TRADITIONAL insurers are no longer just competing with each other, but also with cellphone and fashion retailers with licences to sell insurance, Liberty Retail CEO Steven Braudo said on Friday.

This has prompted Liberty to improve its systems aimed at signing up and retaining quality customers.

Liberty was now in a better position to retain its clients and sell insurance policies that last longer, with consistent premium payments, Mr Braudo said.

Liberty Retail, whose products include life, disability insurance and retirement cover, is core to the Liberty Group, contributing more than a third in group earnings last year.

To drive up business, the division has introduced IT systems which can assess, over a long time, the quality of business that brokers bring to Liberty.

Mr Braudo and his colleagues said the systems help the division to retain the best brokers and let go of those who sign up poor business.

One of the systems is aimed at underwriting business quickly by reducing the time it takes to sign up a client to about two-and-a-half hours, compared to 5-10 days through the traditional method.

This has helped reduce the amount of business that ends up not been written because of a client changing their mind.

Liberty said the average of policies not taken up had come down to 17% from about 20%.

Liberty has also built up a customer defence team which now retains 1,400 policies per month. As part of its retention strategy, last year the insurer launched a rewards programme.

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Liberty ‘improves retention methods’