Have you ever had a decent meal in a restaurant ruined by slow service and rude staff? This happened to me recently and I became more annoyed when the bill showed the added 15% discretionary service charge. To add insult to injury the card machine asked if I wanted to add a tip on top as well. I asked the manager to remove the service charge and I didn’t tip. My enjoyment of the food felt vanished. I won’t be going back.

Is it me or is service in most industries at an all-time low? And what about financial services in general and the mortgage and protection markets in particular? We don’t hear much about service other than in complaints. We rarely hear much about it at product launches.

The trouble is, service has dipped pretty much everywhere and we can all feel it.

Think about the last time you tried to call your bank. Or chase a parcel. Or deal with your broadband provider. Did you find you waited on hold because they were experiencing “higher than expected call numbers”? Have you ever shouted “SPEAK TO HUMAN” at a chatbot, or ended up in a pointless loop of FAQs that didn’t answer your question?

Since the pandemic, service has slipped across the board. There are still some bright spots, but not many.

And the protection industry hasn’t been immune either.

DIGITAL DECLINE

In the rush to go digital, automate, and cut costs, we’ve ended up pushing people towards online portals, call queues and generic email inboxes. If you’re an adviser chasing underwriting queries or medical evidence updates, you know exactly what I mean. Even simple requests can drag on for days. Some providers have improved. Others haven’t. But the whole thing feels slower, more distant, and far less personal than it used to.

Years ago, I worked on a product development where the internal strategy line was ‘Service as Product Proposition’. A clunky strapline admittedly, but it always stuck with me because at its core, protection is a promise. And that promise only means something when it’s backed up by human beings doing the right thing quickly, clearly and with care.

But what are we doing today? Focussing on product features. And while everyone’s been busy fiddling with product tweaks — partial payments, value-added services, added benefits — the thing customers and advisers really remember is how they were treated.

Was the claims handler kind? Did they show empathy at an emotionally tough moment? Did the underwriter pick up the phone? Did someone answer an email in under 48 hours?

Because when people are taking out life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection, they’re not looking for product innovation. They’re looking for reassurance. Someone they can trust. Someone who’ll show up when the worst happens. The cleverest policy in the world doesn’t matter if no one gets back to you when a claim’s in flight.

And in the mortgage world, service matters even more.

Mortgage advisers are under pressure. They’ve got deadlines to hit, compliance hoops to jump through, and clients who are already anxious about rates, affordability and paperwork. If the protection part of the process adds friction — delays, confusing emails, long forms — it’ll get dropped. Or at best, deferred. Not because the adviser doesn’t care, but because the system didn’t help them care enough.

Product is just the start. Service is what people remember.

We can keep tweaking definitions and adding new widgets, but unless we get the basics right — fast turnaround times, helpful people, clear communication — we’re not really improving the proposition at all. We’re just adding layers to a shaky foundation.

So maybe it’s time to bring ‘Service as Product Proposition’ back. Make it a strategy, not a side note. Shout about it. Celebrate it. Measure it properly. Because in the end, protection isn’t just about what you buy. It’s about what happens next.

Roger Edwards is managing director of Roger Edwards Marketing and does marketing for Protection Review