As the insurance industry undergoes digital transformation, Arvind Sampath Kumar, SVP, Core Products, ACKO Technologies, in an exclusive interaction with Srajan Agarwal of Elets News Network (ENN), explores how ACKO’s core products will continue to drive its growth, making it a comprehensive, full-service insurance provider with a focus on scalability, reliability, and a deep understanding of customer needs.
ACKO has been a disruptive force in the insurance industry. Could you elaborate on the innovative core products you’ve spearheaded and how they have transformed the traditional insurance landscape?
ACKO is always at the forefront when it comes to innovating products to suit recurring payments for our customers. The health insurance premiums are higher as compared to Auto products and so by providing a monthly premium payment option we could make health insurance more accessible and easy on the pocket for customers. We have seen massive adoption to the extent that more than half our health insurance customers have chosen to pay monthly premiums.
Can you provide some insight into the collaboration and synergy between your department, Core Products, and other divisions within ACKO, and how these collaborations have been instrumental in achieving the company’s goals?
Core Products are central to the long term success at our organisation and we have articulated some operating principles to strengthen our processes. The Acko App is a great example where core product experience interweaves journeys and experiences built by Acko Auto , Health and travel insurance teams. It is a one-stop for customers for everything to do with Brand Acko.
The Core Product team creates the technology and tools set for our Customer service agents to get full context of the customer that has called us for help – this enables a great experience for the customer while efficiently serving them. For this, we:
- Invest in Products (systems, tools and capabilities) that can be re-used costeffectively by all Acko Product teams.
- Build tools for stakeholders that promote self serve to maximise momentum and utilisation
- Prioritise multi-tenancy, high availability ( with BCP) and compliance while building products
- Deepen our understanding of customers based on the massive amount of data we collect
- Deliver great customer experience consistently while meeting business objectives and managing stakeholder priorities
As a leader in the core products division, what is your approach to harnessing technology and data to create personalised insurance solutions for customers? Could you provide examples of how this approach has benefited ACKO Technologies?
Being a Direct to Consumer digital experience we generate massive amounts of data driven by user actions. We are continuously reducing the effort required to purchase insurance. Anticipating user needs and providing value added service that go beyond protection is a key strategy to drive engagement and loyalty. We offer a range of VAS, for example, Check and pay Traffic Challans, Proactively notify customers when emission check is due for their vehicle and point them to the nearest center to get certified. We have started piloting Fast Tag recharging as well. All of these help enhance worry-free mobility for customers.
As the insurance industry continues to embrace digitalisation and data-driven solutions, how do you envision the role of ACKO evolving in the next 5-10 years, and what kind of core products do you anticipate will be central to this evolution?
ACKO’s journey from providing vehicle insurance to expanding to various lines of business indicates the company’s growth into a multi-category full service insurance provider. With the launch of ACKO Drive and ACKO Garages, we are not only providing an overall protection to our customers, but we’re also ensuring that they acquire the right assets and enjoy the protection worry-free. Our core products will remain central to all these growth vectors. In the medium term, we intend to build capabilities that are massively scalable, reliable and re-usable while deepening our understanding of customer needs, wants and aspirations.
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