Quality of service and the highest ethical standards in relations with individual and corporate clients are key elements in ERGO Hestia’s strategy. The six pillars of the ERGO Hestia Group’s Sustainability Strategy 2021-2023 “The Power of Information and the Power of Community” include responsibility regarding:
Policies:
Claims:
Whether the customer is buying a policy or reporting a claim, high quality service is equally important to us. In order to maintain a high level of customer service, we regularly improve the tools that support this process, combining best market practices, customer feedback and the 30-year experience of our business partners and ERGO Hestia.
Quality Improvement Division
In an effort to provide our customers with the highest standards of service, we have established a new team within the Quality Management Department. On the basis of ongoing monitoring and analysis of complaints data, the team takes preventive action to eliminate the causes of customer dissatisfaction. This unit is also responsible for monitoring customer service processes to ensure that they conform to the established quality standards.
Responsible selling
Our aim is to continually improve the transparency of the policy-buying process and raise customer awareness of how insurance works. When making an informed decision to buy insurance, the customers are assisted by an agent who deals comprehensively with their needs for both non-life and life insurance.
At the sales stage, we attach a great deal of attention to supervising the work of intermediaries. We periodically review the quality of the sales process, including mystery shopper surveys. In this way, we keep a watchful eye on the quality metrics and, if any irregularities are identified, we investigate each case and define corrective measures, including training, materials, systemic modifications. In this way, we manage to achieve optimum results every year, as confirmed by survey results and awards.
ERGO Hestia’s programme to ensure the highest standard of service covers Standard Points and Branded Points, which provide customers with a guarantee of top quality. In addition, every year, we select the best agents in the programme ERGO Hestia Quality Mark. The award is a confirmation of the highest quality of service and expertise represented by the winner.
The mystery shopper survey covers 25 areas divided into categories (Greeting, Identifying the customer, Identifying needs, Presenting the offer).
Comparing the results of the 2021 and 2020 surveys, improvements occurred in the category of Identifying the customer and partly Presenting the offer.
The largest increase in scores was reported for: addressing customers’ needs (+85 p.p.), providing information on the difference between alternative products (+68 p.p.), and verifying customer identity (+20 p.p.).
The biggest decrease in scores was reported for: the goodbye process (-43 p.p.), the use of language of benefits when presenting products (-33 p.p.), the information received from the customer (-23 p.p.).
Photo: Aleksander Małachowski
The Declaration of Responsible Selling is a project initiated by financial institutions and sponsored by the Consumer Federation. It was developed to raise and disseminate ethical standards in customer relations, educate the market environment and consumers, enhance trust in the financial industry and counteract unfair practices. This is the first project of cooperation among companies which care about improving the quality of financial services.
The Declaration includes more than 100 metrics, touching on nine key areas of responsible sales management in financial institutions. Particularly important in the Declaration are the simplicity and transparency of financial products, tailoring them to the genuine needs of the customers, keeping dialogue with and educating consumers, and fair prices.
Investing in innovation
Innovation, including in particular robotisation and automation of business processes at ERGO Hestia, is a strategic area of our activities. We systematically invest in new technologies which improve the quality of customer service and loss adjustment. We have implemented a range of solutions which allow our customers, among others, to handle claims digitally or adjust small claims themselves. The development of video inspections, the AutoWycena application, Mobile Claims Adjustment and fully automatic exchange of forms in Direct Claims Adjustment are just some of the improvements implemented by ERGO Hestia.
Under ERGO Hestia’s broader digitalisation strategy, an AI-supported customer communication system was launched in 2021. The chatbot deployed by ERGO Hestia uses an advanced natural language understanding (NLU) engine based on artificial intelligence, which analyses customers’ messages and processes natural language into computer-understandable algorithms. As a result, the chatbot is able to quickly answer questions posed to it in a way that largely resembles a conversation with a human.
The chatbot helps customers get acquainted with ERGO Hestia’s insurance offer, contact an agent or handle the policy themselves. It also provides support in the loss adjustment process: among others, it refers the customer to a case manager and suggests the documents required to finalise the procedure.
