Kuala Lumpur, 18 June 2021 – Tune Protect Group Berhad (“Tune Protect” or “the Group”) informed that their 3-year strategic plan has achieved several milestones from when it was first announced in January this year. At the Group’s 10th Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) held today, the Group reported the progress that it had made and the initiatives that will be executed moving forward. Tune Protect had in its strategy outlined several strategic directions including building an insurance company that everyone loves, leveraging on the AirAsia ecosystem, and establishing itself as an ASEAN-based insurer. The three key business pillars that the Group is focused on are Health, Lifestyle and Small & Medium Enterprises (“SMEs”), with millennials, Gen-Z and small businesses as its target consumer segments.
In his presentation to shareholders, Rohit Nambiar (“Rohit”), the Group Chief Executive Officer said, “Considering a low general insurance penetration rate of just 1.13% and internet users of nearly 70% of the population, ASEAN presents massive opportunities for us as we expand our footprint. It is certainly the right moment to accelerate our Health, Lifestyle and SMEs propositions to consumers or through our business-to-business (“B2B”) digital partnerships across industries such as airlines, e-commerce, logistic, healthcare providers and e-wallets, just to name a few.”
Acknowledging the massive growth opportunities in ASEAN, the Group has established more than 20 partnerships since October 2020. This achievement has surpassed the initial target of 10 partnerships that was set by the Group by the end of the first half of 2021.
Innovation in Health
The Group is focused on providing affordable and accessible insurance to address the protection gap in the market, especially when it comes to basic healthcare or medical coverage. In the first quarter of 2021, Tune Protect has introduced several health innovations in Malaysia and Thailand.
Its first online medical product, PRO-Health Medical, offers cashless hospital admission and an e-medical card upon enrolment, which can be easily purchased on the go, through the mobile phone.
In tandem with the inoculation programmes taking place worldwide, Tune Protect offers VSafe and VSURE Protect, innovative Covid-19 vaccination insurance plans in Thailand, covering in-patient medical expenses (cashless hospital admission) and daily hospitalisation income benefit, due to untoward side effects of the vaccination. Aside to being distributed online, a major hospital group in Thailand has also been appointed as an exclusive partner and distributor of VSURE Protect to administer the Covid-19 vaccination for easier access to the vaccine coverage. The vaccine insurance plan shall be made available to the Malaysian consumers next.
Taking its Health solutions a step further, Tune Protect recently introduced a Telehealth service, Health2GO, which provides medical Teleconsultation service for customers. Customers now have the convenience to consult with general practitioners and medical specialists or receive coaching from other healthcare professionals on health matters such as diet and stress management, remotely, either through phone calls, text messaging or video calls.
Rohit shared, “Insurance packaged with health services is especially relevant today, given the movement restrictions that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about. We are pleased to be able to connect our customers with their preferred doctor or dietician from the comfort and safety of their homes with Health2GO Teleconsultation. We expect to further stack our health tech offerings to Telemedicine next.”
In the pipeline, Tune Protect is also developing a Critical Illness proposition which will focus on key diseases cover and can be replicated across markets.
Meeting Consumers’ Lifestyle Needs
In addressing the needs of young homeowners, tenants and renters, the Group launched Home Easy and Home Shield to offer highly affordable home protection on the property, its contents, as well as stackable benefits such as landlord and mortgage loan protection. Home Easy can be purchased on Tune Protect’s mobile app, whilst Home Shield is distributed by the agency force. Home Easy, in particular, is a market disruptor as it is the cheapest Home insurance plan offered in the market, with savings in premium of approximately 40% for HouseOwner. Tune Protect has committed to refund the price difference in its Lowest Price Guarantee campaign should customers find a cheaper Home insurance product in the market.
Acknowledging the shift in consumer behaviour towards online shopping, the Group collaborates with BOXKU in Malaysia and Cover Genius in Thailand to offer Consignment Insurance and In-Land Transit Insurance respectively to cover for loss or damage to the parcels in transit. Through the partnership with BOXKU, Tune Protect offers online shoppers the ease and convenience of purchasing consignment insurance on BOXKU’s mobile app, whilst the in-land transit insurance is offered via the Shopee digital platform.
Moving forward, the Group will be offering more lifestyle-driven products which include among others pet, eyewear, e-wallet, and student travel protection plans.
Empowering the SMEs
Tune Protect acknowledges that despite tremendous benefits, many SMEs lag in digital adoption and transformation. Realising the digital gap overshadowing SMEs, has inspired Tune Protect to develop programmes to help alleviate the skillsets of its SME clients. Together with Redbeat Academy, Tune Protect looks to upskill and equip its SME clients with digital knowledge and know-how through a specially curated programme, BINA Digital. This online programme is structured to introduce and guide SMEs in building a progressive business plan while looking into online productivity tools to take their businesses to the next level.
Additionally, the Group is also working on introducing its SMEs clients from the food & beverage and other retail consumer products industries to join the airasia Super App as merchants, to expand their businesses by broadening the distribution channel for customer acquisition.
Tune Protect will also be rolling out its first B2B SME insurance package and introduce an easy payment plan with 0% interest4 for its SMEs clients on their fire insurance, in the coming months.
Encouraging Performance
The Group’s Gross Written Premiums (“GWP”) and Net Earned Premiums (“NEP”) for the first quarter of 2021 (“1Q21”) rose quarter-on-quarter (“QoQ”), by 34.3% and 6.7% respectively. It is the second consecutive QoQ GWP growth and the third consecutive QoQ NEP growth for Tune Protect. This is an encouraging signal for the Group as its performance gradually returns to pre-COVID level, recording slight GWP and NEP decline of 2.4% and 3.4% year-on-year (“YoY”).
NPS As a Measure of Success
Tune Protect has started to adopt the customer and employee Net Promoter Score (“NPS”) as a measure of success. The NPS methodology allows a customer or an employee to rank their satisfaction level on how likely they are to recommend Tune Protect to friends and families, and the scoring is then used to interpret and improve customer satisfaction.
“One of the key factors to success lies in how best we are able to deliver the right solutions and products to our customers and employees by listening to what they want and how they feel about us. By adopting the NPS, we will first be able to drive the desired behaviour among our employees, and ultimately that can drive us to being an NPS leader in the insurance industry, and a step closer to our vision of being the Lifestyle Insurer That Everyone Loves,” Rohit concluded.
Committing to Sustainability
Tune Protect had outlined five sustainability commitments in the beginning of 2021. The progress of these commitments is summarised as follows:
- As at 31 May 2021, 40% of the members of the Group Board and Senior Leadership team are women. The Group targets to achieve 50% women in the leadership team by the end of 2023, whilst 50% of critical roles will be succeeded from within the organisation.
- Tune Protect is on track to be a zero-paper organisation for all in-control processes by end of 2021 as it pursues to be an agile and a more efficient company.
- Various business and operating policies have also been enhanced to include sustainability elements to ensure that the entire organisation embraces and practices sustainability in its day-to-day operations.
- Customers and employees NPS will be a measure of success for the organisation and the metrics is targeted to be rolled out in the second half of 2021.
- Charity or sustainability elements have also been incorporated in new online products where Tune Protect pledges to contribute RM6 for every PRO-Health Medical and Home Easy policy sold to Madhya’s Gift (Yayasan Chow Kit).
At the Group’s 10th AGM, which was held fully virtual via remote participation and voting, all 10 resolutions have been passed by shareholders.
For more information about Tune Protect and to view the Company’s 2020 Annual Report, please visit the official website at https://www.tuneprotect.com.
