HNB GENERAL INSURANCE

Q: What is your definition of brand loyalty? How do you nurture and assess customer loyalty for your brand?

Sithumina Jayasundara (SJ): Loyalty is an emotional binding with a product or service. We nurture customer loyalty through the customer experience. As a result, customers have perceived us to be a trusted brand that delivers our promise and helps them in times of trouble.

Dinesh Yogaratnam (DY): In the general insurance business, which is highly price competitive, creating loyal customers is indeed a challenge. To this end, our philosophy is that price becomes acceptable to a customer if he or she sees a greater value proposition attached to the journey with the brand.

To achieve this, we place great emphasis on refining our processes, and making them as seamless and convenient as possible while looking to add greater value at all times.

Q: How should companies target their brand investments to reach newer customer segments such as Gen Z?

DY: It’s about understanding customer needs, investing in brands and products to cater to these requirements, and then promoting the right message through the right channels to reach those particular segments.

For instance, we have a product called Pay As You Claim where customers can opt to pay a percentage of one’s premium. Now, to promote this product to the market, we used social media since we needed to see instant engagement to assess its viability – and it was a success.

SJ: The HNB General Insurance (HNBGI) brand is only seven years young. We haven’t spent too much money on branding and have only been investing in social media over the last two years. As such, to be ranked as a most loved brand of Sri Lanka is a humbling achievement for us.

Our approach to brand building is to promote organic growth. We believe in doing the little things that will have an impact in the long run. Therefore, our brand investments in terms of communications are very content rich.

During the pandemic, we posted about how to maintain your vehicle when it doesn’t run as often and during the rainy season, we offer advice on how to be safe from lightning. We’ve also worked with road safety expert Dr. Jayalath Edirisinghe – who is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Peradeniya – to spread the word about accidents on local roads.

Q: How is HNB General Insurance going about adopting new technologies?

DY: Technology adoption is vital today and we’ve invested in a range of e-insurance solutions – from our e-pay system, which enables customers to pay online, to Claimee, our digital claim assessment platform. Our focus is to leverage technology to offer more convenience to users.

We’ve also made great headway in digitalising our internal operations – we have invested in multi-channel digital communications to reach our employees wherever they are and enable them to reach customers from anywhere.

SJ: During the pandemic, we were among the first to start working from home. Even now, 30 percent of our team works from home at any given time. When the pandemic hit, we immediately adapted: we invested in the required technology platforms and transformed the challenge into an advantage.

Having a comparatively young team – the majority of whom are between 25 and 35, and who love working with technology – we have a significant advantage enabling us to adapt quickly.

“Our approach to brand building is to promote organic growth. We believe in doing the little things that will have an impact”

Q: What are the future plans for the brand?

SJ: The new dynamics of the business world call for constant change and at HNBGI, we believe that proactive change is essential to remain relevant and above the competition.

Brands have to change to cater to all types of ages and new customer segments like Gen Z. Digital transformation is a primary agenda item for us, both in terms of our internal operations, and service delivery and brand communications to these digital natives.

However, we shouldn’t forget about the non-digital segment. It’s about striking a good balance.

DY: AI is also here to stay and while we can’t still predict what will happen given its extraordinary capabilities, we surely know that it’s part and parcel of our future and the future of the sector.

– Compiled by Ruwandi Perera

Telephone 4676700  |  Email info@hnbgeneral.com  |  Website www.hnbgeneral.com