Dear Business Partner,

Welcome to our September edition of Cinagi News – we know that as financial services providers, there are many publications, news and regulatory updates to digest, so we like to keep our pieces short and succinct but hope that you find them valuable and give you some insight into industry matters.

Insuretech Strategy

When we started development of the Cinagi business model, it was an imperative for us to take an insuretech approach. The general aim of insuretech is simple – to deliver superior services levels and to improve customer and broker user experiences through modern digital technologies.

Plenty of interest and funding has gone into insuretechs globally and in SA. What underpins the interest in insuretech is that it is a potential game changer for the insurance industry – with agile and rapid deployment of everchanging systems, omni-channel servicing structures and instant digital engagements for customers.

We have done away with call centres and instead deployed omni-channel digital engagements, namely Whatsapp Business and Calendly.

The Whatsapp channel provides speed and convenience, especially in dealing with simple queries. Automated menu driven responses can deal with certain queries instantly with no human intervention – at any stage customers can request to be connected with a service consultant who will take over the conversation.

For the more complex queries, the Calendly platform allows clients to submit a request for us to call them – it can either be an open request for a call back at any time or the client can set it for a specific time that is convenient for them.

Another major advantage that these servicing channels have over traditional call centres is that the customer engagement is pre-emptive. When using the Whatsapp chat or booking a call back on Calendly, the client selects the query type and can also add a note on the specific nature of their query. This means that when we answer the Whatsapp chat or we call the customer back, in most cases we already have the answer to the query, substantially reducing resolution times.

From a new business perspective, we have also deployed a real-time online application form. Instead of it being a simple data capturing form though, we linked the front-end and back-end through APIs so that data validation points and confirmation of receipt are instant. Most of the underwriting is also digitally automated with confirmation of acceptance and issuing of policy documents taking an average timespan of 20 minutes.

If there is one thing that COVID-19 and the lockdown have taught the business world, it is that we can do things much better and faster than we used to do it. It reminds me of Peter Drucker, the world renowned business author who 60 years ago predicted the rise of the ‘knowledge worker’ and the ‘information economy’. He was once asked how best to deal with times of crisis, to which he replied:

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”

I welcome any comments or queries – feel free to drop me a note on mike@cinagi.co.za.

Best wishes & keep safe!
Mike Settas