Efficient communication and friendly complaints handling process
We know how important customer experience is when a complaint is filed, which is why we pay special attention to the form and manner of communication. We build positive impressions by simplifying online forms, enabling contact via chat and our official Facebook profile. When communicating with our customers, we avoid industry lingo which is often incomprehensible to the customer. We formulate responses in a personalised manner to reduce the distance between the parties.
Our Complaints Department uses a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the causes of dissatisfaction to initiate measures which adjust, standardise and systematise customer service standards. Every year, we publish the results of these efforts on our website. By implementing the lessons learned from complaints, we are better equipped to meet the expectations of our customers.
Photo: Mateusz Arbatowski
0.32% – ERGO Hestia’s complaint rate in 2021. | We define the complaint rate as the number of complaints lodged to the number of policies written. In 2020, the ratio was 0.39%. Compared to 2020, it decreased by 0.07 p.p. | |
---|---|---|
What do customers complain about? | In 2021, 47% of complaints processed by ERGO Hestia’s Quality Management Department concerned customer service processes, of which 85% were unfounded. A further 19% of the complaints lodged concerned loss adjustment (69% of unfounded cases). | |
Major improvements in 2021 | Establishment of a Quality Improvement Division Implementation of ERGO Biznes Agent Network Certification Programme iPunkt Robotisation ERGO Agricultural Insurance |
ERGO Hestia was the first company in the insurance market to appoint a Customer Ombudsperson in 2015. The Customer Ombudsperson assists customers in difficult cases which require quick intervention and cannot be dealt with according to the standard claims procedure or require additional legal or expert opinions.
The efforts undertaken by the Customer Ombudsperson are aimed at promoting mediation and out-of-court procedures with a view to an amicable settlement of disputes with customers. The Customer Ombudsperson analyses customer service procedures and processes from the perspective of customer needs. The conclusions of the Customer Ombudsperson contribute to improving quality standards.
In December 2021, the Polish Chamber of Insurance issued recommendations defining the rules for the functioning of Customer Ombudspersons in insurance companies which are consistent with the functions provided by ERGO Hestia’s Customer Ombudsperson since 2015.
Contact the Customer Ombudsperson HERE
Brokers play an important role in communications with corporate clients. However, relations with corporate clients are supported both by ERGO Hestia’s Head Office and directly by the Corporate Representations.
Testing customer loyalty using the NPS (Net Promoter Score) method
The level of customer loyalty is monitored throughout the year and serves as the starting point for improvements. The NPS is presented on the basis of the consumer survey of the Service Quality Stars 2021 ranking. Over the past three years, the customer loyalty index expressed through the NPS has reached an all-time high and is 1.4 points higher than the high score of 2019.
NPS (NPS: ERGO Hestia 2019 – 2021)
The largest group of respondents (48.3%) were brand promoters, i.e., customers most satisfied with the services provided by ERGO Hestia. Those customers declared that they were highly likely to recommend ERGO Hestia to other customers.
Quality with distinction
Our commitment and dedication to quality service is confirmed by the many independent awards and distinctions from customers and industry experts.
In a survey conducted by the Polish Quality of Service Programme, we were ranked 1st, receiving the Quality of Service Star 2021 title. ERGO Hestia also ranked 1st in the ranking the main service quality metric for companies in the insurance industry of the survey. In 2021, we achieved a service quality score of 84%, the highest among insurance companies. Customers assessed among others the knowledge, competences and behaviour of staff, the layout of customer service areas, the offer and prices, as well as the time and organisation of customer service. The Quality of Service Star title was awarded to ERGO Hestia for the third time. The company was also twice names the Best Insurance Company, confirming its strong market position and the highest standard of protection provided to customers.
In 2021, ERGO Hestia was named the best insurer according to drivers, winning 1st place in the “Brand No. 1” ranking (formerly Drivers’ Choice) which assesses the efficiency of claims adjustment, fair claim payments, and quality of service. We regularly receive accolades in the Golden Bumper competition where car repair service providers assess the quality of their cooperation with insurance companies.
Read more about awards and distinctions received by ERGO Hestia in 2021 HERE
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