Transparency Report 5.0

Featured 20th-Apr-2020

In this report:-

A lot happened in the last 2 quarters, we launched, we learnt, we improved, we corrected, and we restarted. And we are back with our promise of bringing you all these events as transparently as possible in our 5th edition of the Transparency Report.

The last two quarters have seen us fortifying our portfolio by launching newer bite-sized sachet products, fortifying our claims process to handle increasing volumes, and ensuring we listen to customers and partners.

A. Fortifying our Portfolio

1.  Adding Our Customisable Retail Health Product

In our last report, we spoke about the launch of our Health GMC product and were on the brink of launching our health retail product.

Well, in the last 6 months we successfully launched our retail health product Digit Health Care Plus policy, insuring over 5500 lives with over 2500 policies sold.

So, how did we build a customisable health insurance product? Well, with the help of 3 Cs!

Conducted over 100 customer interviews to understand what customers actually wanted in their health insurance policies.

Consulted a doctor, who told us more about different healthcare needs and, accordingly what would make more sense for a health insurance plan to cover. 

Curated a product that could be customised based on age and benefits you want - not just while buying online, but also through insurance consultants, our partners (agents, brokers, dealer) and tele-callers trained to help people pick a plan that suits their life-stage and needs.

Basis our philosophy of continuous improvement, we have already started monitoring our claims to make sure we optimise the process as early as possible, both from a speed & experience point of view. See some numbers for yourself. 

Also, given the entire fear and anxiety around Coronavirus, we've also made sure our Health Insurance policy covers pandemics like these. Any positive COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalisation; our health insurance policy will cover its expenses.

2. Fuelling our love for innovation with bite-sized sachet products

Our product philosophy has always been to create products that we ourselves would like for our families.

Basis this philosophy, we launched 3 covers:

  • Launching India’s first Sachet, Need-based Cover for Coronavirus - Since December, we were very saddened to see the huge number of cases affected with the novel Coronavirus. So, we launched a cushion cover for coronavirus. We started with a Fixed Benefit product, but due to Sandbox regulations limiting total premium to ₹50 lakhs, we had to stop it. However we now cover Coronavirus cases under our Health Insurance policy. 
  • Complimentary travel insurance cover with IRCTC – Partnering with IRCTC, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, we offered a complimentary travel insurance cover for anyone booking a flight ticket through IRCTC website. In this cover they would be covered for an Accidental Death or Disability and a Loss of their Baggage. With the challenging times ahead, having a travel insurance always comes handy once the lockdown opens and travel restrictions are lifted.
  • A standalone Flight Delay cover – Our flight delay coverage has been one of the most talked-about and claimed benefits in our comprehensive travel policies. Taking a cue from this advantage for the travellers, we introduced a stand-alone Flight Delay cover on our retail platform. Under this, every time a domestic flight gets delayed by 90 minutes or more, we offer a flat benefit of ₹1000. And all we need is the boarding pass and the bank details of the traveller. For the times ahead, when airlines might face a huge challenge in coming back to normal business, this is a cover that can save our customers from a lot of stress.

 

B. Fortifying our Claims process: Handling more volumes every day

With 9 million customers with us now, the number of claims we handle every day has increased to almost 10 times what it was!  And in the current difficult times, considering the lockdown, we're doubling our efforts to ensure claims are settled as early as possible.

This is for the time period from Oct 19 to Mar 20.

Handling such volumes can be a challenge, however, we are able to manage these claim volumes with the continuous process changes that we are moving towards:

1. A new ticketing tool for the call centre was introduced to resolve customer complaints faster, which decreased the time taken within which the first response was given to customers. This also reduced the number of pending customer complaints of over 24 hours.

2. Shifting customers to opt for cashless claims was one of our objectives in the last quarter, to improve the customers’ claims experience. The focus was on having them opt for the cashless settlement at our network garages, avail our pickup & drop service, and therefore not have to run around for documents by opting for the same. This also ensures that customers don't have to leave their houses during this crisis and we can manage the pick-up and drop of the car to and fro.

This change in focus, resulted in a 147% increase in Cashless Claims opt-ins, with a Turnaroud Time of 16 days to close such claims for a customer. In such cases, as the repairs were done through our network of garages, we were able to settle the bills with the workshop while the customer got their car repaired on time.

C. Listening to our customers: Making every review count!

Our NPS scores & positive customer reviews are our biggest motivations and the negative reviews our biggest improvement markers. Therefore, this is a continued focal point for us.

How do we keep the eye on the fish?

Nothing to hide: It is tempting to not let customers leave a review on our Facebook page, in the fear of receiving too many negative reviews, since insurance is a business which can sometimes offend or anger someone due to claim rejections.

However, for us, every negative review is seen as a mirror to our process efficacy & honesty in claim settlement. Just like a wrongly settled claim is our biggest nightmare, a fraud claim is a fight we are ready to take head-on! Therefore, no hiding of reviews!

Examples on how we improved through listening:

a. Claims for pre-existing damage: We received a few customers' claims for pre-existing damage to their vehicle. While this is a violation of the terms & conditions, and cases were closed accordingly, we also reworked our Policy Schedules to highlight the pre-existing damage better - through clear, big pictures pointing to the damage, so that customers resist the temptation to claim for them along with any new damage, thus saving time for both us and themselves. 

b. Invalid documents leading to claim rejection: Another type of case was where, after getting the Vehicle Repair Order (VRO), customers went ahead with the repair of their vehicle, but when they were asked to furnish mandatory documents like a valid driving license or registration certificate, they didn’t have them. This caused a denial of claim, and thus grievances. We realized that we had to improve our communication to the customer in the VRO on what would be required as documents to settle the claims. We did that and now our fingers are crossed! 

With this approach of continuously listening & improving, and we have decreased instances of negative experiences and received an overwhelming number of positive reviews taking our Facebook rating to 4.8, the highest in the industry* and our NPS scores are 87.5%, again the highest in the industry!**

* As reviewed on 29th Jan 2020, **As reviewed till Mar 2020

This triangular approach of product launches, process improvement and customer listening has earned us the trust of more customers, partners and also some new investors. Yes, if you haven’t heard the news, let’s break it to you: we received a fresh round of funding of $84 million from A91 Partners, Faering Capital and TVS capital fund in January. This is said to be one of the largest funding rounds in the domestic general insurance space, with some of the investors investing in an insurance company for the first time! Well, in times of anxiety, memories of news like this keep us in high spirits.

Now some final numbers before we call it a day:

2. Our TurnAround Time for Claims!

All the TAT numbers are pre-lockdown. During the lockdown our repair times have taken a hit, as the workshops are closed now and there are delays in repairs. We are and will keep providing a 'Zero-Touch' insurance, with all our processes being online, our inspections being DIY and our documents being paperless, so we that we are ready for the post COVID crisis time. We are hopeful that once situation is normal, we will be able to improve our TAT again as well, 

With so much happening, the last two quarters were eventful and exciting. With a new financial year on the roll, we have big dreams in our eyes. Although we know the situation in the country is tense and globally the pandemic is taking a toll on our mental peace, yet we have hope.

And with our wonderful bunch of employees and partners, who are our constant source of support and motivation, we are hopeful that the new year will gradually start to normalize and bring in happy times soon. Also we urge all of you to stay at home and stay protected!

Till then, as Bong Joon Ho, the director of this year's surprise Oscar-winning film, Parasite, said, "Let's relax till the next morning!"

P.S: Our transparency reports help us in continuous growth and improvement quarter on quarter. So please ask us for more numbers, quiz us and question us. You can write to us at hey@godigit.com, and we will incorporate our responses in our Transparency Report 6.0.