TFG, The Foschini Group has started moving its insurance book onto Cape Town-based start-up Root’s digital policy administration system. This has changed how TFG develops, markets, sells, and manages insurance policies for its existing store card account holders.
The move is aimed at broadening financial inclusion in the South African market by making a wider range of financial services products accessible to its customers through TFG’s extensive stores network.
Khim Franciscus, Product Manager at TFG Insurance, says Root has changed the work lives of the group’s insurance staff. “The platform allows our customers to easily access their insurance policies, make claims, and pay their premiums, all in real-time. For our employees, the entire customer journey can be managed through one interface. Before, our back-office processes required us to work across multiple platforms with disparate spreadsheets and reports.
“Now, we manage the full policy lifecycle on one system, from quote generation to policy administration, premium collection, reporting, claims and more. Instead of focusing on admin, we spend our time prioritising customer satisfaction and building stronger customer relationships,” Franciscus says.
“We use APIs to help businesses like TFG to launch insurance products faster than the traditional way,” says Charlotte Koep, Chief Operating Officer at Root.
The infrastructure has been designed with TFG’s existing customers in mind. With a single view of customers, TFG can now drive greater revenue and operational efficiency through its existing financial services products and easily build, sell and service new products without technical barriers. The platform enables direct communication with customers in real-time so that they are kept informed at every step of the way, whether they are signing up, making a claim, or requesting assistance.
TFG Insurance has been offering its customers insurance since 1994 and is underwritten by GuardRisk, which is already an entrenched part of Root’s partner network.
