Interview with Ludovic Esteves, business development manager for payment methods and commercial offering for the Banking and Insurance sector at Limonetik
Julien Guerrand, community manager meetthepayment.com: Hello Ludovic! The online banking market has been quite busy these last few weeks. BNP Paribas has launched Hello Bank, Axa Banque has just brought out a similar offer called Soon. Should we expect innovations on the part of insurers in 2014?
Ludovic Esteves: We shouldn’t expect new things in terms of products; the insurers are already doing their very specific role extremely well. We should instead look out for services whose objective is enriching customer relations, in particular for players of property (contents, car, motorbike, etc.) and accident insurance. These major players didn’t expect Limonetik to put customer relations at the heart of their concerns and to be performing in reimbursing claims.
JG: What will Limonetik bring in this case? What are the innovative services that they will offer to these companies?
LE: Through its experience in digitalisation, Limonetik will allow them to understand their customers better, to be really customer centric. Even if this expression is sometimes misused, we bring innovative services to these companies, which allow them to explore this notion, by strengthening their customer knowledge.
JG: How does that actually happen?
LE: I will give you a typical example. Nowadays, in the context of a claim, customer relations stop once the customer has been reimbursed for the goods. Yet this is the time to offer the policy holder specific and personalised offers depending on their situation at that precise moment. If the policy holder was claiming on a broken TV, it’s time for the insurer to suggest partner offers via which they will be able to buy a new TV. In this example, not only is the policy holder reimbursed, but he also has dedicated offers to replace the item.
JG: I can clearly see the benefit for the partner store and the policy holder, but what positive impact can the insurer expect?
LE: An improved image. As I mentioned earlier, it isn’t a new product, it’s an enriched process. The insurer will propose a catalogue of interesting partner offers for its customers. This little plus will complement their way of doing their business and strengthen customer satisfaction. Limonetik brings its expertise in terms of payment methods, but also monitoring payment methods, by helping insurers to make claims a new source of profit.
JG: A kind of better performing after-reimbursement service via enriched processes, that’s very clear. At a time when comparing insurance prices in a few clicks has become normal, can insurers hope to increase their rate of customer retention?
LE: It’s a very versatile market. This kind of offer will allow the insurer and its partner to attract new customers and make existing ones loyal, as this service wouldn’t be offered elsewhere. It’s a tool for standing out and customer retention that is a lot simpler, less costly and more profitable than lots of other marketing campaigns. We all know it, keeping a customer is a lot less onerous than winning a new one!
Moreover, we need to specify that this kind of innovative and enriched offer is deployed in the context of minor and purely material claims; we aren’t talking about the destruction of a home, much less a physical accident. Insurers are, and remain, the experts in human relations, that are so important in these circumstances.
JG: If you had to characterise what Limonetik brings to the insurance sector, what words would you use?
LE: 4 verbs. Accelerating, improving, simplifying and refocusing the insurer vis-à-vis the policy holder via a more fluid process. We are accelerating the processing times, simplifying them, improving reimbursements and offering several compensation methods. The time gained in processing claims will allow the manager to dedicate more time to their customer.
JG: Thank you Ludovic for all this information. We will talk again about the insurance sector, among other things, the payment page offered on their sites.
LE: I’d be delighted, see you soon!