Company invests in raising awareness of life insurance as a financial planning tool for Cambodians

In a fast developing world, where new products and services seem to appear overnight, it can be a struggle for a new company in a new market to have its voice heard.

For Prudential Cambodia and other financial service providers in the Kingdom, taking a long-term view seems to be the key to success.

“In our first two years in Cambodia,our primary objective has been to focus on introducing life insurance as a component of long-term financial planning to the Cambodian public – most of whom were not previously familiar with life insurance and the benefits it presents,” says Prudential Cambodia CEO Pankaj Banerjee.

Over the course of 2013-2014, Prudential Cambodia, in association with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, conducted 16 customer education seminars across the country, introducing nearly 2000 people to the basics of life insurance. In addition, the company conducted numerous customer presentations on life insurance covering thousands of potential Cambodian customers, across the country.

The company also produced ‘infomercials’ for radio and television – buying up advertising space to present detailed information about its services to the general public.

Rounding out a busy year in 2014, Prudential Cambodia opened its first Customer Service Center on the ground floor of its Phnom Penh Tower headquarters, where existing and prospective customers can ask questions in person from Prudential staff and get face-to-face support and services.

“Prudential’s extraordinary history – dating back over 166 years – has taught us that partnering with our customers, listening to them and understanding their hopes and concerns is not something that happens overnight. It’s about building these relationships over time,” says Banerjee.

Education is clearly a subject that Prudential Cambodia is passionate about.

In addition to its customer education initiatives, in 2014 the company launched “edusave”, a life insurance product that enables parents to save money for key moments in their children’s higher education years.

”Edusave xtra” - a product package that has been introduced in January 2015 - adds exciting new features to the edusave policy with the help of additional insurance benefits and includes a host of specific offers from Prudential Cambodia’s partners like book shops and school suppliers.

But education for Prudential is about more than simply interacting with its current and future customers-It’s about being an active and responsible corporate citizen in the countries where it operates.

Prudence Foundation, the charitable arm of Prudential Corporation Asia, was also very busy in 2014, partnering with Save the Children to launch ‘First Read’ to provinces across Cambodia.

‘First Read’ is a program created by funding from Prudence Foundation that provides support and resources to parents of young children in need, enabling them to get a head start on their education and improving their chance of succeeding in their future schooling and education. It is a holistic program which also focuses on ensuring the children’s health and wellbeing are developed through educating the parents, and also helps promote and support the book publishing industry of Cambodia.

Prudence Foundation also launched ‘SAFE STEPS’, in partnership with National Geographic Channel, with world famous Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao as its Ambassador. SAFE STEPS is a public education and mass awareness campaign reaching millions to help people prepare for natural disaster by providing key high level guidelines.

“First Read, SAFE STEPS and other similar education and awareness programs are of vital importance to Prudence Foundation and Prudential Cambodia. These are initiatives that can really make a difference in people’s lives and improve their overall wellbeing –by being better educated and informed.

Prudential’s formula of partnerships, education and long-term planning appears to be working for the company and its customers.

For the company, its partnership with ACLEDA Bank as a strategic distribution partner has ensured that Prudential Cambodia is able to provide access to its product and services to customers across all provinces in the Kingdom.

“Our strategic distribution partnership with ACLEDA Bank allows us to take the life insurance education initiative to individuals across the length and breadth of the country, and we are very encouraged with the keen interest demonstrated by people towards the concept of life insurance across cities and provinces” adds Banerjee.

And for its customers, Prudential Cambodia has sold more than 11,500 insurance policies with a total sum insured of over US$110 million. (As of 30th September’2014 and since inception)

Building on its endeavors over the first two years of operations in Cambodia, Prudential Cambodia is looking forward to 2015 as another year of continued commitment to its motto “Always Listening, Always Understanding.”