Insurance Commissioner Mrs Nyamikeh Kyiamah, on
Wednesday called on players in the insurance industry to improve on claims settlement processes to augment the corporate image of business entities in the sector.
She said speedy and efficient claim settlements procedures were seen by customers and prospective clients as the best form of advertisement for a corporate entity.
Mrs Kyiamah was speaking at the launch of the new logo and corporate identity for Star Assurance Company Limited (SACL) in Accra.
"A company that handles claims promptly will be perceived by its policyholders as offering a better quality product than a company that takes a long time to settle claims."
Mrs Kyiamah said payment of genuine claims in a timely manner was an inseparable part of a company's corporate identity and urged the
management of SACL to strive to set the pace in the area.
She said the business of insurance needed to be seen by clients and prospective customers as being conducted in a transparent, fair and cost- effective manner.
"It is only through this that policyholders would be able to make good judgment as to whether they are receiving value for money and to develop confidence and trust in insurance companies in particular and the industry as a whole."
Speaking on advertisements, Mrs Kyiamah cautioned insurers to conduct themselves in a manner free of deceit or manipulation, stressing
that customers' expectation of top quality products and services through advertisements were very strong and inseparably linked.
"You cannot simply overlook product quality and successfully stay in business over the long term. In order to provide quality customer service insurers should critically look at improving on their financial strength,
human resource capacity building and systems development," she said.
Mrs Kyiamah pledged the commitment of the Commission (NIC) to ensure that companies in the industry were adequately capitalized to offer
services to grow the economy.
"NIC is also committed to ensuring a sound regulatory and supervisory framework that maintains an efficient, safe, fair and stable
insurance market and thereby promotes growth and fair competition in the insurance industry."
Mr Kofi Duffuor, Managing Director of SACL, said the new corporate logo and identity of the company was part of the business entity's brand repositioning initiative that management had undertaken for the past years.
"The new corporate logo and identity truly represents the capabilities which we have built through the transformation of human resources and
business process re-engineering."
Mr Duffuor said SACL had acquired a new state-of -the -art application software that was equipped with important features that included
effective customer profiling, out of office business transactions, quick customer service delivery, well-defined work process flow and ease of deployment for intermediaries, to improve service delivery for the company.
The company's new logo depicts two stars with a smaller one emerging from the bigger one. The corporate colours are now red and grey.
Mr Duffuor announced that management had targeted to attain excellence, integrity, security, strength and partnership adding that the new logo depicting the stars was a representation of the target by management.
"The colour red that shows the passion we bring to our work, is truly reflective of the way we want the company to be perceived by our
customers," he said.
SACL is a privately-owned insurance company, incorporated in 1984 and started its operations in April 1985.