AVBOB Integrated Annual Report 2018

We have made major strides towards the overall improvement of communication with stakeholders and we are committed to enhancing our practices, systems and methodologies to meet the requirements of being a good corporate citizen. To provide personalised, efficient, effective and positive customer experiences, we have developed systems to improve the delivery, flow, storage and retrieval of policyholder information in line with our value of “Customer Focus”. In order to engage stakeholders on key brand and product messages, we have used a multitude of communication platforms such as the printed media, radio, television, outdoor and online digital technologies (website, mobi-site, intranet, USSD, SMS and social media). To improve communication with our policyholders and clients visiting our branches, we have streamed audio visual material to our nationwide network of offices via an innovative digital technology platform. Using this new digital technology we are able to update content on the television screens at the branches in real time and have full control over what, when and where content is shown. If required, we are able to personalise content. We believe that this will enhance the overall customer experience at our branches. Our internal staff magazine, Die Onderling , is published three times a year and is distributed to all employees. The magazine provides employees with a line of sight across the organisation. Digital communication continues to grow at a rapid rate and as such, customers are receptive to a mix of online and personal contact throughout the product life-cycle. Digital is not the panacea, but is rather a critical enabler to delivering cost-effective and convenient solutions to our customers. Our website has been re-structured to improve navigation and facilitate access to pertinent information as well as agency contact details. We are refining our “apply online” facilities in order to achieve a higher percentage of completed applications on the AVBOB website. We have also ensured that contact details and maps are readily available to customers who search for AVBOB agencies via the internet. The Group’s Facebook and Twitter followers have grown into a strong community of over 160 000 individuals with whom the Group can communicate quickly and effectively. Messages on our social media platforms are monitored daily and consumer enquiries, compliments and complaints are channelled to the appropriate departments for further action and response to the client. We also utilise our social media platforms to publish important brand announcements and inform the public about our CSI initiatives. We maintain a brand-to-consumer response rate of between 95% and 100% and are outperforming all competitors in terms of followers, engagement, retention of followers, as well as content being shared virally. In order to communicate effectively and maximise stakeholder engagement with the brand, we continuously improve the written and visual content of our digital platforms. We were the first in our industry to make an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform available in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu and seSotho to communicate and share information with policyholders. The platform has various functions, one of which enables us to send an SMS to new policyholders allowing them to select how they want to receive their policy contract (post, email, online). It further enables them to review and verify their basic policy information on their mobile phone. The platform furthermore enables clients to obtain basic information about the brand by dialling *120*28262#. Usage of the platform by policyholders and non-policyholders is increasing on a monthly basis. Our policyholders can view their detailed policy information online by registering on our secure epolicy platform. The website also contains information on the Group’s CSI initiatives and projects, 39