Something unexpected happened while I was on the phone to my health insurer making a quick change to personal details. The operator threw me by asking if I wanted to reduce my cover (and thus, the annual premium).

“No sense paying a fortune for something you don’t need.” she said.

True—but when I began to dig deeper I found that the higher tier of cover bundles claims for IVF and pregnancy, with mental health, hip and knee replacements and cataract operations together. If you opt out of one, you opt out of all. I was being down-sold to a policy that would not entitle my family to claim in any of these categories, because of course they are the most expensive claims for the insurer to fund.

After her third attempt to get me to switch, I began to wonder if there was some kind of reverse bonus in place at this company. Did the operator get a bonus for persuading people to downgrade their cover, potentially saving the insurer a small fortune?

If we reduced our cover it was a win for their business, but was definitely not the right thing for our family (even if I won’t be needing IVF or pregnancy cover any time soon).

The ideal business is one where the right thing for the business, is the right thing for the customer.
Those businesses are few and far between.
That’s why we seek them out and when we find them, we stick with them.

Image by Garry Knight.