What use are great protection claims statistics if no one knows about them?

There have been some great headlines recently shouting about how many protection claims we paid last year.

Here’s one from Money Marketing Magazine.

“Protection industry paid out £3.1bn in 2013”

And another from Financial Adviser magazine.

“ABI: Insurers paid out 97% of protection claims”

Undoubtedly these are great protection claims statistics. As Dougie Grant from Aegon says in the Financial Adviser piece, “The figures released by the ABI today shatter the illusion that insurance companies don’t pay claims and demonstrate how important it is to have cover in place.”

You can’t argue with that.

But as great as these figures are it’s like hundreds of trees falling in the forest. You won’t hear them fall unless you are there to see them. The public still think that protection providers actively try to avoid paying claims. In fact they think that we pay out less than 40%. And articles in the Daily Mail and features on BBC Watchdog fuel that perception.

Only a very few people will go looking for great claims statistics like this. Confirmation bias means that they’ll seek out the negative articles that confirm their belief that we don’t pay.

Articles like this are great for an adviser to whip out when a client  raises the question about a companies willingness to pay. But main stream audiences aren’t seeing them.

So what are we doing to promote these amazing claims statistics? Where are the case studies with claimants? Where are the video testimonials from clients? Where are the interviews with people holding their cheques?

Statistics alone will not change deeply rooted perceptions. We need to tell the stories of the people whose lives have been affected.

Or better still let them tell their stories themselves.

Do you agree? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.