How Axa is making insurance more accessible for consumers

Whether you’re booking a holiday trip, renting a car, or buying a new home, it’s highly recommended to obtain insurance coverage to protect you from loss. However, this process can sometimes be a hassle because of the many steps involved in the purchase.

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That is something that Axa Singapore is looking to change with its insurance-as-a-service (IaaS) capabilities, which allows businesses to integrate Axa’s insurance products and services into their online platforms.

Now instead of having to go to an insurer’s website, all it takes are a few clicks for consumers to avail of their desired policies.

Consumer convenience

IaaS works through the use of application programing interfaces (APIs), which companies can assimilate into specific customer touch points, enabling Axa to deliver its products when and how customers want them.

“We’re able to leverage data that partner companies have on their customers to provide tailored products and complete transactions within the partners’ apps, websites, or backend systems,” says Tomasz Kurczyk, Axa Singapore’s digital transformation director.

This eases the buying process as customers can simply opt to get a policy together with the product or service that they’re purchasing.

An ecosystem of partners

Since early 2018, Axa has been forging ecosystem partnerships with businesses that typically need insurance as an ancillary offering. One example is Singaporean real estate portal PropertyGuru, which teamed up with Axa to provide its clients the option of getting insurance.

“PropertyGuru agents can easily share Axa’s home insurance solutions to their clients, not only helping their clients find their dream homes, but also helping protect them against risks,” says Lewis Ng, PropertyGuru’s chief business officer.

These risks are something that many people are not ready for. A 2015 AIG Singapore survey reported that only 34 percent of Singaporeans owned home contents insurance, while 36 percent had never availed of it.

The same study found that 50 percent of homeowners in the city-state were ill-prepared to rebuild should their current residence incur major damage.

A customer-centric solution

By leveraging on Axa’s one-stop-solution, PropertyGuru can also offer homebuyers and renters exclusive insurance discounts. This allows customers to conveniently protect one of the most expensive purchases of their lives at an affordable price.

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To ensure that it properly guides clients on the right insurance products to go with home purchases or rentals, PropertyGuru provides its agents “a suite of educational content and weblinks,” Ng says.

“Property agents are the best resource for customers in protecting their new investments. So it is important for agents to be knowledgeable about home insurance so their clients can have sufficient coverage,” Ng adds.

Everybody wins

Apart from consumers, businesses that integrate Axa’s solutions onto their systems also stand to gain.

“Seamlessly integrating Axa’s offerings on PropertyGuru’s existing platform creates an innovative solution which benefits the company, agents, and customers,” says Kurczyk.

He shares that the insurer this year launched Axa Affiliates, a self-service affiliation platform where partner companies can “onboard, monitor, and connect to Axa’s APIs and widgets.”

Technology is a great enabler that allows organizations to better engage customers and transform the way people experience insurance.

This is a method that has been adopted by companies in other industries such as ecommerce platform Rakuten. It utilizes affiliate links, which give marketers monetary incentives for purchases made via the links – something uncommon in the insurance industry.

Axa’s home, travel, and motor insurance solutions are available on the platform for partners. It’s looking to expand its API capabilities to other product lines, such as the firm’s personal accident, health, and Small-and-medium enterprise insurance offerings.

“Technology is a great enabler that allows organizations to better engage customers and transform the way people experience insurance,” says Kurczyk. “Through it, we are supporting new business models that provide insurance-on-demand.”

Axa looks forward to partnering small and medium businesses, online marketplaces, ecommerce sites, booking platforms, and shared economy platforms to change the way people get protected.

Axa Singapore is an insurance company that provides innovative insurance solutions for personal and business needs.

Click here for more information on how businesses can partner with Axa to integrate its travel, motor, and home insurance solutions onto their platforms.