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How 'Emma' transforms AXA's digital strategies
INTERVIEW How 'Emma' transforms AXA's digital strategies
The all-in-one platform will provide all the insurance needs of Indonesian customers.
When branch offices are visited less and less, AXA Mandiri realised that the way consumers access their personal protection has evolved. Their behaviour is now affected by social distancing restrictions, the hesitancy of visiting doctors in person, and other health and financial concerns. But amongst these changes, AXA Mandiri also saw the increasing public awareness of the need for insurance protection.
Citing a report by the Indonesian Life Insurance Association, AXA Mandiri said the life insurance industry managed to rebound during the pandemic by scoring a new business premium growth of 17.6% whilst advanced premiums grew 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021.
AXA Mandiri believed that these numbers were supported by the insurers’ innovation on their digital channels, ranging from services, websites, social media, to applications. This led the insurance firm to launch its all-inone digital platform, called Emma.
“At the end of 2021, we launched Emma to make it easier for customers to transact online. Now, the customer can get the information about their insurance policy, total balance, claim submission status, investment performance, articles on health tips, and virtual sports classes that customers can attend from their homes,” said President Director of AXA Mandiri, Handojo G. Kusuma in an exclusive interview with Insurance Asia.
“We also position Emma as a ‘Teman Sejati’ or ‘True Friend’ as seen in the slogan,” he added.
All-in-one digital access
Before the launch of Emma, AXA conducted multi-regional qualitative and quantitative research across five markets in Asia with over 4,000 customers to better understand what they wanted from an insurance company when it comes to their physical and mental health. AXA analysed the data collected and came up with Emma.
The Emma all-in-one digital platform is available across AXA’s network in Asia, including Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand. It can be accessed through various electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.
Handojo said customers only need to activate their Emma account through an activation link and user ID they will receive on their emails upon registration. When successfully logged in, the customer will be greeted by a female digital assistant wearing a casual blue blouse, clear and round glasses, and shoulder-length hair—also named Emma.
The features available through Emma carry the theme “One Stop Protection and Health Partner.” It is where customers can get information related to their insurance policy ownership such as premium information, policy status, and personal data. Through Emma, customers can also carry out financial and non-financial transactions, which include paying premiums, updating policy data, viewing the history of claim submissions, and contacting customer service via live chat.
There are also health services that help customers avail of teleconsultation services with trusted doctors. From the hospital directory to the list of VIP services, everything is available through Emma. To help in their well-being, customers can access health articles and virtual exercise classes in the comfort of their homes. There is even a point rewards feature that can be exchanged for prizes.
In an effort to involve its customers in the protection of the environment, for every AXA Mandiri customer who activated Emma from 1 April to 31 May 2022, AXA Mandiri planted a mangrove tree seedling in collaboration with LindungiHutan, a non-profit organisation for forest and environmental conservation.
“Emma's presence is expected to make it easier for more than 1 million AXA entity customers in Indonesia. This encourages us to be more creative, both in designing protection solutions, as well as in offering products to prospective and existing customers according to their evolving needs,” said Handojo.
The features available through Emma carry the theme “One Stop Protection and Health Partner." (Photo: Handojo G. Kusuma, President Director, AXA Mandiri)
Emma's presence is expected to make it easier for over 1 million AXA customers in Indonesia
Emma is marketed as a 'Teman Sejati’ or ‘True Friend’ (Photo courtesy of AXA Mandiri)
Expansion to all Bank Mandiri segments
AXA Mandiri is a firm believer that digital transformations bring good results. AXA Mandiri recorded an increase in premium income, total assets, and company income in 2021. In the conventional life insurance financial statements of AXA Mandiri in the fourth quarter of 2021, they recorded a net premium income of $847.9m (IDR 12.7t)— an increase from 2020’s $734.4m (IDR 11t). The number of AXA Mandiri's assets in the fourth quarter of 2021 also increased from $2.5b (IDR 37.56t) in 2020 to $2.7b (IDR 41.08t). Overall, the company recorded a revenue of $994.8m (IDR 14.9t) in the final quarter of 2021, from $810.5m (IDR 12.14t year-on-year).
Handojo said that the company's solid performance in 2021 was largely due to digital transformation and continuous innovation during the pandemic. But digitalisation is not without challenges.
“In addition to the infrastructure that must be prepared, the skills of our employees in building and operating these digital services are an important point that must be considered and improved. Constraints that usually occur in digital technology must be swiftly handled so that services to customers continue to run well,” said Handojo.
The focus of AXA Mandiri's expansion, for now, is to optimise the potential of the domestic market, especially the ecosystem of their exclusive partner bank, Bank Mandiri.
“AXA Mandiri will continue to build and strengthen existing infrastructure, offer new innovations, and provide added value services to increase penetration of all Bank Mandiri segments. These include its retail, affluent and high net worth, and micro to commercial and corporate segments,” concluded Handojo. AXA joins hands with Chung Shing Taxi, TaxiSafely to calculate taxi insurance The three will bank on a technology called Internet of Vehicles to enhance road safety.
AXA Hong Kong and Macau is joining forces with taxi firm Chung Shing Taxi and tech firm Taxi Safely to launch Hong Kong’s first Internet of Vehicles (IoV) project with an aim to enhance taxi driving safety and protect taxi drivers, passengers, and other road users.
The collaboration is considered a first between an insurer and a taxi company. Fifty taxis from SynCab and Chung Shing Taxi will install TaxiSafely’s telematic devices. These devices are equipped with a unique high-sensitivity duo lens, the detection device provides real-time monitoring of road conditions with a 3D lens, accurate detection of obstacles, and advises taxi drivers immediately on the high-risk precautions to avoid accidents, for example, distance to the vehicle ahead, as well as tangent drive.
Using this technology, AXA and Chung Shing Taxi will review and analyse the data to assess the driving safety of the taxi fleet. The data will help AXA determine the insurance premiums based on the the actual driving performance of the taxii fleet, the past underwriting and claims records and provide premium discounts to those taxi fleets with good driving records, ensuring fair treatment especially for drivers with good driving performance and enhancing awareness on driving safety amongst taxi drivers.
“We wish to leverage our unique driving safety solution specially designed for roads in Hong Kong to enhance the overall driving safety and awareness of professional drivers, and in turn improve general road safety,” Antonio Wong, Founder and CEO of TaxiSafely said.
The telematics solution invented by TaxiSafely will collect and transmit the data through 4G to an encrypted cloud system and undergo big data analysis which tracks individual driver’s behaviour and performance. The solution will also provide traffic black spot reports and recommendations for improvement for drivers based on their driving behaviors, which aims to optimise the overall fleet performance.
AXA Mandiri is a firm believer that digital transformations bring good results (Photo courtesy of AXA Mandiri)
