What’s makes you choose one car & home insurance company over another?

Is it because:

• You’re getting the best deal you possibly can, and
• You’re not going to have hassles if you claim?

Funnily enough, for your insurance company it’s about the same two things:

• Are we making the most money we can out of this deal?
• Are they going to cost us money by bringing them on board?

Of course, once you’re on board as a client the insurance company has a quandary:

• How do we get the good client to stay?
• How do we prevent them from claiming?

How to get clients to stay with you?

First off, they’ve got to be competitive in their pricing.

One way to do this is by identifying their ideal client. They can’t be all things to all people. An example of this is that some insurers won’t insure anyone younger than 25. Some insurers will give you a great deal just to get you as a client but claim even once and watch your cost skyrocket. Competing on price is a race to the bottom.

The second way is to offer some sort of reward. We all know the cashback bonus for not claiming, and trust us, it works. No-one is going to switch insurers when they’re 3 months away from their no claim bonus payout. But it’s just as nasty to lose that bonus because of a claim which wasn’t even your fault.

How do you prevent clients from claiming?

This one proves to be a little more difficult.
You can get sticky about approving claims, and you can’t blame them nowadays, or they can do one of two things:

• Remind you that you are going to lose your no claim bonus by claiming
• Have a high excess to make you think twice

Funnily enough, increasing your excesses every time you claim is a better strategy than increasing your cost. You’re more likely to move your insurance if they give you a steep increase.

So, getting your clients to stick with you because of cost is easy. It’s the second question which is hardest.

Is there perhaps another way to prevent clients from claiming?

That’s where Rewards programmes come in. And since this article is about Discovery Insure, we’re going to look at their Vitality Drive offer.

What is Vitality Drive?

According to Discovery Insure it’s a system which helps create a positive culture by boosting client engagement. You, the client set your own goals with regard to driving responsibly and keeping your vehicle in a roadworthy condition. If you reach them, Discovery recognises that and rewards you.

So first off, Vitality Drive is an optional benefit on all plans other than Dynamic. Your vehicle must be insured for comprehensive use (For all risks), and each primary driver on your schedule pays a premium anywhere between R58 (Dynamic and Essential plans) to R75 per month (Classic and Purple plans) per primary driver.

Here is how it works:

The system works differently depending on your plan choice. There are four different plans which we’re not going to get into in this article:

• Dynamic
• Essential
• Classic, and
• Purple

In this example, we’ll give you a quick rundown on the Purple and Classic options.

Firstly, you install the DQ-Track system into each of the vehicles concerned. If you have two primary drivers then there need to be two different cars insured on your schedule. When they install the DQ-Track system into your car, you will at the same time receive a Vitality Drive card.
Second, you link your Vitality Drive card online.
Third, every time you fill up your fuel tank at BP or Shell, you swipe your Vitality Drive card

Do all of this and you can earn up to 50% of your fuel spend back every month. This gets paid back into your bank account.

The 50% works like this:

• When you activate your Vitality Drive benefit you qualify for up to 10% fuel rewards
• Add contents or buildings cover for at least R250, 000 and that goes up to 20%
• Take your car to Tiger wheel and Tyre for the annual multipoint check, pass with flying colours, and you get your up to 50% fuel rewards.
• If you insure your car only without contents or buildings the maximum fuel rewards percentage drops from 50% to 25%

On the plans we’ve just mentioned, you can earn up to R800 a month in cash back. But hang on, what if I spend R3, 000 a month on fuel. Shouldn’t I earn more since 50% of R3,000 is R1,500? True, but the cashback is determined by your DQ score. If you’re familiar with E-Bucks, then think of everything you’ve done so far as joining the E-Bucks programme. Now you need to earn the actual E-Bucks.

You earn Vitality Drive points by engaging in 3 categories:

• Driver behaviour
• Knowledge and awareness
• Vehicle safety

What is this DQ-Track system?

DQ stands for Driver quotient.

The driver behaviour score is made up of the following:

DQ-Track is a vehicle tracking system fitted into your car with a once-off activation fee of R150. Within the system is some sort of accelerometer which measures things like acceleration, harsh braking, and driving like Sebastian Vettel around corners. Depending on how you drive, you get up to 850 points. You get up to 50 points for setting personal goals related to your driving. Finally, you get up to 200 points for being claims free for 3 or more years. That’s a potential 1,100 points for driver behaviour.

The knowledge and awareness score works like this:

Online driving assessment gets you 50 points. That’s easy enough, right? Discovery Insure driving course is a bit more difficult but earns you up to 150 points. EyeGym course will earn up to 150 points.

All in all, 350 points up for grabs.

The vehicle safety category revolves around passing the annual Tiger wheel and tyre multipoint check for up to 100 points, and keeping your vehicle serviced which earns 50 points. A total of 150 points in this category. Together there is the potential for 1,600 points. That would put you on Gold Vitality Drive status.

Let’s wrap this up for you…

1,600 Vitality Drive points multiplied by 50% gives us the R800 potential fuel rewards. Vitality Drive is great because it sets a goal for you to aim towards. It also gives you an idea of how great a driver you are compared to how you think you are.

If this is something you think could work for you, then why not get yourself a quote right now?

If you would like a Discovery Insure quote, simply enter your details below and we will contact you.

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