One of our key objectives in 2007 was to enhance the quality of our service to customers. Training initiatives included the pre-sales training given to 124 advisers in our Aviva Global Services operation in Pune, India, while the GEM programme, launched in May within our life business in Ireland, focused on ‘Going the Extra Mile for Service’.

We also understand the need to keep our claims processes simple and easy, so in Canada, for example, customers have a single point of contact for the duration of their claim. Access to a customer complaint process and a 1-800 ‘claims SOS’ number have helped to achieve a claimant satisfaction rate of 93%. Multilingual assistance is being piloted in 2008.

We treat feedback with the utmost respect, and continually seek customer views through surveys and questionnaires. Norwich Union was one of the first companies to join the Customer Impact Scheme, an independent survey launched by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to ask customers for their opinions about products, communication and customer service. We shared the results in our first Improvements For You report. Encouragingly, 80% of those surveyed agreed we were easy to do business with, and the same percentage thought we treated our customers fairly. In response to other scores, we’ve improved the clarity and relevance of the letters and statements we send out, introduced freephone numbers for existing customers and set up a Customer Service Academy, accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute, to improve the technical knowledge and customer service skills of our staff.

Our businesses have adopted local ‘touch point’ surveys after customers have experienced our service, and our US call centres will be introducing quality monitoring to improve their performance. For 2008, they have set themselves an objective of answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds with 95% accuracy. Aviva USA swept the honours in Senior Market Advisor magazine’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards, topping four of the 13 categories and finishing runner-up in another three.

We strive to ensure that complaints are resolved quickly and fully, using them to review and strengthen our policies and practices as needed. Our efforts have been reflected in improved Customer Experience database scores among household claims advisers for Norwich Union Direct in Noida, India, and the ‘Net Promoter Score’ used by our Australian business, which gauges the number of customers willing to recommend us to a friend or colleague.