Santam, one of South Africa's leading short-term insurers and a subsidiary of Sanlam Ltd, launched an innovative Insurance Fraud Alert Service in 2008. They chose Clickatell, a leading mobile messaging provider, to provide a text-based fraud reporting channel. This text based service allows anyone involved in, aware of, or witness to a scam to "text a tip-off" to Santam.
This reduces the opportunity for fraud. Jerry Chetty, Head of Forensic Services at Santam points out that fraud costs the insurance industry and therefore policy holders as much as $80 billion each year. |
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Because Clickatell provides almost instant delivery, Santam can respond quickly to reported incidents. All text message content is treated confidentially including the identity and mobile phone number. Clickatell also powers the Santam call center using SMS text alerts for claims processing. Chetty says that.
South African Customers
| "We expect our text-based fraud tip line to become the de facto standard across the insurance industry. We expect it will be an efficient and reliable form of communications as the immediate nature of SMS is providing us with the ability to quickly act on fraud tips and maintain high levels of service. We anticipate that it will evolve from receiving text only messages to also be able to receive photos and video clips of unethical behavior as they occur." |
SMS mobile applications for the insurance industry include revolutionizing customer service. Santam has also been working with Clickatell to reach customers via SMS more effectively and therefore lower the cost of their corporate call center. Because SMS text messaging is so simple, requires low effort and is very affordable, Santam has seen a 500% growth in the utilization of its proactive claims service. Head of Insurance Services at Santam, Fanus Coetzee points out that 'interacting with customers through a live agent costs roughly $5 - $9 per call' and so using SMS mobile messaging results in tremendous savings. He goes onto say that, "Organizations across all industries should take full advantage of these cost savings by implementing text-based services."
The world's first insurance sale by mobile phone was pioneered by South African insurers Metropolitan Life, in partnership with Clickatell as their mobile messaging provider. Cover2go launched by offering life insurance to those taking public transport over the long Easter week-end. Aimed at a market that traditionally has not been able to afford insurance, Cover2go offered instant life insurance for a period of six days with a payout of R60 000.00 - the cost was R10.00 which was deducted from the users mobile phones airtime. All users had to do to qualify for the insurance was send their name and ID number in a text message costing R10.00 to a premium-rated shortcode number. This system, powered by Clickatell, replied with a confirmation SMS and policy number, requesting the name of the beneficiary and asking the new policy holder to ensure that they have told someone about the life insurance. Once the six days were over, a notification message was sent asking if they wanted to renew. What Clickatell was able to offer Metropolitan was a guarantee that the messages were date and time stamped when delivered, securely archived and the reply sent to the user. Clickatell was given first place in the Business Messaging Application category at the Global Mobile Messaging Awards for their involvement with this product.
"We are revolutionizing the insurance industry by putting the consumer back in control of the purchasing process, challenging the rather tired maxim that insurance can only be sold and not bought. Using mobile technology to provide insurance turns the industry on its head. Rather than designing products around what our intermediaries will sell, we can put the customer back at the center. With mobiles phones as a sales channel, we'll know almost instantly what the market thinks of our products. This could change the insurance landscape forever,"
Derek Pead, CEO of Cover2go, Metropolitan Life |
Another innovative South African company launched TenderSystem in 2005 using Clickatell as their global messaging gateway. This real-time insurance procurement service is provided by ValueCard and is an internet-based system that sources, awards and manages the total procurement process for short-term insurers. Users can request quotes from suppliers who then tender for the business via reverse auction. Clickatell's SMS functionality means that quotes can be submitted in real time, decreasing the tender period to less than two hours and ensuring that suppliers do not miss any opportunity. Agents are notified via SMS re the quotation request and an SMS is sent to the client informing them of the status of their claim. Customers benefit by an estimated 20% cost saving.
"TenderSystem is a great example of a service deploying SMS in a way that maximises the benefits of the technology. TenderSystem brings immediate, relevant information to subscribers in a way that saves both them and the insurance agents money and increases the speed and efficiency of the service."
Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell |
Whether you are a global insurance company or operate in a national or local region, Clickatell can offer you world-class mobile insurance applications
that will change the way that you interact with customers at the same time as reducing costs and increasing profit margins. Sign up now for a risk-free trial of our SMS Gateway and award-winning API connections.
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