Martijn De Jong has been a busy man since last September. As Chief Digital Officer at Aegon Life Insurance, he has been involved in the effort to do away with individual agents and approach policyholders directly, the first-ever such initiative in the insurance industry in India. "We made a very clear choice to go directly to the consumer," De Jong told Moneycontrol. "We believe that the consumer is more willing to do it as a self-generated model. Insurance is relatively simple to understand. On the one hand you lose customers, on the other you win some." Given that agents are the core distribution platform for the insurance industry in India, Aegon Life took a risk by deciding to go completely digital. By using data analytics and screening customers, they are aiming to bring the right product to the right consumer. De Jong, who joined the insurer after a stint at Reliance Jio, said that there is tremendous opportunity in the market and internet connectivity is also improving. "It is not easy but we made the transition pretty fast. In our team, we meet four customers every month and only listen. We use advanced data analytics for the quantitative part of the evaluation," he explained. As a result, not just turnaround time but the number of complaints have also come down while persistency has gone up. "Online needs to work for us, there is no Plan B. We cannot fail. It is additional pressure for us, but it is stimulating," he said. For customers wanting help while choosing a product, Aegon Life offers the service of advisors. De Jong said that this need is felt for some categories of investment products. However, unlike agents, these advisors are a full-time salaried workforce and the company takes responsibility for their actions. "We want to have complete control since the products we offer are simple and easy to understand. Since majority of the Indian market is under-insured, we are looking to simplify the policy documents," he said. Aegon Life will soon be launching a new website that aims to be more customer-friendly. De Jong said they have built a mobile-optimised as well as desktop-optimised website. "We see a lot of browsing and quotes being generated on mobile, while sale happens on desktop. Our mobile website will focus on product discovery and brand discovery and help get a quote on mobile websites. The desktop site will be focusing on closing the deal," he said. Being digital helps screen targets more closely. He said that they target a certain group of people based on data and screening of customers and specific segments. "A tool like Facebook is very good. Life stages such as marriage, first child and second child can be identified through the pictures that individuals post. This will significantly reduce the risk of fraud," he explained. Interestingly, De Jong said the aim is to be as good as a company in a completely different segment. "Our benchmark is Amazon and not any other life insurance company," he said. In China, Zhong An -the biggest insurer in terms of number of customers - is backed by e-commerce marketplace Alibaba. Going forward, tying up with partners to help target the right audience will be their focus. De Jong said that if they are able to tie up with payment providers, they will get access to customer data. Using this, they would run algorithms to find spending patterns and then sell appropriate products.
The second insurer in India to bypass brokers and sell directly through digital channels says the company is under huge pressure to make the model work. "There is no Plan B. We cannot fail", said Aegon Chief Digital Officer Martijn De Jong. Aegon's digital-only platform enables it to better screen policyholders to offer them tailored products and to cut down on fraud, according to the company. The firm has rejigged its digital interface in response to data that shows potential policyholders predominantly browse quotes on mobile devices, but purchase insurance on desktops, said De Jong.