Rapidly changing consumer needs, cut-throat competition and the impact of the information superhighway are making insurance service providers innovate like never before, as they fight for every inch of market share, says JACQUELINE CHEUNG of LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE LTD.

Jacqueline Cheung, SVP & Head of Traditional Distribution & Head of Intermediary Management, East Region A&H

From a single office in London in 1994, Liberty International has grown into the third-largest U.S-based property & casualty insurer. The company comprises 16 country operations in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, which provide personal and commercial insurance products and services to meet the needs of individuals, families, and businesses.

The company is a 100% owned subsidiary of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group which ranks 68th on the Fortune 100 list of the largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2017 direct written premium.

“Today, we offer a wide range of insurance products and services for individuals and corporations, including Life and Medical, Travel and Personal Accident, Motor Vehicle among others, through professional and registered agents and broker channels. Based on 2016 Net Premium, we rank 7th amongst the largest Hong Kong medical insurance providers,” says Jacqueline Cheung, SVP & Head of Traditional Distribution & Head of Intermediary Management, East Region A&H.

Competitive Strategy 

Cheung says, the insurance industry in Hong Kong has always been fierce, with over 70 medical insurers serving this small city. “As new entrants arrive, we strive to ensure our brand remains a preferred choice amongst our Agents and Brokers. We achieve this by having a consistent reputation for reliable and cost-effective services.”

“The advancement across the internet and social media platforms have completely changed the customer’s journey today, when compared to what we saw a decade ago. Nowadays, customers have higher bargaining power, can easily access the product and service information online 24/7, and review comments from users before making the final decisions. It is crucial to gain word-of-mouth referrals from customers and work closely with our brokers to offer competitive choices to end users.”

Power of Innovation 

“We consistently attract customer applause by differentiating ourselves from our competitors with the best-in-class quality of products and services: for example, the Liberty LHC eClaim Mobile Application,” Cheung reveals.

“The latest version of our eClaim mobile application was released in March 2018, facilitating a more efficient and convenient medical claim service and experience. In particular, the latest version of our eClaim mobile application allows our insured members to submit all outpatient and dental claims (limit at HK$2,000) via their smartphones. Saving time and costs from filling up and posting out medical claim forms. Once a customer has submitted a medical claim online, we process it instantly.”

She says this optimal customer experience shows the satisfaction level of the eClaim users is 106% higher than that of the non-eClaim app users (submitting medical claims through traditional claim form and sending it by post).    

TTS (known as text-to-speech) Member Briefing Video is another notable achievement, Cheung says.

Quality Service 

“We deliver exceptional customer experiences proactively, and continuously improve and innovate our products and services. Starting from 2018, the Accident & Health department in Hong Kong is part of an Accident & Health practice area with operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This allows Liberty to better leverage resources and capabilities across the four countries to drive our future success. With this evolution, we can rely on global expertise to achieve our goals in this highly competitive business environment,” she explains.

“We strive to complete medical claims within 3 weeks upon the receipt of the claim forms. On average, over 93% of the claims were settled within this time frame in the past few years. Leveraging on technology, we reached 100% service fulfillment in 2016 in 3 months,”  Concluded Cheung.

For additional information, please visit www.libertyinsurance.com.hk

Hong Kong’s Business Leaders share market and interest intelligence in the pages of HKMVC 2019

Tagged in: