A sales representative's testimony to the prompt settlement of a death claim
Wilson, our income sales representative, was very shocked to receive a telephone call one morning from a family member of Kenny (not his real name), one of our policyholder, informing him that Kenny had been diagnosed with liver cancer and had barely 6 months to live. This piece of news was hard to swallow, as Kenny, a store manager, was only 42 years' old.
Wilson immediately arranged for a dread disease (Living Policy) claim to be submitted to the office. Unfortunately, before the relevant papers could reach Income, Kenny passed away, leaving behind his wife and a young child, in complete state of agony, confusion and despair.
With much sympathy for the family, Wilson sprung into action and went straight to our Life Claims department to notify us of the death. And in Wilson's own words: "Knowing the situation, the Life Claims officer immediately rushed for the settlement of the claim, and the Finance department, though short-handed on that day, have also taken prompt action by issuing the cheque as soon as possible. The efficiency and effectiveness of both departments have resulted a claim of $40,000 given out on that day - within 5 hours! Upon request of the family, I deposited the cheque and it was cleared by the next working day, just in time for the payment of the funeral."
This is a clear example of how the various parties at Income work together to provide good quality service to our policyholders or their family members in times when they need us most.
Wilson went on to say: " On the night that I delivered the cheque, there were discussions about NTUC Income pays claims promptly! They are impressed by the timely delivery which resulted in some form of stress relief in one way or another............I also assisted the family to claim from another insurance company and given such a situation, I was quite surprised that it took them 7 days to process, and the cheque was only given 3 days' after the funeral!"
Wilson's experience is just one of many instances where Income delivers our promise to our policyholders in respect of customer service and prompt and fair settlement of claims. At Life Claims department, our confidence is always boosted by the encouragement and support given by our sales representative. We are also delighted and motivated to provide a high service standard for claims settlement by the many letters of appreciation given by our policyholders.
We are proud to share some of the compliments given by our policyholders here:
On 24.2.99, Mdm Julie Tan wrote to our officer Josephine Tong on receipt of a claim cheque:
" I've received my cheque today. All thanks to your company's fast and efficient service. I really appreciated it. Just a note of thanks from your policyholder."
On 19.2.99, Mr Rajenthiran who is residing in the United States of America, sent an e-mail to our officer Mohamed Fazil to compliment him on his fast service as well as sound financial advice on his endowment policy:
"Thank you for your prompt reply. I must put on record my appreciation for the efficient service. That was sound advice you gave me; it is definitely wiser to wait till maturity before making the withdrawal."
On 27.3.98, Ms Sandra Kem wrote to our staff Jimmy Ho; she wrote:
"I would like to compliment your company for the high level of service rendered to me during my recent claim on my daughter's hospitalisation fees and leave........though the claim amount is small.....I appreciate your staff efforts and am confident that with such fast and efficient service, NTUC Income will continue to be Singapore's largest insurer."
In March 1998, another satisfied policyholder Ms Vasanthathevi , sent a thank you card to our sales representative James Tan and our officer Mohamed Fazil for the way they both handled her disability claim:
"I wish to thank both of you very much for the speedy way my claim has been attended to & processed. I appreciate your professionalism and caring attitudes as well.
Special thanks to James, who has gone beyond an agent's duty and given me advice on how to take care of myself and for all the encouragement given to me.
I will always recommend my friends who wish to buy insurance to James. NTUC Income has kept its promise of prompt action and caring attitude. Thank you once again."
The list goes on......these written compliments from policyholders have increased steadily over the years, from only 7 in 1997, to 12 in 1998 and for the first quarter of 1999, we have already received 9! These figures are an indication that we are moving in the right direction in our quest for better service in claims settlement.
We regularly review our claims procedures and service standards to ensure that we are always a step ahead of our competitors. Recently, one competitor publicly announced that "For major claims such as death, disability and critical claims, it takes 14 working days for the claims to be processed. They went further to clarify that "This is based on the assumption that all claims documents are received and no further documents are required". We are proud to announce to all our policyholders that we are better than this insurance company in this aspect.
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