurance is civilization’s
partial
solution to the problems caused by death. Life insurance, in short, is
concerned
with two hazards that stand across the life-path of every person:
1. That of dying prematurely leaving a dependent family to fend for itself.
2. That of living till old age without visible means of support.
Customer satisfied with LIC service because the LIC totally
concentrate customer relations and it makes customers
attract towards the LIC

LIC moves towards better customer relations

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is embarking on a number

of customer relationship management initiatives to retain its
foothold in the market, in the wake of private players inching their
way up in the life insurance sector.

The Insurance behemoth is planning to tie-up with a number of

banks to enable a payment gateway wherein the policyholders can
make their premium payments via credit cards.

LIC is planning to start a new portal for its policyholders where a

customer can log in, get details on his/her policies, change the
resident address when he/she shifts to a new place and even take a
printout of the income tax certificate. The portal is likely to be
ready in a month’s time.
Besides, it has already started work on allotment of customer folio
number to know each customer's holding.

“The allotment of customer folio number for all our holders will still
take a year’s time in this zone,” H Nanda, regional manager,
information technology, LIC (south-central zone), said.

“The electronic clearance system that have been launched at

Hyderabad, Bangalore, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, has been
doing very well. Here the customer’s premium is automatically
debited from his account at the time of payment,” he added.
Shortly, the zone will also see the launch of this system in Mysore,
Mangalore and Hubli.

Regarding the recently launched Bima Gold policy, a money-back

policy with premium payment options, the corporation plans to sell
15 lakh policies this year in the south central zone with the national
figure being one crore.

LIC also plans to launch three-four products this year with one of
these being unit-linked insurance plan in October. As on the zone
has issued 12,47,795 policies under new business.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to carry on brief study on

“Customer
satisfaction survey on insurance products of LIC
Other objectives of this project are as follows:
  To identify the insurance needs of the Indian population
with
respect to their emotional, physical and financial
conditions.
 Comparative study of various insurance players in the market
 To study the varied reasons of availing life insurance plans

 To clearly understand the rationale behind the

investment in policies of LIC and private sector insurance
companies
 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.

 The prime objective of the study is to find out the level of

satisfaction of a
customer (policy holders or beneficiary) so far as the
settlement of claims.

