How Naked challenged the insurance industry

The company

Naked is the new way to insure your stuff - South Africa’s first AI-native insurance provider offering comprehensive cover for your car, home, contents and single items.

Naked offers a fully digital, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform that gives users a faster, fairer and more flexible insurance experience. It’s fully automated systems – free from legacy technology and infrastructure – give customers unprecedented control over their insurance and result in significant premium savings. The business is called “Naked” because it brings new levels of transparency to insurance – no hidden fees, no hidden agendas.

The goal is to change insurance for the better by providing instant, honest insurance at game-changing prices. From quoting to claiming to generating a proof of insurance letter, the Naked app empowers users to control their insurance policy without needing to speak to a call centre. Users can get a final insurance quote in 90 seconds and sign up for cover in less than three minutes on the app, guided by the friendly chatbot, Rose. With the Cover Pause feature, users can pause their accident cover with one click if their car won’t be used for a day or more – instantly reducing the premium by about 50% for that time.

Unlike conventional insurers, Naked takes a fixed portion of premiums to run the business, with the balance going into a pool to cover claims. At the end of each year, money left over in the claims pool goes to charities nominated by clients rather than towards company profits. This means that Naked’s income doesn’t depend on whether or not claims are paid and keeps Naked honest and unconflicted when assessing claims.

Naked is the 2019 winner of the MTN Business App of the Year Award as well as the 2019 winner in the Best Financial Solution category.

The challenge

Naked launched in April 2018 as an underdog in a well-established, contested market. The insurance industry in South Africa is a complex industry to enter as it’s saturated with old-school corporate companies. Traditional insurance companies in South Africa also have huge advertising budgets and are able to easily spend large amounts of money on traditional advertising. 

• Switching insurance is often an admin-heavy, laborious task and most people are overwhelmed by the sales pitches and advertising from insurers. Reading peer reviews is a way to simplify the research process. Users can get honest feedback from other people who have used the service instead of relying on well-crafted sales pitches
• Insurance is often seen as a grudge purchase, and people want to know they can trust the company taking their money. They want reassurance that their claims will be paid 
• Naked can establish a credible reputation by having several positive Hellopeter reviews from people who actually use Naked
• Hellopeter allows Naked to refer potential clients in the process of buying insurance, but are unsure whether to trust a new insurtech, to Hellopeter to read about other people’s positive experiences
• Users need to read about Naked and believe it’s a credible, growing insurtech they can trust and that they need to experience

The solution

• Naked gathers honest feedback where clients can say exactly what they think about Naked. It’s important to embrace the positive and negative reviews
• Naked works to engage with clients by replying to reviews quickly to make users feel valued and appreciated
• Whenever someone leaves a negative review, Naked aims to resolve the issue (if it hasn’t been yet) and clarify what happened. This also links to their value of transparency so potential new clients can see exactly what happened
• Replying to users on Hellopeter allows Naked to establish a (personal) connection with clients

The results

Despite all of the barriers to entry, Naked has entered the insurance industry in  South Africa and quickly became a trusted, credible and talked about brand. Part of this is thanks to Hellopeter!

• Hellopeter helped Naked gain trust from existing and potential clients
• Naked gained authentic customer insights to improve their offering
• Naked is able to conduct customer research to find out what clients love most about the experience and highlight any recurring issues
• Naked established a strong positive brand presence amongst several other well-known insurers on Hellopeter