Kea Leangsrunn is the head of operations at locally owned insurance company Camlife. Photo supplied
The Kingdom’s insurance industry has enjoyed rapid growth in recent years, a trend that has been enhanced by partnerships with mobile network operators.
Cambodia Life Insurance PLC, or Camlife, is a locally owned insurance company and the oldest life insurance company in Cambodia.
It has partnered with mobile operator Cellcard to help its products reach consumers.
Post reporter Cheng Sokhorn spoke with Kea Leangsrunn, Camlife’s head of operations, about the company’s future and certain concerns from the public.
How does Camlife, an insurance company, work in cooperation with Cellcard?
Our vision is to ensure that all Cambodian families live with a financial safety net.
To achieve our vision, we want to serve all economic classes. That’s why we have developed very simple and easy-to-access products. In other words, it is easy to register, easy to claim and the prices are affordable.
We have worked with Cellcard for a year. We provide affordable, basic life insurance to Cellcard’s subscribers from 18 to 50 years old. We use a call centre to sell this kind of product and the premium payment is made through phone balance.
What are your service and insurance products?
Currently, we sell simple protection as well as credit life protection. Credit life is a plan that covers loan borrower against death and total disability.
How do you introduce your product to subscribers?
Officers at our call centre will phone them and explain everything – such as product features and terms and conditions. After that, customers can say “yes” or “no”.
If they agree to use the service, the call centre officer will register them. Then they will get an SMS confirmation with a link to our terms and conditions and an e-certificate.
At a later stage, customers can print out the certificate and use it for other added-value services such as discounts at our merchant partners.
How can subscribers claim their life insurance?
We understand that the time for making a claim would be a tough one for any family, so we at Camlife try to make it as simple as possible.
When a claim happens, the family just calls our office and submits the required documents, such as a national ID card, family book, death certificate and phone number.
Within seven days, we will make the claim decision and pay out if it is valid. The claim payment can be made at our office or through Wing money transfer.
We have also been developing a very flexible platform which allows subscribers to check on the status of their insurance policy through their mobile phone. They can see if the policy is in effect or lapsed.
They can also deregister from the service by themselves and they can file a claim on their mobile phone. This saves cost and time for the company and policyholders.
Some subscribers complain that their phone credit is deducted without prior approval? Can you explain?
As I mentioned earlier, before registering for insurance, our call centre officers must explain to subscribers clearly about the products’ features and terms and conditions. So, all this should be clear before registering them for the services.
However, there may be misunderstandings or the telephone communication is not clear, leading to confusion. We use voice records to resolve such matters. But customers can always deregister from the life insurance if they are not happy with our services.
I think people have started to better understand the concepts and benefits of life insurance now. At the start of the cooperation with Cellcard, we received a certain number of requests to deregister.
Now, such deregistration has reduced and people call to ask for more benefits from our insurance policy.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