 To find out the procedure of claim policy holder or the

beneficiary
 Chapter 2

Industry
profile

Industry profile
 ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Life Insurance in its modern form came to India from England in the
year
1818. Oriental Life Insurance Company stated by Europeans in
Calcutta was the first
life insurance company on Indian Soil. All the insurance companies
established
during that period were brought up with the purpose of looking
after the needs of
European community and Indian natives were not being insured by
these companies.
However, later with the efforts of eminent people like Babu Muttylal
Seal, the foreign
life insurance companies started insuring Indian lives. But Indian
lives were being
treated as sub-standard lives and heavy extra premiums were being
changed on them.
Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society heralded the birth of first
Indian life
insurance company in the year 1870, and covered Indian lives at
normal rates.
Starting as Indian enterprise with highly patriotic motives,
insurance companies came
tito existence to carry the message of insurance and social security
through insurance
to various sectors of society. Bharat Insurance Company (1896) was
also one of such
companies inspired by natioalism. the Swadeshi movement of 1905-
1907 gavwe rise
to more insurance companies. The United India in Madras, National
Indian and
National Insurance in Calcutta and the Hindustan Co-operative
Insurance Company
took its birth in one of the rooms of the Jorasanko, house of the
great poet
Rabindranath Tagore, in Calcutta. The Indian Mercantile, General
Assurance and
Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life) were some of the companies
established during
the same period. Prior to 1912. India had no legislation to regulate
insurance business.
In the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act, and the
Provident Fund Act were
passed. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary
that the premium
rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be
certified by an actuary.
But the act discriminated between foreign and Indian companies on
many accounts,
putting the Indian companies at a disadvantage.
The first two decades of the twentieth century saw lot of growth in
insurance
business. From 44 companies with total business-in force as Rs.
22.44 crore, it rose to
176 companies with total business-in-force as Rs. 298 crore in 1938.
During the
mushrooming of insurance companies many financially unsound
concerns were also
floated which failed miserably. The Insurance Act 1938 was the first
legislation
governing not only life insurance but also non-life insurance to
provide strict state
control over insurance business. The demand for nationalization of
life insurance
industry was made repeatedly in the past but it gathered
momentum in 1944 when a
bill to amend the Life Insurance Act 1938 was introduced in the
Legislative
Assembly. However, it was much later on the 19th of January, 1956,
that life insurance
in India was nationalized. About 154 Indian insurance companies, 16
non-Indian
companies and 75 provident were operating in India at the time of
nationalization,
nationalization was accomplished in two stages; initially the
management of the
companies was taken over by means of an Ordinance, and later, the
ownership too by
means of a comprehensive bill. The Parliament of India passed the
Life Insurance
Corporation Act on the 19th of June 1956, and the Life Insurance
Corporation of India
was created on 1st September, 1956, with the objective of spreading
life insurance
much more widely and in particular to the rural areas with a view to
reach all
insurable persons in the country, providing them adequate financial
cover at a
reasonable cost.
LIC had 5 zonal offices, 33 divisional offices and 212 branch offices,
apart
from its corporate office in the year 1956. Since life insurance
contracts are long term
contracts and during the currency of the policy it requires a variety
of services need
was felt in the later years to expand the operations and place a
branch office at each
district headquarter, re-organization of LIC took place and large
numbers of new
branch offices were opened. As a result of re-organization servicing
functions were
transferred to the branches, and branches were made accounting
units. It worked
wonders with the performance of the corporation. It may be seen
that from about
200.00 crores of New Business in 1957 the corporation crossed
1000.00 crores only in
the year 1969-70, and it took another 10 years for LIC to cross
2000.00 crore mark of
new business. But with re-organization happening in the early
eighties, by 1985-86
LIC had already crossed 7000.00 crore Sum Assured on new policies.
Today LIC functions with 2048 fully computerized branch offices,
100
divisional offices, 7 zonal offices and the corporate office. LIC’s
Wide Area Network
covers 100 divisional offices and connects all the branches through
a Metro Area
Network. LIC has tied up with some Banks and Service providers to
offer on-lint
premium collection facility in selected cities. LIC’s ECS and ATM
premium payment
facility is an addition to customer convenience. Apart from on-line
Kiosks and IVRS,
Info Centres have been commissioned at Mumbai, Ahmedabad,
Bangalore, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, Pune and many other cities. With a
vision of
providing easy access to its policyholders, LIC has launched its
SATELLITE
SAMPARK offices. The satellite offices are smaller, leaner and closer
to the
customer. The digitalized records of the satellite offices will
facilitate anywhere
servicing and many other conveniences in the future.
LIC continues to be the dominant life insurer even in theliberalized
scenario of
Indian insurance and is moving fast on a new growth trajectory
surpassing its own
past records. LIC has issued over one crore policies during the
current year. It has
crossed the milestone of issuing 1,01,32,955 new policies by 15th
Oct, 2005, posting a
healthy growth rate of 16.67% over the corresponding period of the
previous year.
From then to now, LIC ha crossed many milestones and has set
unprecedented
performance records in various aspects of life insurance business.
The same motives
which inspired our forefathers to bring insurance into existence in
this country inspire
us at LIC to take this message of protection to light the lamps of
security in as many
homes as possible and to help the people in providing security to
their families.

Some of the important milestones in the life insurance business in

India are:
1818: Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first life insurance
company on Indian
soil started functioning.
1870: Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society, the first Indian life
insurance company
started its business.
1912: The Indian Life Assurance Companies Act enacted as the first
statute to
regulate the life insurance business.
1928: The Indian Insurance Companies Act enacted to enable the
government to
collect statistical information about both life and non-life insurance
businesses.
1938: Earlier legislation consolidated and amended to by the
Insurance Act with the
objective of protecting the interests of the insuring public.
1956: 245 Indian and foreign insurers and provident societies are
taken over by the
central government and nationalized. LIC formed by an Act of
Parliament, viz. LIC
Act, 1956, with a capital contribution of Rs. 5 crore from the
Government of India.
The General insurance business in India, on the other hand, can
trace its roots
to the Triton Insurance Company Ltd., the first general insurance
company
established in the year 1850 in Calcutta by the British.

Life insurance Corporation of India (LIC)

The Life insurance Corporation

was established about 44 years ago with a view to provide an
insurance cover against
various risks in life. A monolith then, the corporation, enjoyed a
monopoly status and
become synonymous with life insurance. Its main asset is its staff
strength of 1.24 lakhs
employed and 2,048 branches and over six-lakhs agency force.
LIC has hundred divisional offices and has established extensive
training
facility at all levels. At the apex, is the Management Development
Institute, seven zonal
Training Centre and 35 sales Training Centers. At the industry level,
along with the
Government and the GIC, it has helped establish the National
Insurance Academy. It
presently transacts individual Life Insurance business, group
Insurance business, social
security schemes and Pensions, grants housing loans through its
subsidiary. And the
markets savings and Investment products through its mutual fund.
It pays off about Rs
6,000 crores annually to5.6 million policyholders
LIC OPERATES ALL OVER INDIA
OBJECTIVES OF LIC

  Spread Life Insurance widely and in particular to the rural

areas and to the
socially and economically backward classes with a view to
reaching
allinsurable persons in the country and providing them
adequate financial
cover against death at a reasonable cost.
  Maximize mobilization of people’ savings by making
insurance-linked savings
adequately attractive.
  Bear in mind, in the investment of funds, the primary
obligation to its
policyholders, whose money it holds in trust, without losing
sight of the
interest of the community as a whole; the funds to be
deployed to the best
advantage of the investors as well as the community as a
whole, keeping in
view national priorities and obligations of attractive return.
  Conduct business with utmost economy and with the full
realization that
moneys belong to the policyholders.
   Act as trustees of the insured public in their individual and
collective
capacities.
  Meet the various life insurance needs of the community
that would arise in the
changing social and economic environment.
  Involve all people working in the Corporation to the best of
their capability in
furthering the interests of the insured public by providing
efficient service
with courtesy.
  Promote amongst all agent and employees of the
corporation a sense of
participation, pride and job towards achievement of Corporate
objective.

MISSION/VISION

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.”
Vision
“A trans-nationally competitive financial conglomerate of
significance to societies
and Pride of India.”

Chapter 3
Company profile

Company profile
Type: Public limited company or Government-owned corporation

Founded: September 1, 1956

Headquarters: Headquarters in Mumbai, India (Various other locations in

India and abroad)

Key people: T. S. Vijayan (Chairman), D. K. Mehta and Thomas Mathew

(Managing Directors)

Industry: Life insurance

Products: Insurance and Pension Plans

Employees: Over 10,00,000

Parent: NIL

Subsidiaries: LIC Housing Finance Limited, etc.

Website: http://www.licindia.com

Products of LIC
LIC - Jeevan Anurag

Benefits

LIC’s Jeevan ANURAG is a with profits plan specifically

designed to take care of the educational needs of
children. The plan can be taken by a parent on his or her
own life. Benefits under the plan are payable at
prespecified durations irrespective of whether the Life
Assured survives to the end of the policy term or dies
during the term of the policy. In addition, this plan also
provides for an immediate payment of Basic Sum Assured
amount on death of the Life Assured during the term of
the policy.

AssuredBenefit

Payment of 20% of the Basic Sum Assured at the start of

every year during last 3 policy years before maturity. At
maturity, 40% of the Basic Sum Assured along with
reversionary bonuses declared from time to time on full
Sum Assured for the full term and the Terminal bonus, if
any shall be payable. For example, if term of the policy is
20 years, 20% of the Sum assured will be payable at the
end of the 17th, 18th, 19th year and 40% of the Sum
Assured along with the reversionary bonuses and the
terminal bonus, if any, at the end of the 20th year.

Death Benefit
Payment of an amount equal to Sum Assured under the basic plan immediately
on the death of the life assured.

LIC - Jeewan Kisore

Product summary:
This is an Endowment Assurance Plan available for
children of less than 12 years of age. The policy may be
purchased by any of the parent/grand parent.

Commencement of risk cover:

The risk commences either after 2 years from the date of
commencement of policy or from the policy anniversary
immediately following the completion of 7 years of age of
child, whichever is later.

Premiums:
Premiums are payable yearly, half-yearly, quarterly or
monthly throughout the term of the policy or till earlier
death of child.

Bonuses:
This is a with-profits plan and participates in the profits
of the Corporation’s life insurance business. It gets a
share of the profits in the form of bonuses. Simple
Reversionary Bonuses are declared per thousand Sum
Assured annually at the end of each financial year. Once
declared, they form part of the guaranteed benefits of
the plan. A Final (Additional) Bonus may also be payable
provided policy has run for certain minimum period.

