2024 Goals and AchievementsFinance-friendly services
▶ Maintained the validity of accessibility AAA mark for finance-friendly service areas and the environment of web accessibility to ensure rights and interests for people with disabilities.
▶ Set up service counter-friendly measures, such as guidance by dedicated personnel, sign language reservation, multiple language interpretation service, bilingual queueing system, bilingual notice for counter services, placement of assistive devices, like wheelchair and reading glasses, at the counter, and installation of barrier-free facilities at each service center.
▶ Business Planning Department was in charge of coordinating and implementing finance-friendly tasks in each unit and formulating finance-friendly action plans as well as established "Mercuries Life Insurance Financefriendly Service Measures"(implementation of friendly service measures) based on the Criteria of Finance-friendly Service for Insurance Enterprises published by the competent authority and announced it on the "finance-friendly services" on the Company's website. In the management meeting for treating clients fairly, the performance of finance-friendly services at each responsible department were reviewed to ensure the actual implementation. Problems were collected for supervision, follow-up, and improvement and were reported to the Board of Directors.
▶ All the directors, the accountable person of the Company, and senior managers completed the course of "treating vulnerable client friendly and fairly- from the perspectives of Board of Directors" in 2024. The training completion rate was 100%.Products and services for young groups
▶ Lowered the age threshold of online insurance registration and online travel insurance to 18 years old.
▶ Lowered the age threshold to purchase online riders' insurance and riders' accident insurance to 18 years old to expand the products and services to young groups.Services for elderly and people with disabilities to reduce digital divide to reduce digital divide
▶ Added "voice CAPTCHA" on the official website to reduce digital divide for people with visual impairment.
▶ Simplified terms used for service and produced easy-read version of service documents.Services optimization to meet customer expectation
▶ Integrated service procedures of each operation and set service quality indicators.
▶ Launched the inspection on the whole complaint process to ensure the effectiveness of the complaints-handling mechanism.
▶ In 2024, we ranked the third on the rate of customer complaint and ranked the fourth on the complaint appraisal rate.
▶ Established self-assessment standards and reference indicators for treating clients fairly.
2025 GoalsTo include the material topics concerned by the competent authority in the annual action plans for treating clients fairly and submit the plan to the Board of Directors.
1、Supervision and promotion by the Board of Directors
➡ Submitting the treat-clients-fairly report to the Board of Directors every quarter.
➡ Inviting the directors to participate in public welfare activities.
➡ Directors' field trip to the policy holder service center for inspection.
➡ Posting "expectation on treating clients fairly from the Board of Directors" on the internal newsletters.
➡ Providing educational training on treating clients fairly and finance friendly services to directors, the responsible person for the Company, and senior managers.
2、Strengthening the mechanism for anti-fraud services
➡ Cooperating with the Life Insurance Association Fraud Prevention Task Force to promote anti-fraud measures.
➡ Conducting pattern analysis and promotional education through collection of actual fraud prevention cases.
3、Optimizing finance-friendly services
➡ Holding activities to care for specific groups.
➡ Applying for the certification of dementia-friendly organization.
➡ Keeping an attention on the topic of insurance policy being held by the court for compulsory execution.
➡ Offering relief package or providing measures for assistance.
4、Implementing digital transformation
➡ Introducing artificial intelligence customer service.
➡ Launching electronic promotion projects.
5、Shaping the culture of treating clients fairly
➡ Collecting cases of customer experience and posting them on different publications produced by the Company.
➡ Issuing a press release related to treating clients fairly when appropriate.
