I think SARS started it all with their 21 working day turnaround times for things like “verification of supporting documents”. Or 30 working days turnaround for disputes! And they claim to be “at your service”? Unfortunately, it hasn’t taken long for some of the dinosaurs of the financial services industry to follow their example.
Recently we have experienced the following responses to requests:
- 15 working day turnaround time from Old Mutual to generate a paid-up and transfer quote on an RA.
- 30 working day turnaround from Liberty for a client declaration form for a Section 14 transfer.
- 11 working days from Sanlam for a request for the fees on an RA
- 150 days from OM to complete a Section 14 transfer!
Many of the other insurers are not much better…I guess when you are losing business at the rate they are then delay tactics could be considered a reasonable (short term) response. It wont, however, stop the outflow.
It’s time to re-look at your service models – it’s 2017 and information is available instantly almost everywhere – customers are not prepared to wait for your “working days”.
