Award Applications

FWD launched our business in April 2016 and has since grown into Singapore’s largest digital composite insurer in Singapore. We offer a range of general and life insurance products which are sold online via our ecommerce site www.fwd.com.sg. We currently insure over 220,000 customers across our direct to consumer and employee benefits businesses. Our General Insurance business is booming, and we’re now insuring 2.1% of cars, 2.2% of motorcycles and 2.1% of maids in Singapore within a space of 18 months. We are also the largest online life insurance provider in Singapore, having sold more than $44m in savings product in 2017 through our 3-year endowment product which offered the highest guaranteed return at launch. We’ve demonstrated that savings policies can be sold successfully online without any advice and insurers can pass on the savings on distribution costs to customers.

Our digital business model has attracted the attention of competitors across Asia Pacific and set a new benchmark for how insurers should serve customers digitally. Our customers enjoy a fully digital experience, across the end-to-end customer journey;

• Discovery – Digital marketing is our core strength and our team leverages tools such as Google analytics, search engine marketing and optimization (SEM/ SEO) capabilities so we appear at relevant points in a customer's discovery phase on social network or online.

• Online Policy Purchase/Sales - From just 4 products, we've grown exponentially and now offer 10 products across GI and LI with 100% policies sold online, including Term Life Insurance which offers up to S$3million life cover online, highest in Singapore. With a mobile responsive site, 27% of customers complete their purchase on mobile while the rest purchased on desktop.

• Digital Communications - Unlike traditional insurers who mail hardcopy policies to customers, our customers receive an electronic copy of their policy via email after the purchase. They also gain access to an online portal where they can retrieve and manage their policies or file a claim.

• Paperless Claim - Making a claim is made easy. No paper forms necessary. Customers simply go online and file a claim within the online portal, submit scanned copies of supporting documents and that's it. Those without a login password can still file a claim the same way via our webform by entering their contact details.

• Electronic Payment - While most insurers are still issuing cheques, we’ve since integrated with DBS Fast to bring faster claims payout to customers. No more waiting for the mail or fretting over non-receipt of cheques. We'll also be launching claims payment via PayNow in June 2018.

Technology Driven Growth

Common to all ecommerce, focusing on conversion and reducing transaction drop outs and failure are critical to sales growth. Technology and analytics enables us to measure, track and adapt our online sales journey to increase sales.

• Partner Integration – Our Application Programming Interface(API)-based architecture enables us to integrate swiftly and seamlessly with a growing list of partners in our insurance ecosystem, including aggregators like Gobear, Moneysmart and Insurance Market.
• Digital Footprint Tracking – Using Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) and Promo Codes, we are able to track the campaigns which lead customers to land on our site and through to purchase. Data collected is used to analyse effectiveness of digital campaigns thus allowing us to reduce Cost-per-acquisition.
• Best-in-Class Sales Experience – Our bespoke quote engine provides a simplified sales experience, allowing customers to get a quote in seconds by answering just four questions for travel insurance and 10 questions for car insurance. Competitors like Direct Asia, Aviva and Etiqa have all tried to replicate our simplicity.
• Sales Cycle – Customers who attempt to leave a product or sales page will see a pop-up reiterating our unique selling points or a promo code as a retention strategy. With sales cycle, we’ve seen increase in conversion of up to 24%.
• Save Quote – We understand consumer behaviours where some would chose to compare before buying or get a quote and decide later. Our save quote function allows customers to save their quote and complete the application or purchase later. The information is synchronised with our CRM so sales staff can proactively contact customers and assist to answer any lingering query they have.
• Transaction Failures – transactions may fail because customers change their decision or simply because their banks declined the transaction. These failures are again captured in CRM and our sales staff would proactively call customers to aid them through the sales process. This omni-channel experience creates delight.

Digitally Enabled Retention

General insurance in Singapore has a low barrier to switching, thus winning in retention is a big deal. Our Car Insurance retention rate stands at 68%, higher than the industry norm of 60%.
• While other insurers mail a hardcopy quotation to customers, our renewal journey is fully digitised. Customers receive email and SMS notification 60 days ahead of expiry with reminders spaced out subsequently and delivered via multiple mediums.
• Renewal discounts like early bird and loyalty discounts are also built-in so returning customers get a better deal than new customers.
• Those who don’t wish to renew are also given a digital channel to share why so we can collect data for analysis and stop any reminders.

With these solutions designed, we’re able to secure majority of our renewals without any human intervention.

Robotic, AI Technology & Operations

The moment of truth in insurance is typically when customers need to file a claim. Our ability to provide ease of claim, regular updates and fast payout is key to differentiating us as insurers. Operationally, these digital solutions have enhanced our ability to automate data entry, speed up claims and risk assessment and our efficiency in handling claims.

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – In one instance, we applied RPA on claims registration and efficiency improved by 90%, equivalent to 300 man days in a year. RPA is also used across various operational functions include sales operations, underwriting, pricing and analytics.
• Rule-based Workflow - We offer an automated claims pay-out for any medical claim below S$40 for our Employee Benefits customers while the industry takes on average 3-8 weeks.
• AI Prediction/ Fraud Detection – On employee benefits, we’ve completed a Proof-of-concept which would predict if a staff member is likely to fall sick or get hospitalised in the near future. Results were encouraging. We’ve also implemented AI technology to detect fraud in our travel claims.
• Efficient Claims Payout – Traditionally, claims are paid via cheques. FWD has made a commitment to reduce paper cheques and target to pay 80% of our claims digitally. In the past year, we’ve integrated with DBS FAST , reducing the pay-out time from 5 days to an industry leading instant pay-out upon successful claims approval. In 2018, we’re further enabling claims payout to customers via Singapore’s PayNow facility.

Our singular focus on delivering a best-in-class Customer Experience has won us repeat customers and high referrals. Forrester conducted a Customer Experience Index research in 2018 and FWD scored highest, beating giants like NTUC Income, AXA and AIG. We receive over 4000 feedback monthly with a customer satisfaction above 4.6/5 and a compliments to complaints ratio of 66 compliments to 1 complaint. Our NPS averages +23 in our regular customer surveys versus an industry norm of negative NPS.