The Australian life insurance industry has recently experienced its highest lapse rates of the past 20 years. This in itself would be a cause for alarm, but the impact of high lapse rates has been compounded by a spike in claim rates, looming economic uncertainty and falling profitability. Insurers have had to be selective in their battles with an overreliance on improving economic conditions and industry initiated changes to address the retention issues.

This report provides Oliver Wyman's perspective on the seven key ingredients lacking in customer retention programs. It is intended to be a useful guide to benchmark against your company’s existing customer retention efforts.