Fidelity Life is planning to water down its corporate image in a bid to be more relatable with customers.
Advisers at the firm’s Engage 2020 conference, held this week, heard from the company’s CEO Nadine Tereora that over the next 12 months the firm is “…adopting a strategy to put customers first”.
Tereora says a survey of 2,000 of its customers “…highlighted the need to appeal to consumers and, most importantly, build trust”. She says the findings showed a need for change.
“We needed to shift from a brand that feels ‘corporate’, has low consumer awareness and doesn’t greatly differ from our competitors; to a brand that has broad appeal, especially to consumers, is aligned to our transformation plans and really stands out as distinctive in the market.”
She says heightened scrutiny of conduct and culture across the financial services sector has eroded trust further.
Health Boost
Meanwhile, US-based digital healthcare company Sharecare is using the Kiwi insurer to get a foot-hold in New Zealand.
Sharecare, a firm co-founded by TV’s Dr Oz, produces a smartphone app to encourage people make better lifestyle choices. The firm describes itself as a company that provides the motivation to drive behaviour change.
Details of the app were given to 200 advisers at the Engage conference. The firm’s advisers will start road-testing the app from April before it is offered to their customers in May.
Sharecare plan to make the app available to all New Zealanders later in the year.
The app works by users entering information about their lifestyle and are then given what Sharecare calls their ‘real age’. Users are encouraged to lower their age by doing things such as walking more.
This isn’t the first app backed by an insurance company to encourage customers to improve their health and wellbeing. AIA launched its Vitality app in 2019 – it syncs to a gadget worn by the user that measures a range of health indicators.
AIA’s Vitality app offers incentives such as discounts on insurance premiums and member rewards at various retailers.