JUNE, 2020 | THE HEALTH
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“We are No 1
in digital life
and health
insurance in
Malaysia.
We have
made it
exceptionally
simple, and
everything is
digital.”
treated digital as a threat to the agency.
I’m of the view that digital is the biggest
complementary asset that an agent can have
today.”
In the first year, the digital business was
launched, 27 per cent of new agent business
came from the digital leads provided by the
company.
“Our digital business grew over 100 per
cent while our agency business also grew
about 20 per cent last year,” Rohit revealed,
adding it was a win-win situation for both
sides.
According to him, AXA AFFIN’s vision
was to become the preferred health
and protection insurer for millennials
in Malaysia. To reach out to Malaysian
millennials, the company tapped into
mobile language.
It offered health and life insurance
products priced just the cost of a postpaid
and prepaid mobile recharge. Numbers
showed that 90 per cent of customers who
bought insurance from the company last
year were millennials.
Making customers healthier
Prioritising the customers, AXA AFFIN was
working to move away from being just a
payer to that of a partner.
“Typically, in health insurance, it is
always about paying a claim. However, as
a health insurer, we must go beyond just
paying out claims,” said Rohit.
As such, it introduced two programmes
last year. The Fitter Me programme offered
customers a 24 per cent discount on their
premium the following month if they did an
average 10,000 walking steps daily. If they
walked 6,000 steps, they would get a 12 per
cent discount.
The Better Me programme, on the other
hand, required customers to undergo a ninemonth
health transformation programme.
It included a psychologist, nutritionist and a
health coach. If clients hit all the goals after
nine months, AXA AFFIN would remove the
loading fee and put them back to the regular
premium.
“These are an example of us working
with customers, making them healthier
rather than just providing money when they
are not healthy.”
On the current Covid-19 pandemic,
Rohit acknowledged it had brought more
awareness towards insurance. According to
him, three reasons triggered people to buy
insurance.
The first was a change in lifestyle habits,
the second was encountering an incident
around them such as a close friend or family
member’s illness or health and thirdly, a
national occurrence such as a catastrophe or
pandemic.
On the pandemic, AXA AFFIN recently
organised a Covid-19 crowdfunding
campaign and collected close to RM70,000
from the public, employees and agents.
The fund would be used to procure
personal protective equipment (PPE) and
given to hospitals. Apart from that, the AXA
Group was also providing funding directly to
selected hospital ICUs in over 60 countries,
including four hospitals in Malaysia.
Commenting on the prospects for the
Malaysian life insurance market, Rohit said
the penetration rate was just 55 per cent
currently and thus has room for growth.
Malaysia also had a strong demand due
to the availability of local talent, having
relatively cheaper costs than say Singapore
or Hong Kong and even geographical
connectivity.
“If there is an insurtech or fintech or
someone who has Southeast Asia ambitions,
they could use Malaysia as a starting point
and later scale up to other places.” — The
Health