Branding & Marketing for Insurance
Conference on Branding & Marketing for Insurance
5 - 6 June 2006
Paper presented by Tan Kin Lian, Chief Executive Officer, NTUC Income

1. INTRODUCTION

The insurance industry suffers from a negative image in the market. Individual insurers should position themselves above the crowd to appeal to the masses. Branding creates business success - an avenue not actively tested by the insurance industry.

2. NTUC INCOME

NTUC Income was established with an initial capital of $1 million in 1970. Our aim is to serve the lower income groups by providing affordable insurance. In our 35 years of operations, NTUC Income has matured into a leading composite insurer with over:

  a.. 1.8 million policyholders
  b.. S$15 billion assets
  c.. Total premium income of S$2 billion in 2004.
  d.. Largest General Insurer in Singapore
  e.. 3rd Largest Life Insurer in Singapore

We are also the highest rated insurer in Asia, with a 'AA' crediting rating by Standard & Poor.

3. OUR STRATEGY

*  Good products
*  Good service
*  Communicate with the customer

4. GOOD PRODUCTS

We will simplify our products:

  a.. For life insurance, the term insurance will be separate from investment
  b.. The protection offered by each product will be defined and explained in simple terms
  c.. We will charge a fair premium rate based on the cost of claims and expenses
  d.. The charges for the investment product will be clearly disclosed
  e.. The products will be easy to administer in our computer system
  f.. The educational material on the product should be easily understood by the customer

The customer can approach us through the following channels:

  a.. Internet website
  b.. Call center
  c.. Agent
  d.. Branch

Regardless of channel, the same information will be provided to the customer as they are obtained from our website. All transactions will be entered into the website and processed in a consistent manner. This common system to handle the enquiry and transaction will improve the consistency and speed of service, and reduce the operating cost.

The role of the agent is reduced, compared to the traditional approach. The agent acts like our employee in providing the same type of information to the customer. The only difference is that an agent will serve a defined group of customers and earn a larger part of the remuneration through commission.

5. GOOD SERVICE

Each day we handle 8,000 customer encounters. We build a framework to provide excellent customer service through the following strategies:

a)    Referrals

Our front line staff handles 95% of the simple and routine customer transactions. For the remaining 5% of more complicated issues, the front line staff takes down the issues and referred to specialists.  The referred cases are handled within 2 hours.

b)    Promptness

We adopt a standard response time to handle all types of issues. If the issue cannot be settled within 1 day, the customer is told of the time required, i.e. 4 days for more difficult issues or 14 days for complex issues that require investigations. Customers are delighted with the prompt response.

c)    Open approach

We adopt an open and helpful approach in dealing with customers.  If we do not know the answer, we tell the customer, and pass the issue to another colleague.  If we make a mistake, we tell the customer and rectify it. If we inconvenience the customer, we apologise. If we cannot meet the specific request of the customer, we suggest one or two alternatives and let the customer choose.

We write down our servicing practice on a leaflet. The leaflet is posted on our website, and is also handled to the customer when they are involved in the issue. This practice leaflet has proved to be effective.

d)    Disputes

We adopt a three level approach to handle disputes:

The frontline officer identifies the dispute try to solve it, by listening, explaining our practice and
exercising flexibility.

Disputes and difficult issues are referred to a service quality officer, who identifies and clarifies the issue with the customer and pass it to the appropriate manager or panel for a decision.

If the dispute cannot be resolved, it is referred to an external dispute resolution body, with the agreement of the customer.

This approach helps to take the pressure off the frontline officer. The customer is generally happy with the access to a senior person.

6. SURVEY RESULTS

We carry out a daily telephone survey. 200 customers are called each day. They are selected at random among customers who made a recent encounter with the office. We ask for their views about the standard of service, and their perception of NTUC Income.

We achieve a satisfactory rating of 97% on our customer service, i.e. they find our service to be satisfactory or excellent. 96% have a favorable image of our organisation.

We identify the customers who are extremely delighted (about 3%) or extremely unhappy (about 1%) with our service. Our service quality officer follows up by a phone call to talk to these customers. They give an insight into our service practices. We are able to identify the customer satisfaction score by location. We take remedial action for locations that score lowly.

Our benchmark of excellence is:

  1.. Customer satisfaction score of 95%
  2.. Promptness i.e. completed transactions within 1, 4 and 14 days.

By achieving the above measurements, we can benefit from an increase and retention of business from our loyal customers.

7. CONCLUSION

This conference allows insurance companies to unlock their true business potential position themselves correctly in the marketplace take advantage of that branding globally. Conference case studies across various sectors of the economy, across the globe and within the success stories in insurance.