AVBOB Integrated Annual Report 2018

for the Group. Change is inevitable and not innovating is one of the greatest risks faced by business. Therefore, a lack of incremental innovation and disruptive innovation to fulfil the existing or potential customers’ needs will result in customer perceptions of the brand becoming stagnant. The challenge for brands such as ours, whose core customer base is predominantly among the lower and middle income market is that AVBOB needs to be accessible via varied support platforms that consumers are comfortable with. This means that continuous development in face-to-face and lower cost digital communication needs to be monitored and updated on a timely basis. The key is to innovate in areas that resonate with our market, to make doing business with AVBOB simpler and to ease the burden on customers in terms of transacting and communicating with us. The Group attracts and retains clients by providing dependable and value-for-money products and services. Our product range and services cover all LSM-groupings and therefore support social development. During the year under review we extended our reach by opening 19 insurance offices and 15 funeral agencies. Expanding our footprint will enable us to serve more communities across the country and provide a one-stop service (funeral service, funeral insurance and funeral products). It will also enhance distribution of our products and services to all target markets, but especially the previously unserved markets. Through increasing our national footprint, we committed ourselves to creating more jobs within the communities in which we operate. Given the growth in the middle class and increasing urbanisation, we made use of data analysis to become more customer focused in meeting product and service expectations. The alignment of our insurance product offering with our strategic objectives and brand promise is the responsibility of the dedicated Product Committee, which acts as a subcommittee of the Exco. This Committee focuses specifically on positioning our products and services in the market, on the profitability of existing products and on new product offerings. In addition, the Committee considers the effectiveness of our distribution channels as well as any economic and industry developments. All new insurance products, as well as any enhancements made to existing products, are subject to a formal review and approval process, and the Statutory Actuary has to provide assurance that there is no material impact on the financial soundness of the business. In the development of products we not only consider financial, legal and regulatory requirements but also the outcomes of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF). In order to ensure that our clients do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers in changing a product, switching a provider or submitting a claim, the following applies: • All insurance products include a cooling-off period during which the client can exit at no charge. • Changes are allowed on most products to adapt to a client’s changing needs or circumstances. • Claim processes are designed to be as convenient as possible for clients, while maintaining adequate safeguards against fraud risk. With regard to our funeral service division, certain products and services are provided free of charge or at discounted rates to our policyholders under certain conditions. Our policyholders and non- policyholders receive standard funeral services, but to ensure we meet all customer expectations, many additional services are contracted from service providers to supply family cars, home tents and chairs, catering, flowers and many other services requested by customers. Our fleet is one of the most visible aspects of our business and thus critical to our brand’s reputation. Maintaining and refreshing our fleet, to meet client demands, requires an ongoing investment and we continually expand the fleet to include the latest upmarket vehicles. Insurance and Funeral Service are now leveraging off each other to improve service offerings 53