By Li Qiaoyi

The country's insurance telemarket is expected to grow in the near future, an insurance company executive said Monday, who disclosed plans to double sales staff over the next three years.

"We're very confident in the prospects of phone sales. The market should expand for the foreseeable future," said Cao Wencheng, operating director of the center for telephone sales at Tianping Auto Insurance.

Only a few policies, such as car and accident insurance, which can be easily explained on the phone and do not have high premiums, are sold through direct telephone sales at the moment.

The company plans to increase its 500 sales staff to 1,000 over the next three years in its sole telemarketing center in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, according to Cao.

Tianping is not alone in its excitement about the market's prospects. "We only had 50 sales people when we first came here earlier this year. Total sales staff is now more than 800 right now. The center is expected to have 1,600 sales staff next year," Cheng Bingbing, general manager of the Chengdu center for telephone sales of Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance, was quoted by the local newspaper as saying Monday.

More insurance companies are launching telemarketing services, partly driven by low costs, said Sun Ting, an insurance analyst with SWS Research.

In addition, selling insurance directly via telephone has helped attract customers, as commissions paid to third parties are avoided, Sun added.

But the picture isn't all rosy.

In a survey conducted by Southern Metropolis Daily, 70 percent of respondents showed concerns about the safety and quality of sales over the phone.

Some unregistered companies and distributors have poor customer service and are generally unreliable. This has led to mistrust among ordinary customers, Tianping's Cao said.

The country's phone sales market has not been fully opened up, and only companies gaining approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission have the right to run the telemarketing business, said SWS' Sun.

Customers should choose insurance companies with clean records in order to avoid risks, noted Cao.

At the same time, Cao pointed out that there are some limits that restrain the rapid growth of such a relatively new sales avenue.

Only a very small amount of those who buy car insurance via telephone choose to pay the premium on the phone (with a bank card), as most people are not used to paying that way, according to Cao.

But Cao believes that "as more consumers change their spending habits, phone sales will take up a bigger share of the market."

Within three years, the sales revenue from car insurance telemarketing is expected to account for more than 20 percent of the total revenue of Cao's company, he forecast.