LIC – Childs Career Plan

Introduction:
This plan is specially designed to meet the increasing
educational and other needs of growing children. It
provides the risk cover on the life of child not only during
the policy term but also during the extended term (i.e. 7
years after the expiry of policy term). A number of
Survival benefits are payable on surviving by the life
assured to the end of the specified durations.

Options:
You may choose Sum Assured (S.A.), Maturity Age, Policy Term, Mode of
Premium payment and Premium Waiver Benefit.
Payment of Premiums:
You may pay the premiums regularly at yearly, half-yearly, quarterly or
through Salary deductions over the term of policy. Premiums may be paid either
for 6 years or up to 5 years before the policy term.

LIC - Jeevan Chhaya

Product summary:
This is an Endowment Assurance plan that provides
financial protection against death throughout the term of
the plan. Besides payment of Sum Assured immediately
on death, one-fourth of Sum Assured is payable at the
end of each of last four years of policy term whether the
life assured dies or survives the term of the policy.

Premiums:
Premiums are payable yearly, half-yearly, quarterly,
monthly or through salary deductions as opted by you
throughout the term of the policy or till the earlier death.

LIC - Child Future Plan

Introduction:
This plan is specially designed to meet the increasing
educational, marriage and other needs of growing
children. It provides the risk cover on the life of child not
only during the policy term but also during the extended
term (i.e. 7 years after the expiry of policy term). A
number of Survival benefits are payable on surviving by
the life assured to the end of the specified durations.

Options:
You may choose Sum Assured (S.A.), Maturity Age, Policy Term, Mode of
Premium payment and Premium Waiver Benefit.

Payment of Premiums:
You may pay the premiums regularly at yearly, half-yearly, quarterly or
through Salary deductions over the term of policy. Premiums may be paid either
for 6 years or up to 5 years before the policy term.

LIC - Jeevan Shree

Product summary:
This is an Endowment Assurance plan offering the choice
of many convenient premium-paying terms. It provides
financial protection against death throughout the term of
plan with the payment of maturity amount on survival to
the end of the policy term.

Premiums:
Premiums are payable yearly, half-yearly, quarterly, monthly or through Salary
deductions, as opted by you, throughout the premium paying term or till earlier
death. Alternatively premium may be paid in one lump sum.
Guaranteed Additions:
The policy provides for the Guaranteed Additions at the rate of Rs. 50/- per
thousand Sum Assured for each completed year for first five years of the policy.

LIC - The Whole Life Policy

This plan is mainly devised to create an estate for the heirs of the
policyholder as the plan basically provides for payment of sum
assured plus bonuses on the death of the policyholder. However,
considering the increased longevity of the Indian population, the
Corporation has amended the above provision, thereby providing
for payment of sum assured plus bonuses in the form of maturity
claim on completion of age 80 years or on expiry of term of 40
years from date of commencement of the policy whichever is later.
The premiums under the policy are payable up to age 80 years of
the policyholder or for a term of 35 years whichever is later.
If the payment of premium ceases after 3 years, a paid-up policy
for such reduced sum assured will be automatically secured
provided the reduced sum assured exclusive of any attached bonus
is not less than Rs.250/-. Such reduced paid-up policy is not
entitled to participate in the bonus declared thereafter but the
bonuses already declared on the policy will remain attach, provided
the policy is converted in to a paid-up policy after the premiums
are paid for 5 years.

LIC – Amulya Jeevan : On Death during the Term of

the Policy: Sum Assured
On Maturity: Nil

RESTRICTIVE CONDITIONS
Minimum age at entry : 18 years (completed)
Maximum age at entry : 60 years (nearest birthday)
Maximum age at
: 70 years (nearest birthday)
maturity
Minimum Policy Term : 5 years
Maximum Policy term : 35 years
Minimum Sum Assured : Rs.25,00,000/-
Maximum Sum Assured : No Upper Limit
(Policies will be issued in multiples of Rs.100,000/- for Sums Assured
more than the minimum Sum Assured)
Mode of premium : Yearly, Half-yearly & Single
payment Premium

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE OF LIC

Chairman

Managing Director

Executives Directors

Chiefs

Zonal Managers

Regional Managers

Divisional Managers

100 Seniors Divisional Managers

Marketing Managers

Sales Managers

Senior Branch Managers (Head of the

Branch)

Assistant Branch Managers Sells

Development Officers

Different Agent
PUBLIC RELATION DEPARTMENT
The Public Relation Department in LIC is divided into three major
categories. Namely:

1. Communication Department
2. Crisis Management Department
3. Publicity Department

Chief Public Relation Officer

PRO (Communication Dept.)

