The Kenya insurance industry is adapting, as it should, to the country’s circumstances. One result is that we are beginning to see more varied insurance packages then before.

Take for instance the new kidnapping insurance from AIG. With the recent spate of kidnappings in the country, this could not have come at a better time.

Lets see more of this kind of innovation from the Kenya insurance industry.

A short while ago I heard talk of an insurance package to cover drought. If this package exists, it needs to be publicized more among farmers and keepers of livestock.

What could be better for a farmer than to know that if his crop fails as a result of drought or his livestock die, he will be compensated and can start over in a better season.

Another kind of package I’d love to hear about is insurance for smokers. I’m really being quite serious. We smokers engage in this risky behavior all our lives, but it usually takes a long time to kill us.

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Customer dissatisfaction with the insurance industry in Kenya has peaked. Could Kenyans possibly be more dissatisfied with this most essential industry? I think not.

Customer dissatisfaction is nothing to sneeze at under the best of circumstances. Service providers are slowly but surely learning that “the customer is always right.” Insurance providers too need to acknowledge this.

If the customers are dissatisfied with the insurance industry in Kenya, then the customers are right to be dissatisfied.

If it’s any consolation, the problem is not unique to the insurance industry in Kenya. According to a recent study, there is…

“confirmed widespread customer dissatisfaction in the insurance industry, stemming from poor service design and delivery.

Ignorance of customers’ insurance needs (the inability to match customers perceptions with expectations), and inferior quality of services largely account for this.”

So if you are dissatisfied, you are clearly in good company.

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