Richard Dunkerley
Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich) is proud to have been honoured with the “Big Thinking Award” at the Financial Services Council’s prestigious Life Insurance Awards for 2015 on Wednesday night.
Head of Marketing and Communications, Mr. Richard Dunkerley, was recognised for his role in commissioning and co-authoring the ‘Designing the Future’ study, conducted on behalf of Zurich by Melbourne-based research consultancy, The Beddoes Institute.
The study, the most comprehensive of its kind, surveyed more than 300 advice businesses and 3,000 end-customers. It sets out a retrospective analysis as to how advisers ran their businesses from 2012 – 2014, considering components like finance and operations, marketing and client acquisition, and customer satisfaction; and presents a future view into their intentions as they set their businesses up for sustainable profitability and success.
One of the key findings of the research was despite the climate of uncertainty and recent reputational impact to the financial advice industry, there are exceptionally high rates of satisfaction and advocacy from clients of financial advisers, with the 2014 Practice Net Promoter Score (NPS) an impressive +65.
Mr. Dunkerley said, “Given the change occurring within the financial advice industry currently, we think it’s particularly important to champion and advocate for best-practice amongst advisers. Our Designing the Future study was one way we can share knowledge about the professionalism inherent in much of the industry. It also sheds light on how client-oriented many practices are and intend to be in terms of their innovation agenda for 2015 and beyond.”
It is the second consecutive year that Zurich has been honoured with this award. Last year, the organisation was recognised for its research whitepaper, “Australians and life insurance: misinformed, misinsured?”
Both of these research papers are a foundational component of Zurich’s ‘Success by Design’ program, which includes tools and resources for advisers on a range of topics relating to best-practice business management and client engagement tools.