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In an industry, where “good faith” means all, it takes super human efforts to become the ‘Best Service’ provider! That’s what makes United India & Ajay worth writing about say Niharika Patra & Ratan Lal...
What’s the world coming to? There was a point in time when the moment you’d hear that it’s a PSU, you’d deem its service quality quotient to be amongst the lowest in the industry, but here we have a PSU - United India Insurance topping the list of top service providers in the ‘general insurance’ segment! What is the world coming to?
Alright, keeping our emotions aside, let’s just analyse why the survey reveals the goods for United India... Easy access is certainly one factor which works in favour of the PSU, but that is not the sole reason for it being numero uno. The reality runs so – even though United India has a PSU background, the level of service that the company is providing to its one crore existing customers can put to shame the Customer Relationship Management efforts of any private player. We decided to check out the reality behind this third-person claim, and that brought us to Nehru Place (New Delhi), where we met up with Ajay Rastogi, Divisional Manager, United India. And as if he’d been warned about our keen ‘testing’ intentions, we first found him delighting a customer who was facing a ‘claim clearance’ issue. Sans self-introductions, we quietly went up to him (while he assumed we were some prospective customers) and took the chairs in the vicinity of his ‘dealings’ epicenter.
While it took no time for Ajay to understand the problem posed by the customer, he was patient enough to hear out frustrated words that oozed out rather violently from the complainant. Half-an-hour and many smiles later, the satisfied consumer left and the floor was open for questions (after introductions ofcourse).
We spoke to him about the same customer, to which he responded by clarifying that it wasn’t something that happens very often with him. Most claims are processed at the basic level itself and the very agents who rope-in customers help them in their claims. Very few ‘complicated’ or ‘special’ cases reach the mid-level and whenever they do, the managers have to devote their entire time to see that the problem is completely solved. And the plaintiff in our question was one such rare case. He explains further how with growth in United India’s consumer base, the number of people coming to him has grown larger by the day. However (and thankfully so), most of those he met wanted to become policy holders’. This for us was an eye-opener... to have actually witnessed devotion and patience from a PSU Insurance manager, which clearly reflected why this general insurance company (which is also the largest in the country), despite a handsome customer portfolio including large business names like ONGC, GMR-Hyderabad et al, has excelled when it comes to handling the queries and grievances of its widely scattered individual customers. And this is where we come to its well-distributed network. Its large network of offices across India ensure that its outreach is much wider than any private player’s. In total, it has 1340 offices across the country, more than 200 of which can be found in Tier II and III cities. All the centers are well-connected and this helps in reducing the ‘claim processing’ time for the company, an extremely critical factor, which not only helps the existing customers but also enhances the brand equity of the company.
Talking about outreach, the human capital of United India is also its forte! A huge pool of agents, who swarm the streets, ready to sell customised policies to anyone and everyone are continuously adding to the already large customer base that the company has developed. Easy-to-access customised services and minimum claim processing time added to the faith that the market has come to inculcate makes for an impeccable combination. Today, every United India customer, by and large, believes that he/she is getting the best in service and quality, and that in times of need, the company will provide relief as soon as possible. Ajay too believes that “it is the ‘manpower’ which is the real USP of United India. The company offers a wide range of insurance products – from car to medical insurance, and most importantly, under one roof! For a product like insurance, convenience is also very critical, and Ajay seconds that.
Coming back to our initial question – what is the world actually coming to? Well, we don’t know, but as far as general insurance players are concerned, they’d be proud to reach where United India is today – atop the ‘Best Service Companies’ list!
Niharika Patra & Ratan Lal Bhagat
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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