Claims paying reputation is the foundation on which a successful insurance company is built. This has never been truer than in the current tough economic environment, which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. As the leading direct insurer in South Africa, OUTsurance understands this and with awesome service as a key component of its business culture, it is pleased with the results from the latest set of Ombudsman statistics, its fair treatment of business insurance customers during Covid-19 and living up to its brand promise of ‘You always get something OUT’.
The office of the Ombudsman of Short-Term Insurance (OSTI) plays a crucial role in ensuring fairness in the short-term insurance industry. They recently revealed their 2019 statistics on the performance of insurance companies, in terms of complaints to their office by consumers.
OUTsurance is yet again the company with the lowest number of complaints referred to OSTI amongst the typical large motor and household insurers, per 1 000 claims received. They have a referral rate of 1.02 complaints for every 1 000 claims submitted (0.10%), in comparison to their peers’ average referral rate of 2.57 complaints for every 1 000 claims submitted (0.26%). This is less than half of the comparative peer group average referral rate.
Their 2019 performance is an improvement on their 2018 performance. In fact, OUTsurance has been improving year on year in terms of this metric, for at least the past 5 years, all the while leading their peer group.
Danie Matthee, CEO of OUTsurance, stated, “Our purpose and focus is to be the service leader in our industry. The real moment of truth for service is in the claims experience. We exist to pay claims and we take that responsibility very seriously - it is the basis of the trust in our brand. We consider the OSTI stats a great independent benchmark of customers’ satisfaction with our handling of their claims. We are very pleased with these results.”
Click here for the full details of the Ombudsman’s Annual Report.
OUTsurance has also paid Business Interruption claims where the policy had an extension for pandemic cover. The first of these payments were made in April for losses occurring in March 2020 due to the pandemic and resultant lockdown. The treatment of these claims since March is congruent with the views published by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in an industry communication on 18 June 2020. The total rand reserve for claims in this category amounts to approximately R220 million.
Said Matthee, “Our view, from the onset of the pandemic, on the business interruption policies with the cover extension for pandemics, is that they are covered and that we needed to get cash to the businesses with the right cover in place as soon as possible. We understand cashflow is king for small and medium businesses and we are pleased that we could be of assistance to our clients in this time of need.”
OUTsurance keeps true to its promise of ‘You always get something OUT’ with more than R430 million paid during 2019 in OUTbonuses to their claim-free clients. More of this promise is showcased in the 2019 claims statistics below:
- More than 290 000 claims finalised
- A 98% claims settlement percentage
- R4 billion paid out in claims to clients
- Average time to authorise a claim – 1.6 working days