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If we say customers are at the heart of our business, we need to offer products and services that meet real customer needs.
Norwich Union's UK Pay As You DriveTM insurance uses telematics technology to assess where, when and how far customers drive, giving them more control, choice and flexibility over their premiums. When we trialled it with 1,500 young drivers, limiting night-time driving, car accidents in this group fell by 20% and premiums by approx 30%. In September 2006 we launched Pay As You DriveTM products for young drivers, plus lower mileage drivers (under 8,000 miles pa) who use safer roads, and fleets who are encouraged to drive more safely using risk management and duty of care principles.
Aviva Canada's Autograph programme also uses telematics to assess risk by recording the speed, time of day and miles people drive. Customers can directly influence their premium by receiving credit for their individual driving behaviour. People who drive off-peak, when it's less risky, are enjoying discounts in the range of 15-25%.
Further, to 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.
In India, Aviva continues to build on its partnerships with leading development finance institutions, like BASIX, to provide micro-financial services to the underprivileged section of Indian society. In 2006 it developed life assurance, protection, credit and savings plans to meet the needs of India's poorest rural communities. To date we have covered over 650,000 lives.
In the UK, Norwich Union Healthcare improved its dedicated and comprehensive cancer claims service by creating a highly experienced cancer case team so that the service is now available to all Norwich Union customers who have been diagnosed with cancer. By making sure that each customer has a nominated claims handler, we have been able to develop an even more supportive and customer-focused relationship. The team works with Macmillan Cancer Support and tells customers about the wide range of services they can get from the charity.
Simplified Life Insurance has been developed with the consumer at the heart of the proposition development process. Through extensive research consumers told us they wanted a simple, easy-to-understand proposition that they could access in different ways. The whole application process can now be completed in 10-15 minutes.
In Australia, Navigator has improved the process involved in UK pensions transfers. Now, Australian residents with money in the UK pension schemes can transfer their funds quicker and more easily. Navigator is one of the first providers internationally to register with the UK regulators as a qualifying regulated overseas pension scheme, which allows UK pension plan members to transfer benefits overseas. Aviva is one of the first businesses in the world to offer this flexibility to our customers.
Moving UK pensions down under
Hibernian's use of geo-coding technology, the first Irish insurer to do so, has enabled premium discounts to almost 20% of households in Ireland. In 2006, together with the Radiological Protection Institute, Hibernian sought to introduce a 'radon detection' layer into the home geo-coding system so that they can warn people who live in high-risk areas to take precautions. Meanwhile, in Poland, our life and pensions business now enables customers to register their interest in a pension product by text, as well as being able to access their premium details online.
Eurofil, a direct general insurance subsidiary of Aviva France, embeds diversity ethics within the services that it provides to customers by ensuring that homosexual and heterosexual couples receive the same treatment when taking out motor insurance, particularly when it comes to declaring 'named drivers' on a motor policy. With this practice Eurofil places itself apart from its competitors, who have not yet addressed this issue.
As for some of our other products, Eagle Insurance in Sri Lanka thought it could do more to help travellers feel secure, so with Eagle TravelSafe, people can now buy travel insurance in seconds online, wherever they are in the world. Meanwhile, in Germany, Delta Lloyd introduced its 'Pflegeschutz' care protection policy to offer peace of mind for the elderly.
