Old Mutual responds to spike in complaints

Johannesburg – Old Mutual says the reason the long-term insurance ombud received the most complaints related to it, was because of its size in the market.

The company reached out to Fin24 to explain the context of the findings, which showed that Old Mutual topped the list of complaints, with 723 or 13.77% of total complaints. Of these, the ombud considered 454 cases.

READ: REVEALED: The life insurance companies with the most complaints

During a teleconference, deputy ombudsman Jennifer Preiss explained that the biggest insurers often also have a greater amount of complaints. She added that the statistics should not be viewed in isolation but within context.

Rose Keanly, Old Mutual’s chief operating officer, explained to Fin24 that the company has the “biggest market share” in South Africa in terms of clients and the number of complaints should be seen within this context.

She added that the increase in Old Mutual’s complaints were less (3.9%) than the industry average which increased by 5%.

Fin24 reported that a total of 469 complaints related to Old Mutual were resolved in the year.  Of these, 375 complaints were resolved in favour of Old Mutual. This is 80% of the total complaints resolved.

Keanly pointed out that this was also better than the number of cases resolved in favour of insurers for the industry, which was 72%.

The data showed that most of the complaints (129) were related to poor communication and service. Keanly added that 75% of these complaints were from Old Mutual, in relation to policyholders who failed to provide information and necessary documents.

Keanly added that the report was positive overall, but that the insurer will look at findings to improve customer experience. “The increased engagements via social media mean that customers have raised expectations regarding the speed of our replies and investigations. To this end, we continue to update our processes so that we can resolve queries as soon as possible,” she said.

“We’re also seeing that customers are not always sure how to complain about their issues. The ombud report shows that 58% of Old Mutual complaints were raised with the ombud directly, who then had to refer it back to us for investigation.”

To make it easier for customers to submit complaints to Old Mutual, Keanly said that the insurer works to streamline its customer feedback system and have incorporated it online.