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Zurich Middle East is looking to strengthen its market position in the region with the launch of its new omni-channel solution that promises to make acquiring an insurance product a lot less cumbersome, time consuming and completely paperless.
The insurance provider’s ZurichPro, which is the result of a collaboration with financial technology firm 360F, is in line with the company’s sustainability goals and enables the insurance provider to sell its products online without face-to-face interaction, helping financial planners comply with social distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the platform, the use of paper is not only eliminated, but the courier costs as well, and customers can obtain a quote in minutes - a process that used to take 10 days to complete. It also facilitates instant payment processing and eliminates the need to fill out 50 to 200 pages of application forms.
“We have digitally transformed the entire financial planning process, from product recommendation, to authentication and processing, making it easy to work and very efficient for partners to work with Zurich Middle East,” said Walter Jopp, chief executive officer of Zurich Middle East.
“I think eliminating paper, eliminating inefficiencies, eliminating courier costs – all of that have significant sustainability benefits… In the previous world, we would expect customers to take photocopies of their IDs or their utility bills or things to prove their ID… Now, we can do all of that electronically. It can be done through the use of a phone or an iPad or a computer,” Jopp said during a media briefing.
Jopp clarified that their priority is to “create efficiencies” on the customer experience and help their distribution partners become more efficient, although the new tech solution could also eventually help boost their sales.
“We don’t specifically have a target of an increase in sales. What we want is Zurich as the leading insurance company in the Middle East, to be able to have the technology that our distribution partners have come to expect, and our end customers have come to expect,” said Jopp.
“Instead of having to spend two weeks messing around with paper and all this sort of stuff, they could manage the whole end-to-end process in 30 minutes. That will lead to increased efficiencies that will lead to a better way of doing business. And that will lead to more sales going forward,” added Jopp.
By going digital, the insurer can also network with multiple partners - which include financial advisory firms and banks -- through various channels. This, Zurich said, effectively creates an “omni-channel distribution model” to facilitate financial services firms in the region to sell insurance products online.
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Daniel Luiz)
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