The FINANCIAL –With the establishment of Global Assistance Baltic, Vienna Insurance Group is continuing to expand its own service companies. The expansion is part of the VIG Group’s strategy to increase digital services. Last year, the Group’s assistance companies handled around 400,000 cases for their customers.
Vienna Insurance Group (Wiener Versicherung Gruppe) sees the creation of added value as an important opportunity to enhance its customer positioning. Value-added services are growing in importance, as they increase the frequency of contact between insurance companies and their customers and the day-to-day relevance of insurers. “By offering the sort of added value not typically associated with an insurance company, alongside our core task of covering risks, we are able to strengthen customer loyalty and their preference for our brands,” explains General Manager Elisabeth Stadler.
VIG has moved away from offering assistance services through third-party firms, instead using its own companies to provide such support. The Group took the first step towards this goal in 2013 with the acquisition of Global Assistance in the Czech Republic. This was followed by companies in Slovakia, Bulgaria – from where Serbia and North Macedonia are also serviced – Romania and Poland, and now the coverage of the Baltic states. “Providing the entire process from the insurance offer to claims management and assistance services from one source is a clear added value for us. This enables us to significantly influence and further optimize service quality by controlling the process cycle of claims management from the first contact to the compensation payments,” Elisabeth Stadler adds.
Based in the Latvian capital Riga, the new Baltic assistance company will handle all currently relevant assistance services for motor, travel and household insurance for VIG’s Group companies in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia by the end of 2021. As a result, VIG will provide assistance services to customers through its own companies in ten countries. Last year, a total of around 400,000 cases were processed. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group has handled fewer cases in the first half of 2020 – about 160,000.
The Vienna Insurance Group uses one of the most advanced software systems currently available on the market to satisfy customer demand for motor, travel and household assistance services. The digital service tool, which was developed in-house, is used by VIG’s assistance companies to organise and process digital services.
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