Someone asked me to help look through his insurance policies as I was previously in this industry and majored in finance at university.
After reading through the brochure, I emailed the insurance company to seek clarifications on a few points.
The Assistant Manager replied and asked for my policy number.
I was a little puzzled why she needed my policy number as the questions I'm asking were some general questions.
So I wrote back and asked her why.
She replied again and insisted I give her the policy number before she could assist me further without explaining why she needed it at all.
If she had at least bothered to explain why right at the time when she replied me, then perhaps I could understand where she is coming from. Instead, all I got was a standard reply:
"We would appreciate if you could provide the policy number for us to assist you further.
If you require further assistance, please contact our Customer Care hotline at 1800-XXX-XXXX or 65-XXXX-XXXX (overseas), Mondays to Fridays between 8.45am and 5.30pm.
Please note that you may receive a separate email containing a link to our Customer Survey. Your response is important to us and we appreciate the time you are taking to provide us with your feedback.
Thank you for writing to XXX."
Instead of wasting time writing to me twice to ask for my policy number, why can't she just reply to my questions? As a customer-centric company, she can then ask in the same email if I have a policy with them so that she can look through it and provide me with additional information if necessary? I can then decide if her answers are sufficient or if I need more clarification.
Out of curiosity how she will handle the situation, I wrote back and told her I do not have one.
Will she then reply to my questions? Will she write back and tell me that she cannot help me without any policy number?
Let's see how she will reply.