PRO (Crisis Management Dept.)

PRO (Publicity
Dept.)
CHAIRMAN OF LIC

PUBLIC
RELATIONS

COMMUNICATION DEPARMENT

PUBLICITY
DEPARMENT

CRISIS MANAGEMENT DEPATMENT

CHIEF PUBLIC RELATION OFFICER
The Chief Public Relation Officer of LIC is Mr. M. V. Kulkarni. He heads the
PR department. The above three committees are under the PRO. The PRO is
responsible for the overall functioning of the PR department. He has to
monitor
the smooth functioning of the three departments.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHIEF PUBLIC RELATION OFFICER :-

1. PR represents whole organization.
2. Should know how to behave in a certain situation.
3. He is not a person, he is representative.
4. Should know how to create enthusiasm.
5. In crisis he has to give feedback as soon as possible.
OBJECTIVES AND FUNCTIONS OF CHIEF PUBLIC RELATION OFFICER:-
• The PRO is directly answerable to the Chairman Shri. T.S. Vijayan.
• The PRO looks after all the activities of the three departments all over
India.
• Also he has to keep in close touch with the over-seas PR departments
of LIC.
• All the policies implemented in India are informed to other PROs of the
over-seas branches of LIC.
• The PRO monitors the norms and values of all the branches.
• The new rules and regulations in India are informed to the PROs of the
over-seas branches.
• The PRO also holds regular workshops for the top management
employees to motivate them to lift the spirit of the work culture.
• The PRO also has to provide information about latest policies to the
communication department and ask them to public or air it through
various mediums.
• Since a major share of workload of LIC is in the public sector, the PRO
has to look after social responsibility as well as maintaining the image of the
company.

COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT
The PRO of this Department is an external PR.
He looks after:-
• Arranging press conferences, press releases and is in constant contact
with the media.
• He is also responsible for monitoring the overseas communications.
• The Communication Department PRO has to make arrangements for the
guests and their overall honors. The conversations with the guests are
directly done by the Communication Department PRO.
• The PRO from this department should always keep a close eye on the
latest happenings in the market. Any social issue at any area is a news to
be worked out for him.
• He reports directly to the Chief PRO of the company.
• The Press conference usually includes the CEO of the company, the Chief
PRO and the Communication Dept. PRO.
• If the case is of crisis, then only is the Crisis management Dept PRO
present for the Press conference.
• Since LIC is closely related with the Public Sector, the Communication
Dept. PRO has to also be in a close contact with the government officials.
• He also has to motivate the employees in his department for constant
progress in the strategies for communication.
In short, the communication Department PRO ensures that there is no
communication gap between the company and the external concerned
bodies.
(recent press releases of LIC issued by Communication Department PRO
enclosed)….

CRISIS MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT

The PRO in this department is an internal one. From the overall history of
LIC, it is seen that the company has never been into any major crisis. This
itself
is one of the best achievements.
He is answerable to the Chief Public Relation Officer.
The PRO from crisis management, though is here to handle crisis, he has
been
assigned many other internal responsibilities.
• Motivating the lower employees, sales executives and sales and
marketing employees.
• Building up a smooth communication between the Blue Collar and the
White Collar.
• Arranging small workshops for all the employees.
• He also has to know the issues going within the other departments so that
these issues are solved before they create crisis.
The strategy used by the PR here for crisis management is:-
“Wash the utensil before having food in it.”
Thus all the employees right from the day of joining are kept in close
contact with the Crisis Management Dept. And regular workshops help to
restrict
cases like Corruption. With a company so closely associated with the
government, restricting such practices is very difficult task.
PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT
The PRO of the publicity Department is an External PR.
This department was formed due to the fall of sales in the 1999. This fall was
due
to the emergence of the foreign insurance companies and their advertising
strategies. Initially, the ads shown by LIC always said “no worry even after
death”. All the ads portrayed death. The other insurance companies came up
with the idea that insurance is for happy life. Thus the sales of LIC went
down as
people liked the idea of Life more than Death.
Hence a separate publicity department was formed which worked only for
publicity strategies. Initially it was looked up by the Communication
Department.
Today the publicity department PRO has to see to it that all the ads running
are
creating effect. The PRO is the one who along with the Marketing
department
looks after the strategies for publicity. He is also to carry out various
campaigns.
The very recent campaign is known as “Zindagi Express”.
The Zindagi Express is a term that has been associated to the life of LIC.
Just as humans celebrate their 50 years of life, even LIC is celebrating its life.
and when any person has done a lot in his life, he is capable of writing an
Autobiography. Thus Zindagi Express is an Autobiography by LIC.
They had started this unique campaign of auto biography from Delhi and
will cover the entire nation and end up in Delhi again. During this journey
they

