Challenges and prospects of property insurance (The Case of Welkite Town)

Abstract

This study was about challenges and prospects of the property insurance, taking the case of Welikite town as the focus of the study. The study employed descriptive survey research design, because the main purpose of the researcher was to describe and examine what the sample respondents think and feel about the existing challenges and prospects against the effective execution of property insurance in the target area. The study emphasized on challenges and prospects of property insurance from the aspects of both the insurers and the insured. Since the insurer organizations were very limited in the study area, the researcher had planned to draw samples from two groups, insurance companies’ employees and the insurance service customers. Ethiopian Insurance corporation and National Insurance corporation staffs and their customers were the focus of this study. By using Non random sampling method, the researcher gathered the available data about challenges and prospects of property insurance from all the managements of the insurers and their employees. Since the population of the insurer companies was limited, purposeful sampling was found convenient to include all the personnel in the data climate. On the other hand, the clients that were currently receiving insurance service packages from the two insurers are totally 390. Therefore, this researcher preferred to employ purposive sampling method together with snowball method. Primary data was generally obtained from executives, personnel staffs and clients of the insurance companies through questionnaires and interviews. Most critical challenges were evident towards materializing property insurance especially in: carefully choosing smart and presentable personnel who will be faithfully interacting with the clients; in utilizing heavy informative advertisement to show how the service can be better implemented; in terms of maintaining good technology-job fit; towards manipulating better employee-job fit; in developing perceptions of superior quality service congruent with customers' expectations; and implementing data analytics for competitive advantages. Eventually, some feasible recommendations, such as: employees’ empowerment, Focus on core competency areas of property insurance marketing, introduction of new products with skillful agents, delivering reliable insurance service with cost effective strategy, awareness of effectiveness and excellence in the insurance industry, and the need for updating with technology were suggested towards the end.