Customers
We aim to provide our customers with prosperity and peace of mind by offering them relevant, simple-to-understand products that they can trust.
Our CR agenda lies at the very heart of the way we interact with our customers - in our vision and values, our strategies, our products and our services. In laying a strong foundation, our group customer policy directs uncompromising standards of commitment to customers from all our staff.
We want customers to trust us, so we are fair and open with them, and empower them to make informed financial decisions by training our people to determine their individual needs. We communicate as clearly as we can, make our products easy to understand and strive to offer helpful, professional service.
Responsible selling
We believe response selling starts with clear, open and honest dialogue with customers, so we treat every interaction with a customer as an opportunity to deliver the best customer experience, and calls are monitored randomly to ensure that agents in our call centres provide a high-quality service.
We aim to offer our customers a range of sustainable products and services, and where specific needs exist, we also aim to develop innovative solutions. Telematics technology assesses where, when and how far young and lower-mileage drivers drive, giving them more control and choice about the premiums they pay. Not only have claims by young drivers fallen by over 30%, a third of customers aged 18 to 23 are also saving at least 40% on their premiums.
Aviva Canada's Autograph programme also uses telematics technology to assess risk. People who drive off-peak, when it is less risky, are enjoying discounts in the range of 15-25%.
To help encourage cars with a lower carbon footprint, some of our insurance schemes in Canada, the UK, France and the Netherlands give discounts to drivers of hybrid and biofuel cars.
Improving financial literacy
To help people take control of their finances and prepare for retirement, our new six-steps website gives free and unbiased advices, with a simple six-step retirement planner to help people understand their financial position. The site was awarded Best Corporate Social Responsibility Programme at the 2007 Institute of Financial Services Financial Innovation Awards.
Microfinance
Aviva India provides a range of financial products and services to help the underprivileged and combat poverty. While we launched specialised products for the rural audience we also tied up with micro finance institutions and regional rural banks to target the underprivileged community. As a result, Aviva introduced both group and retail schemes and also special products like Jana Suraksha, Amar Suraksha and Anmol Suraksha. In 2007 it launched Grameen Suraksha, which seeks to reduce the burden on rural policyholders who pay premiums for just two years and then realise the term benefit for five or 10 years with low premiums.
Since 2002, Aviva has partnered with many microfinance institutions, like Basix, to help increase access to such products in the rural communities. By February 2008, we have covered over 1.3 million lives in the social sector and sold 181,621 policies in rural areas. We had a target of covering 25,000 social lives and selling 55,746 rural policies, which we have significantly exceeded.
Socially responsible investments
Aviva Investors, Aviva's fund management business, is a leader in the field of socially responsible investment (SRI). Aviva Investors recognises that it has a responsibility to exercise its influence constructively by engaging with companies to encourage best practice in social, environmental and corporate governance matters. Aviva Investors also offers a range of SRI funds, which to date have over £1.2 billion of funds under management.
Visit Aviva Investors's website for further details on our SRI engagement activities.
View the Customer policy or visit our latest CR report to obtain further information of Aviva's activities in this area.