explain what all LIC has done for publics and what all it still intends to do
To satisfy the consumers in LIC they make
effective public relations and consumer relations

S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS OF LIC A proper S.W.O.T. analysis of

LIC has also been conducted to know better about the position, growth, and
upcoming future and prospective of the company.

STRENGTHS
• LIC is on 1st rank among the Insurance player.
• Long-term plans of LIC are the main strength.
• After sales services.
• Products cost are very low.
• Customer does not believe on private company.

WEEKNESS

Low interest rate

OPPORTUNITIES
• Good brand promotion.
• 1/2nd- % insurance has been covered.

THREATS
• Competitors.
• Entry of Private Insurance banks..

Chapter
4
Subject
matter
Introduction of
topic
 Research
methodology

Subject matter
Introduction of topic

What is customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction refers to how satisfied customers

are with the
products or services they receive from a particular agency.
The level of
satisfaction is determined not only by the quality and type of
customer
experience but also by the customer’s expectations.
A customer may be defined as someone who:
• has a direct relationship with, or is directly affected by your
agency and
receives or relies on one or more of your agency’s services or
products. Customers in human services are commonly
referred to as
service users, consumers or clients.
• An organisation with a strong customer service culture
places the
customer at the centre of service design, planning and service
delivery. Customer centric organisations will:
• determine the customers expectations when they plan
• listen to the customer as they design
• focus on the delivery of customer service activities
• Value customer feedback when they measure
performance.

Why is it important?

There are a number of reasons why customer satisfaction is

important in
Insurance Sector:
• Meeting the needs of the customer is the underlying
rationale for the
existence of community service organizations. Customers have
a right to
quality services that deliver outcomes.
• Organizations that strive beyond minimum standards and
exceed the
expectations of their customers are likely to be leaders in
their
sector.
• Customers are recognized as key partners in shaping service
development and assessing quality of service delivery.

The process for measuring customer satisfaction and

obtaining feedback on
organizational performance are valuable tools for quality and
continuous service improvement.Customer satisfaction,
a sinebuss term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a
company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance
indicator within business and is part of the four of a Balanced Scorecard.

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers,

customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become
a key element of business strategy.[1]

There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of

customer satisfaction for firms.

Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers;

[2]
. Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the
organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace.

Customer satisfaction is an abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the

state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to
product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both
psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors
such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary
depending on other factors the customer, such as other products against which
the customer can compare the organization's products.
Customer Satisfaction in 7 Steps in LIC
It's a well known fact that no business can exist without customers.
In the business of Website design, it's important to work closely
with your customers to make sure the site or system you create for
them is as close to their requirements as you can manage. Because
it's critical that you form a close working relationship with your
client, customer service is of vital importance. What follows are a
selection of tips that will make your clients feel valued, wanted and
loved.
1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings

This is the most daunting and downright scary part of interacting

with a customer. If you're not used to this sort of thing it can be a
pretty nerve-wracking experience. Rest assured, though, it does get
easier over time. It's important to meet your customers face to face
at least once or even twice during the course of a project.

My experience has shown that a client finds it easier to relate to and

work with someone they've actually met in person, rather than a
voice on the phone or someone typing into an email or messenger
program. When you do meet them, be calm, confident and above all,
take time to ask them what they need. I believe that if a potential
client spends over half the meeting doing the talking, you're well on
your way to a sale.

