We put things back in order. You probably know this claim of Česká podnikatelská pojišťovna (ČPP). That's why I asked the company’s CEO Jaroslav Besperát: Do you know what to do to put today’s world back in order?
The brief answer is: Keep thinking positively. Create a positive atmosphere around you. Add a little smile and humour. Every cloud has a silver lining. The numbers we see in our systems don’t really reflect any bad mood. The volume of our receivables among clients is not rising, but vice versa. Today it is around 3%, but a few years ago it was 30%. Looking at car insurance for example, we don’t see that people would get rid of cars – their number is not decreasing.
I just feel like we're scaring each other and complaining more than we need to. Wherever I go abroad, people smile on the streets, and they very likely deal with similar issues. So let's not frown at the world.
As an insurance company, I suppose you can do a lot to improve people’s mood and make them smile more.
You are right. Insurance companies are there to solve people's problems. As the word “insurance” itself suggests, they should be a safe place, a stable element that mitigates the consequences of crises in difficult times. We are fully aware of this. We work to ensure that we do not lose touch with reality, improve communication with our clients, brokers, and thus adapt our services to what people need and want.
Recent results in the Insurance Company of the Year competition show that you are doing well. You scored again - two gold and two silver awards. You must be really happy.
Absolutely! The competition actually did not take place in 2021 due to the pandemic, so we were a bit nervous about how it would turn out. Personally, I value these awards more than some others, because here we are assessed by brokers, ie. those who know the entire insurance market very well and can compare individual insurance companied based on their experience. Their experience with crisis situations such as the pandemic or the tornado that ravaged South Moravia last year was certainly reflected in their evaluation. Perhaps it was also because we picked up their phone on Saturdays and Sundays. It is definitely harder to rank so high today than ever before. That’s also why I consider it a big success, but first of all, a huge commitment to the future.
Talking about the pandemic, your overall results for 2021 show that you handled the crisis really well. In fact, ČPP grew twice as much year-on-year (by 9.4%) as the overall insurance market (4.4%), and thus became the second fastest growing insurance company among the top 10.
In terms of numbers, we did have a very successful year, even though we settled large-scale natural damages, including the tornado in South Moravia, hailstorms, flash floods or major business damage. We keep our position of the fifth largest insurance company in the Czech market. We wrote premiums of CZK 12 billion in 2021, a billion higher than the year before. According to ČAP, we grew by 10.2% in non-life insurance, with clearly the largest increase recorded in business insurance.
What did entrepreneurs insure the most?
They mostly used business interruption insurance and liability insurance for damage caused, while they already take quality property insurance for granted. Regarding liability insurance, I must emphasise again that the limit should be sufficiently high. Only a few years ago, the minimum recommended limit was 20 million, today I would recommend at least 50 million.
What else do entrepreneurs tend to underestimate?
For example, damages that may arise due to defective products, including costs associated with their withdrawal from sale. In certain cases, I would definitely recommend professional liability insurance. Also, if they have a vehicle fleet, insurance of risks associated with freight transport is also worth considering. Businesses sometimes tend to forget about this, too.
Digitisation is a clear trend (not only) in the insurance industry, further accelerated by the pandemic. What is ČPP’s take on digitisation?
You can only find manually written insurance agreements in our archives. All today's retail business production is currently arranged in the SUS+ calculation programmes and the data is imported immediately into the operation system. 60% of all insurance agreements are taken out in a paperless way. To confirm the agreement, paying the premium is sufficient, not signatures are needed. Also, we have deployed a chatbot on our website and are currently testing voicebots.
Hopefully this will not be the end of insurance companies!
Not at all. Our people have nothing to worry about. They are still the crucial link in our client relations, as are insurance brokers. Our work is actually a lot about client relations, which means knowing them well and ensuring individual approach. We advise our clients as best as we can and recommend the insurance that makes the most sense for them.
We have deployed a chatbot on our website to identify client needs and then pass them on. We are now testing voicebots for routine activities because we want to create space for our customer service representatives to provide better care to clients. One voicebot, for example, is dedicated to recovering outstanding premiums and is very successful. We are running a second voicebot these days to handle undelivered shipments and verify the accuracy of address information with clients. We would like to deploy yet another one by the end of the year, to enable reporting insured events outside of the helpline working hours.
Based on the ČAP report, the Czech insurance market is also growing quickly in 2022. How is it going for ČPP so far?
We are among the best performers. At this point it seems that 2022 will be another successful year for us in terms of economic results. But we must not rest on our laurels.
As for you personally, this year you have been working for ČPP for twenty years. But you have been in the insurance business for much longer. Is there a work-related dream that has not yet come true for you?
Everyone who knows me knows that I love hockey and I still try to play it actively. I love this quote by the hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." I would like ČPP to continue to be one of those great hockey players in the future and to move up from the fifth place in the insurance market to the top three at least.
Jaroslav Besperát was interviewed by Jana Jenšíková
Photo credits: ČPP
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