"It's all about driving value to our customers ... continually improving our performance against customer demands by unlocking the full potential of our people."
Rose Keanly: Managing Director, Old Mutual Service Technology and Administration
The Reputation Institute ranked Old Mutual South Africa top first reputation from Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies across all industries.
Our business relies to a large extent on what our actual and potential customers think of us, and the extent to which they trust us. Our commitment to our customers in this regard is supported by our reporting against the UK’s Treating Customers Fairly initiative guidelines, despite not being legally required to do so.
Engaging with our customers helps them to understand more about our products and services, and helps us to understand if and where we are falling short in terms of providing the service they expect. In 2010, we had a significant spike in complaints regarding fictitious policies, which we are in the process of addressing. We continue to focus on making products accessible to all, particularly those in lower income brackets, and have seen a continued sharp rise in the number of Old Mutual branches in operation. We need to ensure that the growth in the number of branches does not compromise the quality of our service.
Our financial education programmes continue to be accessible to large numbers of people across South Africa, although numbers for the Financial Well-being Programme dropped significantly in 2010. The recently conducted Savings Monitor and Retirement Monitor will help to guide the type of education that is required to promote a savings culture in the country. We continue to focus on developing fair pricing models for our customers, although we are challenged by the increasing costs that new and more stringent legislation is placing on us. While we work to market our products in a way that ensures that customers buy products that are best suited to their circumstances and life stage, our intermediaries’ perceptions of Old Mutual’s marketing material have, on average, dropped since 2009.