“Turkish insurance market is going through a digitalization phase much faster than what the United Kingdom went through, which is considered one of the most digital markets in the world. Thanks to this digitalization, consumers can buy insurance products at cheaper prices,” said Llewelyn Padiachy, Chief Operating Officer at Telesure Sigorta during a speech at Turkey’s first summit of insurance technologies ’Insure and Innovate Summit’18’.
During 'Insure and Innovate Summit'18', Turkish insurance market that has a size of 30 billion USD and global insurance business that has a total size of 1.3 billion USD were both evaluated around new generation insurance technologies and digital evaluation. Llewelyn Padiachy, Chief Operating Officer at Telesure Sigorta, attended the summit to represent Telesure Sigorta, a company part of the global BGL group, which renowned for its successful online service applications and technological innovations; and gave a speech during the panel of “Uninterrupted Customer Experience in a Digital World”.

Padiachy stated insurance technologies (insuretech), which provide customer innovation and digitalization-oriented solutions for the insurance market, create environment for platforms acting as alternatives to classical products and distribution channels. He added that the BGL Group has the largest online insurance selling platform operating in the UK market for 26 years; and they founded Telesure Sigorta and Koalay.com as Turkey’s first online insurance platform to transfer that experience into Turkish market.

Explaining the rapid digital transformation in Turkish insurance market based on the UK example, Llewelyn Padiachy said: “UK insurance market has reached the digital structure of today after going through 3 different phases. First, it evolved from a traditional market where the business model of insurance companies were based on agency sales, which then moved into direct sales with customers conducted through insurance contact centers. In the second phase, insurance products were standardized by regulations in terms of scope, and differed only in pricing. At this point, online insurance selling platforms were born with the aim of offering a medium for customers to compare the prices of many different insurance companies in one place. Just like travel agencies were replaced by Booking.com; or market share of bookstores was overtaken by Amazon.com. In Turkey, we have been witnessing a different model compared to the UK, which includes the transformation from the traditional agency selling model directly into online selling platforms. As Koalay.com, we have been serving in this market since 2013.”

Stating that customer satisfaction has reached new levels with digitalized insurance strategies, Padiachy added as follows: “Online insurance selling platforms do not pose a threat to insurance companies. On the contrary, it helps them reach higher number of customers in shorter durations, increases customer satisfaction and provides cheaper policy solutions. In the agency model that is based on human labour, higher sales mean higher costs. With the new model, insurance companies are able to get rid of those costs; therefore reduce their premiums and be more competitive. These lower prices, in addition to fast, and convenient services, bring even greater customer experience and satisfaction.