In the leading insurer's Great KickOff 2020 which happened earlier this month, Mr Khor Hock Seng, its Group Chief Executive Officer, opened the event with a clear message, "This is a new decade, a new era. We need to do things differently to be successful."
(Photo: Khor Hock Seng, Group Chief Executive Officer)
Speaking to its financial representatives in Singapore, Mr Khor reflected on the group’s achievements in 2019, as well as shared the company’s strategy and goals for this year.
It is important to continue to be committed and resilient to be successful in the new decade, he said.
He added that financial representatives still have a very vital role in building relationships with customers, and providing that ‘human touch’. Pivotal to success is collaboration, he noted, emphasising the need to work hand-in-hand, he said, “People want to join us because we can make them successful, and we work well together. The key to any success story has always been the ability to partner well.”
Focusing on the importance of customer-centricity, Mr Khor also said that the company will continue to make it easier for financial representatives to do business with their customers, and empower them by providing innovative products to fill their customers’ needs, as well as to undertake more digital initiatives to make operations and processes seamless so as to enhance the customer experience.
Growing Stronger, GREATer, Together
(Photo: Ben Tan, Managing Director)
Building on how Great Eastern is focused on empowering its financial representatives into the next decade via digital tools and e-initiatives, Mr Ben Tan, Managing Director said the company would continue to deliver digital assets to enhance the customer experience.
“We’ll also continue to improve the financial planning process through GreatAdvice – our financial planning tool so that our financial representatives are better positioned to provide more value-added recommendations and financial advice to their customers to make more informed decisions regarding their goals and needs,” he added.
Nevertheless, he said: “Digital tools help complement the human-to-human relationships, as even tech-savvy customers still prefer having face-to-face discussions with their financial representatives.”
Strongly emphasising the importance of growing stronger, greater, together – Mr Tan said to financial representatives in the audience, “You build a very important bridge between the customers and Great Eastern, as nothing can replace the intimacy between human relations. As such, the company will continue to invest in developing the agency channel, investing in and supporting you more than ever in your journey (with our customers). ”
(Photo: George Goh, Head of Agency)
During the KickOff, Head of Agency George Goh focused also on the company’s continuing emphasis on raising the standard and quality of financial representatives. Calling upon the agency network and financial representatives to focus on continuous learning to hone their craft, he explained that training courses are all modelled and aligned to the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Singapore’s standards and framework to ensure the financial representatives acquire the relevant skillsets and competencies to provide great advice to their customers. IBF certification is an important mark of quality for finance professionals in Singapore.
Read also: Great Eastern has highest number of AMTC-IBF Level 3 accredited financial representatives
He reinforced the company’s focus and commitment to having new representatives certified with IBF level 1 accreditation in order to maintain standards in the industry.
“New financial representatives are an important lifeblood of our whole industry. They entrust their career with us, so we do have a job to make sure that we equip them with the relevant skillsets. Skillsets that are of high standards so that they are prepared, confident, and not worried that they might be providing wrong advice. We want them to be appropriately certified to give professional advice no matter how young they are,” said George.
He said, “In this new decade, I hope that our financial representatives - like the company – will fully embrace this new start and strive to be the best version of themselves.”
Asia Advisers Network spoke to some of the attendees to gather their thoughts on Great Eastern’s directions. The financial representatives shared their excitement in being able to better serve their clients and expressed confidence in bringing their business to the next level with Great Eastern’s line-up of exciting initiatives planned for 2020. Watch the video to hear what the financial representatives shared during the KickOff.
Click here to watch video highlights of Great Eastern's Great KickOff 2020.
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