2. Respond to Messages Promptly & Keep Your Clients Informed

This goes without saying really. We all know how annoying it is to

wait days for a response to an email or phone call. It might not
always be practical to deal with all customers' queries within the
space of a few hours, but at least email or call them back and let
them know you've received their message and you'll contact them
about it as soon as possible. Even if you're not able to solve a
problem right away, let the customer know you're working on it.
A good example of this is my Web host. They've had some trouble
with server hardware which has caused a fair bit of downtime lately.
At every step along the way I was emailed and told exactly what
was going on, why things were going wrong, and how long it would
be before they were working again. They also apologised repeatedly,
which was nice. Now if they server had just gone down with no
explanation I think I'd have been pretty annoyed and may have
moved my business elsewhere. But because they took time to keep
me informed, it didn't seem so bad, and I at least knew they were
doing something about the problems. That to me is a prime example
of customer service.

3. Be Friendly and Approachable

A fellow SitePointer once told me that you can hear a smile through
the phone. This is very true. It's very important to be friendly,
courteous and to make your clients feel like you're their friend and
you're there to help them out. There will be times when you want to
beat your clients over the head repeatedly with a blunt object - it
happens to all of us. It's vital that you keep a clear head, respond to
your clients' wishes as best you can, and at all times remain polite
and courteous.

4. Have a Clearly-Defined Customer Service Policy

This may not be too important when you're just starting out, but a
clearly defined customer service policy is going to save you a lot of
time and effort in the long run. If a customer has a problem, what
should they do? If the first option doesn't work, then what? Should
they contact different people for billing and technical enquiries? If
they're not satisfied with any aspect of your customer service, who
should they tell?
There's nothing more annoying for a client than being passed from
person to person, or not knowing who to turn to. Making sure they
know exactly what to do at each stage of their enquiry should be of
utmost importance. So make sure your customer service policy is
present on your site -- and anywhere else it may be useful.

5. Attention to Detail (also known as 'The Little Niceties')

Have you ever received a Happy Birthday email or card from a

company you were a client of? Have you ever had a personalised
sign-up confirmation email for a service that you could tell was
typed from scratch? These little niceties can be time consuming and
aren't always cost effective, but remember to do them.

Even if it's as small as sending a Happy Holidays email to all your

customers, it's something. It shows you care; it shows there are real
people on the other end of that screen or telephone; and most
importantly, it makes the customer feel welcomed, wanted and
valued.

6. Anticipate Your Client's Needs & Go Out Of Your Way to Help Them Out

Sometimes this is easier said than done! However, achieving this

supreme level of understanding with your clients will do wonders for
your working relationship.

Take this as an example: you're working on the front-end for your

client's exciting new ecommerce endeavour. You have all the
images, originals and files backed up on your desktop computer and
the site is going really well. During a meeting with your client
he/she happens to mention a hard-copy brochure their internal
marketing people are developing. As if by magic, a couple of weeks
later a CD-ROM arrives on their doorstep complete with high
resolution versions of all the images you've used on the site. A note
accompanies it which reads:

"Hi, you mentioned a hard-copy brochure you were working on and I wanted to provide you
with large-scale copies of the graphics I've used on the site. Hopefully you'll be able to
make use of some in your brochure."

Your client is heartily impressed, and remarks to his colleagues and

friends how very helpful and considerate his Web designers are.
Meanwhile, in your office, you lay back in your chair drinking your
7th cup of coffee that morning, safe in the knowledge this happy
customer will send several referrals your way.

7. Honour Your Promises

It's possible this is the most important point in this article. The
simple message: when you promise something, deliver. The most
common example here is project delivery dates.

Clients don't like to be disappointed. Sometimes, something may not

get done, or you might miss a deadline through no fault of your own.
Projects can be late, technology can fail and sub-contractors don't
always deliver on time. In this case a quick apology and assurance
it'll be ready ASAP wouldn't go amiss.

Conclusion

Customer service, like any aspect of business, is a practiced art that

takes time and effort to master. All you need to do to achieve this is
to stop and switch roles with the customer. What would you want
from your business if you were the client? How would you want to
be treated? Treat your customers like your friends and they'll always
come back.
Research Methodology :
Secondary data is collected from various bibliographical sources
such as journals, novels, magazines, publications and various
websites including the official website of LIC and various other
company websites. The published research reports and market
studies also helped the researcher to guage into the problem.
(This research is fully based on secondary data )