To promote and establish a corporate culture centered in "treating clients fairly", other than formulating "Mercuries Life Insurance Treating-Clients- Fairly Principle Strategy", and "Mercuries Life Insurance Treating-Clients- Fairly Principle Policy", the Company also formulated "Methods Governing Treating- Clients-Fairly Management Meeting" and set up the treating-clients-fairly management meeting. Operational Planning Department is appointed as the dedicated unit, and the Chief Operating Officer (Senior Vice President) is in charge of leading the business promotion of treating clients fairly. A meeting is held every quarter, implementation plans and measures are formulated through the management meeting to thoroughly fulfill the principles for treating clients fairly. After the meeting, the management meeting minutes shall be submitted to the Board of Directors to ensure the implementation results. With the participation of the Board of Directors, we built the culture of treating clients fairly from top down. In Q4 2023, we invited directors attended the meeting for instruction. The implementation results of treating clients fairly every quarter will be explained, discussed, and improved. We also followed Principles for Finance-Friendly Service in the Insurance Industry published by the competent authority to formulate "Mercuries Life Insurance Finance - Friendly Service Measures " (implementation status of friendly service measures) and post it at "finance-friendly service zone" in our official website.
At the treat-clients-fairly management meeting, we review actual actions for finance-friendly services implemented by each responsible department to ensure the actual implementation. Besides, the Audit Department will carry out audit, discussion, and improvement every year to summarize issues for supervision, follow-up, and improvement as well as submit it to the Board of Directors.
▶Customized care services by dedicated personnel
We have customer service coordinators available in each branch office. The cases of services include:
➡ Active in finding out needs of policy holders and assisting deal with relevant changes required.
If policy holders would like to change the payment method but are unable to deal with it at our office in person plus it is close to the payment deduction date, we will assign a customer service coordinator to assist the procedure to ensure policy holders completing relevant authorization within the agreed payment deduction date.
➡ Dedicated service- visiting policy holders who are physically challenged in person to assist them complete changes for insurance contract.
If policy holders have difficulty in expression due to physical factors and are unable to complete changes on insurance policy, we will send a customer service coordinator to carry out survival survey and visit in the hospital and confirm the changes in person to protect customers' rights and interests.
➡ Active in providing services to elderly policyholders to demonstrate our friendly services
In consideration of the lack of security on financial technology tools among elderly, the Company assists policy holders to change their payment methods. A payment notice will be posted for them to pay at the post office, reducing their concern on payment security.
▶ Protective Questioning – To prevent fraud and ensure customer interests are protected.
When a policyholder applies for contract termination, the impacts and risks related to the termination must be remarked on the insurance contract termination application form. For silver-haired groups or policy holders who terminate the contract because of purchasing a new contract, a dedicated person will be assigned to provide information of rights and risks caused by the termination of the contract according to the type of products or different characteristics and differentiation as well as confirm the applicant's willingness in terminating the contract to ensure customers' rights and interests.
An attentive phone interview shall be made to policy holders who applied for contract termination, partial claim, and the security item on the policy loan with payment above a certain amount to remind them their relevant rights and interests and confirm that they fully understand the content of the application and any impact caused to them.
▶ Actual case of fraud prevention
An elderly customer came to the counter in person to apply for policy loan. The teller and sales representative reminded the customer several times and notified that he/she might suffer from scam. To avoid the customer being deceived, the counter supervisor called 165 anti-fraud hotline and followed the guidance of the 165 hotline service staff to pass the phone to the customer cleverly. With the professional assistance from 165 hotline service staff as well as our service spirit in performing informed obligation, we successfully avoided the customer being scammed. The case is used for internal educational training.
To implement the principles for treating clients fairly and protect the insurable rights and interests of people with disabilities, the Company formulated "Operating Procedures and Notice for People with Disabilities Purchasing New Contract". It contains "Key Points for Underwriting Assessment for People with Disabilities" as accordance for underwriting personnel. For people with disabilities, we will fully comply with the underwriting handbook issued by the Company to determine appropriate acceptance criteria. Any insurance rejection must have a proper reason, and no unfair treatment is allowed. When determining underwriting conditions, we fully evaluate customers' health situation, risks, and financial status. Risks assessed and premium collected are based on insurance actuarial and statistics as the foundation of risk estimation. For any unsuccessful cases, the decision is made after carefully reviewing and comprehensively evaluating all the documents provided. We audit the underwriting quality regularly to protect the insurance rights and interests for people with disabilities. In addition, if the disabled people on the underwriting failure case meet the requirement of other products, we will contact their sales representatives to recommend customers suitable insurance type to protect their needs in insurance. The main purpose is to ensure the disable people can obtain proper insurance protection instead of completely losing the opportunity because of rejection. In 2024, the ratio of underwriting for people with disabilities was 0.59%.
