Edward Gibbens, Executive Head: Commercial and Personal Business at Santam.
Santam has taken the top spot as the leading short-term insurer in South Africa in the Personal insurance category at the Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa’s (FIA) annual Insurer of the Year awards ceremony held in Johannesburg last night. This marks the second consecutive year that Santam has clinched the award.
Santam’s Executive Head: Commercial and Personal Business, Edward Gibbens, said: “I am proud to say that our service delivery in the Personal Lines category underlines our consistent efforts and commitment in providing insurance good and proper. More importantly, as a predominantly intermediated business, this award bears testimony to the value that intermediaries bring to our business each and every day.
In the South African landscape, the introduction of regulations such as the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) as well as the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) attest to a shift in power in the financial services industry. “The future of broker distribution depends on the way in which this value chain uses the opportunities it is afforded to serve clients even better. From our consumer research, it is clear that South African policyholders’ decision-making behaviour has changed significantly. They have far more knowledge and choice at their disposal and this means they are indeed the most powerful stakeholder in the short-term insurance transaction,” says Gibbens.
As customer buying patterns, along with rapidly advancing technology, transforms the short-term insurance sector there is a need for insurers like Santam to adapt accordingly. “The intermediary is pivotal to Santam’s value proposition to clients. Our reputation as the experts in our field has been established over 98 years and that can only be because we’ve made every effort to ensure that clients have consistent, excellent experiences. We are extremely proud to have done so in partnership with our intermediaries,” says Gibbens.
Santam is currently working on ways to help intermediaries increase efficiencies in their own businesses, freeing them up to focus their efforts in segments with the most potential. “We are actively engaging with intermediaries across several platforms in a bid to support the work that they do, be it through knowledge sharing or showing them how to use technology more effectively.”
Over the past few years, Santam has invested significantly in technology geared at making it easier and more efficient for intermediaries to do business with the company. Examples include new and improved online services; better data analytics and rating; and major improvements in the contact centres, supported by the further development of our people.
Santam has strong partnerships with intermediaries and it goes without saying that we will continue to invest heavily in the competitiveness and sustainability of this channel,” concludes Gibbens.
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