IndiaFirst Life Sets New Benchmarks for Online Insurance

Summary:

By the time IndiaFirst Life Insurance entered the sector, established insurers had already gone online. It did too, but with a twist.

Highlights:

Private insurer bring a unique value proposition to its customers.Philosophy of customer centricity

Reader ROI:

Introduced an online live video chat facilityFive-fold increase in the number of policies it is selling online

The Organization: As the country’s 23rd insurer, IndiaFirst Life insurance has had a lot of catching up to do. And catch up it has. Within 500 days of launch it roller-skated its way to cross the Rs 900 crore mark in new business premium—a key indicator in the industry.  

Launched in November 2009, the company today covers over 1.2 million lives across 1,000 cities and towns in India. 

The Business Case: Initially, the insurer focused on the bancassurance model but it realized that in a fiercely competitive insurance sector, that strategy wouldn’t suffice. For the company to hold its own, it would have to cast a wider net and improve customer satisfaction. 

Getting online, like every other insurance company, would only get IndiaFirst so far. But providing its customers with a never-had-it-before experience could set it apart.

So when the company’s CTO, Vinayak Khadye scripted an online strategy, customer experience featured as its protagonist. He launched LifeStore—an online platform where customers can understand insurance policies, buy them, and also get serviced.

But that would only make IndiaFirst join the bandwagon—not give a competitive edge. 

The Project: To do that,  Khadye decided to enhance customer experience.  

He designed LifeStore as a do-it-yourself platform where customers compare insurance policies, pick the one they want, and buy it online. That means, at no point do customers have to deal with intermediaries or insurance agents—a luxury most players don’t offer. 

Also, for most insurance companies, the online medium is an alternative channel to sell insurance. Not for IndiaFirst. “LifeStore is not an offshoot of our brick and mortar.  We treat it as a standalone entity and hence it is focused on providing end-to-end sales and service support to customers,” he says.

To provide that end-to-end support, Khadye has introduced an online live video chat facility with the company’s representatives. These reps act like insurance advisors and guide customers to pick a policy that suits them—a feature that’s soon going to be available 24/7. That’s unlike most insures who only have text chat.

The Benefits: LifeStore has offered a plethora of benefits to IndiaFirst. It has helped the private insurer bring a unique value proposition to its customers. “We wanted to bring three core values to the table—simplicity, efficiency and transparency. LifeStore has helped us attain these three business values and weave them into our philosophy of customer centricity,” says Khadye.

Another benefit is the amount of information available online for the customer. “Customers can view important data and statistics which will give them an insight into the company’s internal BI. They can now know, for example, which IndiaFirst product is leaping high in premium collection.” 

One of the biggest benefits is that because there are no intermediaries, the company saves costs on distribution commission. And, over the next six months, IndiaFirst hopes to witness a five-fold increase in the number of policies it is selling online.

It’s evident that IndiaFirst hasn’t just caught up, it has gone a few steps ahead.  

LifeStore has helped us attain these three business values and weave them into our philosophy of customer centricity.

LifeStore has helped us attain these three business values and weave them into our philosophy of customer centricity.