We set a "finance-friendly service zone" on our official website, and it provides functions of font size changing and voice broadcasting to completely disclose the Company's finance-friendly service measures. Superior to the legal regulations published by the competent authority, we obtained the accessibility label in the highest level AAA.
Mercuries Life Insurance continues working with Taiwanese Association of Sign Language Interpreters to offer "reserved sign language interpretation service" at the counter in each local policy holder service center for customers with hearing and speech impairment to enhance customer service quality and to reduce digital divide in disadvantaged groups.
In addition, "voice CAPTCHA" has been added on the online insurance-purchase zone and added alternative text on the voice-playing button to provide the disadvantaged groups (people with hearing impairment) friendly environment of financial operation. Moreover, we added "insurance knowledge- online insurance-purchase learning corner" and "the advancement of insurance beginners" to support the service philosophy of treating clients fairly promoted by the competent authority through interactive Q&A with rural customers to ensure their knowledge in online insurance and insurance products.
To strengthen and protect consumption rights and interests for elderly policy holders, we adjusted the content of investment-linked product structure in 2022. It was divided to products "marketable to customers aged 65 (included) years old or above" and product with "an upper limit of insurance age at 64 (included) years old" to achieve the appropriateness of products for elderly policy holders.
We reviewed the content of questions in "record template for audio recording on sales process of investment-linked product" and adjusted some of the questions in proper and easy-to-understand verbal words. We adopt communication methods that are easy for elderly policy holders to comprehend to avoid the happening of financial abuse to elderly.
Mercuries Life Insurance values customer perception and experience. To listen to customers and provide more complete services, we continued entrusting a fair third-party market survey company in 2024 to carry our customer satisfaction survey. Through collecting, analyzing, and understanding customer feedback and opinions, we are committed to enhance customer experience and advance service quality and efficiency to increase customer satisfaction. The outcome of the survey will be used as reference and accordance for improving our service quality as well as for future improvement and optimization.
The satisfaction survey in 2024 excluded new customers of policy contracts and focused on after-sales services. The overall performance shows the satisfaction on services provided by sales representatives was the highest, and the main strength was their high professionalism and hospitable service attitude.
The satisfaction on Policyholder APP also improved a lot compared to that last year. Through customer satisfaction survey, we find out policy holders' feedback towards the Company, follow up and understand customer opinions and feedback, and improve service quality in order to optimize customer experience.
The policyholder zone on the official website uses the description that is easy to understand to explain the status of investment transaction and changes on contract to policy holders to ensure their clear understanding on the items and content. We continue optimizing functions and integrate them to Policyholder APP to respond to the high popularity of mobile devices and ensure they can have the best operating interface on different devices.
To enhance the efficiency of online membership application we work with TAIWAN-CA INC. to introduce multiple identity authentication mechanism. Policy holders can submit an online application and enjoy various services provided in the policy holder zone. The service of multiple identity authentication was launched in 2021, providing three functions of online banking account and password, citizen digital certificate, and IC bank card in the beginning. In 2022, we added three functions of supermarket eDDA, Post Office ATM card, and ibon verification. In 2023, we launched mobile ID verification service. We offer 7 verification services for customers to choose from. In 2024, we integrated online membership application from different services into a single website portal to facilitate operation by policy holders. The number of people using automatic service in 2024 was 640,000 people in total.