AXA Singapore: bringing business services closer to the customer
“Our mission is to help customers protect their world and build their dreams,” says DJ De Villiers, CIO of AXA Singapore.
“You might be trying to protect your health and wealth but also live a certain lifestyle, save for education or retirement or buy a house, dreams you have for your future. That’s what we help people do, our core business is risk, helping people understand and navigate risk.”
A current trend across the financial services industry is simplification and data transformation and this is something that De Villiers recognises - customers across all industries are much more in control.
De Villiers points to Uber as the perfect example, where the power has shifted completely from the taxi drivers and into the hands of the passengers.
“In order to stay relevant and competitive it is essential, as a matter of survival, for large established financial services firms like AXA to get out of our comfort zone and go out there and meet our customers and give them what they want at their fingertips, which is what customers expect today,” says De Villiers.
“Customers are much more knowledgeable of the products available and everything is more accessible. They want more relevant services and products and they are not willing to wait for them anymore.”
New challengers in the market
Bringing AXA’s services and products closer to the customer is the driving force behind the company wide transformation, but there are both internal and external factors that brought upon change – namely, new entrants.
“The rise of new entrants in insurance space has applied pressure where we’ve recognised that there are more and more smaller companies now starting to come into the space. I think in the past there were very big barriers for entrants,” says De Villiers.
“What’s been happening is with the rise of technology companies on the internet, specifically about Fintech those barriers are much lower. They may not require as much capital; they can more rapidly get a very big distribution footprint. So the only thing they really need is an understanding of insurance products and risk. Those companies come with a better understanding of what customers want and how to have a good customer experience.”
The rest of this company profile can be found in the August issue of Business Review Australia & Asia.
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