Being named Asia’s Best General Insurance Company of the Year in just two years of starting operations, has been humbling and overwhelming for us. When we started the company’s operations in 2017 with a mission to simplify the insurance this was a dream that we did not imagine to be fulfilled so soon.
Now that we look back, we would like to share seven important learnings have helped us be on the track that can be helpful for changemakers and innovators in building a digital business:
Learning #1: Choosing a purpose
One of the key learnings to build any business is the importance of the company’s purpose. Everything you build, or your company offers should be an answer to the purpose and problem you are trying to solve. This purpose should be ingrained in each and everything the company strives to do.
We started with a mission to “Make insurance simple”. Our goal was not only pasted on our walls, but it was also the thought-starter for everything we did. And in that process, if we had to change the entire process or go against the tide, we weren’t hesitant about it.
For instance for our flight delay claims in Travel Insurance, we intimate the customers about their claims proactively. All they have to do is send us a photo of their boarding pass and their bank details. This not only makes it extremely simple for the customer but also ensures that when the customer is already frustrated, their insurance only gives them a sigh of relief.
Learning #2: Build a product like it was meant for you
This was one learning that completely changed our perspective and the way we build anything for our customers. We realised that understanding what the customer wants will naturally happen if we build a product like it was meant for ourselves.
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Hence, any product or service that Digit offers to the customer is first tested by the internal team and if it is something that we would buy for ourselves or our family members. We recognise the points that make our colleagues hesitate and simplify it to suit the needs, ending with a product that is completely in sync with the customer’s ask.
For instance, we found that 65 per cent of people accidentally damage the screens of their mobile phones. Hence, we thought of building a sachet Mobile Insurance product where people could protect their mobile screens for their new as well as old products. What better way to be relevant to the customer!
Learning #3: Making sure customers understand
With insurance customers, most of them often complain that they do not understand what they are purchasing and at the time of claims it is too late an understanding about what is not covered by their policy. This gave us an understanding of gaining customer trust by building products that are transparent and simple to comprehend.
We came up with a simple solution, to introduce a policy summary that gives a birds-eye view of everything that the policy includes and includes. To further understand the simplicity level of the document, we shared the document with 15-year olds and tested if they understood clearly the terms and conditions of the policy. And they did!
For our Health Insurance product, we went a notch higher where we invited kids to co-create the policy with us, simplifying it till the last word.
Recently we also launched a board game called InsuRace, that lets you learn about insurance while playing! Well, you always learn better when you are having fun!
Learnings #4: Building processes that build customer trust
The current market is such that customers want convenience and speed over everything else. So, processes should be such that empowers the customer, more so making it smartphone-enabled. Also, we believe that every good relationship stays only based on trust. So, as much as the customer trusts as, it is important that we trust the customers too.
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Hence, we built a DIY smartphone-enabled self-inspection process for Car Insurance where the customer could shoot the damages using their phone and complete the inspection. This removed the need of waiting for a manual surveyor to come and check the car. This brought down our inspection time from 24 hours to seven minutes and also improved our TAT for claims! What more we got kids to test how fast the process is!
Learning #5: Use automation not to replace but aid humans
Technology should help humans and continually work towards making processes easier and removing redundancies. We looked at our value chain and identified repetitive tasks for our teammates and partners. We automated such tasks that helped in increasing the overall efficiency.
For example, we observed that we were spending 4 minutes 15 seconds post the approval of a claim to process the payment. This time was taken for manual checking and filling of data for all the parts of the vehicle that were damaged and for which the claim was approved. We felt this time could be shortened, so we now run a BOT for this, bringing down this time by almost 50 per cent, to two minutes 30 seconds!
Learning #6: Co-create with partners and customers
We firmly believe to grow we need to work in tandem with our customers and partners. This brings the need for empowering our partners with the right tools. So, we set out to build our partner’s knowledge on what we are trying to do, how they can contribute and take their inputs on how we can help them further to make the journey smoother.
One such tool was an “Endorsement and Cancellation Module.” This was built to help partners in cases of changes to the policy documents or if any policy requires to be cancelled. They do not need to send mails to us asking for the changes to be done. Instead, they can select the data fields that need to be changed, upload the relevant documents on the portal and the request is processed via a bot. This tool has seen a 100 per cent adoption and an improvement in productivity by almost three times!
Learning #7: Environment that supports continuous improvements
Building a digital business in this modern world would mean constant updates and constant updates means continuous improvements. We can’t build and invest in business thinking this is where it ends! There will always be a new update, a new way to look at improving the current performance. This is what will help the business grow and gain continuous momentum leading to a successfully built organisation.
For example, We publish a Transparency Report every quarter sharing all numbers and updates, any process delays or achievements. This helps us be more accountable to our customers thereby leading to continuous improvement. It also helps us in looking at our processes from a fresh perspective, find newer, faster ways of doing things and reinvent ourselves over and over.
It has been a fun journey building our dream brick by brick. The satisfaction of our five million customers and their happy reviews online with a 4.7 rating on Facebook gives us assurance that we are on the right path motivating us to continue to think differently to build our business around our core value – Simplicity!
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