Page 28 - Insurance Times August 2021

complex policies through Rural Authorised Person (RAP), Y Getting instant information about branch and network
Such personal touch points through RAPs have given those hospital locations
in villages access to simple-to-understand products to
Y Getting a status update about a claim or policy
mitigate the risk to life, motor, agriculture pump sets,
personal accident insurance and farmers' package policies. Y Knowing claims procedure details
By limiting the sum insured of these products to 2 lakhs Y Getting policy soft copy and even
(other than for motor insurance), insurers are able to extend
Y Buying insurance online
such micro-covers and obviate the risk emerging from such
groups. Examples for many service handling accounts in platforms
like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn which we are seeing
The digital on boarding process is made very easy for micro
policies which require minimum details, uploading of widely in present days.
necessary documents to payment of premium can done with
in very less time, the policy is issued within a minute. In some All the above mentioned points were driving present
cities there are popup stores in which a human interaction insurance industry to growth in which the technology is the
will be there to ease the process in semi urban and rural key aspect enabling us to.
areas.
Claim Settlement: In spite of the fact that majority of the
The technology has made it possible for the companies to insurance companies are making under-writing losses i.e.
set-up mini offices having 2/3 staffs. IffcoTokio General paying more claims than the premium received, the general
Insurance Co is one such organization which is opening "bima perception is negative about the sector.
Kendra" in rural part. "We are trying to open offices in
smaller towns and rural areas and are working on smaller There are two factors leading to such impression. The first
products that will cater to that segment of the society. The is of the terms & conditions & second is about the delay in
industry is working on customised bite size insurance claim settlement process. Thanks to the regulator's efforts
products that have lower premium, shorter tenure but high all the policies sold through micro-insurance or PoS are very
volume" said Mr. Warinder Sinha, MD & CEO in his interview simple / pre-underwritten kind there by reducing the
given to Indian Express. possibility of conflicts at claim stage & the digital technology
has started helping in the second one i.e. speedy selection
Customer engagement: Personalized online video is a new of the claims.
trend in customer engagement. Advancement in video
hosting and distribution technology platforms made it Reliance general insurance company settled few home
possible to create and share videos with ease that are insurance claims using the two-way video chat to show the
tailored to customer's interest, demographics, and damage in rural home in the Kerala flood.
behaviour. Content of the videos are crafted using
personalized tokens to make customer feel important and "We took a blended approach and did a few home insurances
valued for the organization, which goes a long way in claims on video on an experimental basis," said Rakesh Jain,
developing longstanding customer relationship. CEO, Reliance General Insurance, referring to the Kerala
home insurance claims. Broadly speaking, they are using
Social media is a recent phenomenon, which took everyone emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, big
by storm including businesses. The insurance industry too is data analytics and block chain to transform IT systems.
looking at social media as a platform to enhance visibility, Getting minor motors claims using the claim interface in
build brand, build trust, listen to customer likes/dislikes, mobile app is a common feature now. The companies have
provide customer support and generate leads. started extensive use of WhatsApp / video etc in claim
assessment. This technology-based initiative involves
The website, portals & the tools available there has made customer him/herself in the process of settlement of their
many of the services available at the click of the mouse for motor claim up to the limit allowed by the insurance
which one needed to visit offices travelling far distances regulator.
earlier. This has added to the trust factor making general
insurance accepted by the people even in rural part.
All such quick claim settlement add value to the industry &
Y Getting premium quotes on various products raises the trust bar.

28 The Insurance Times, August 2021