AEGON is leveraging
the ‘power of mobility’
to make mortgage
related information available to
its prospective customers using
mobile apps. AEGON is the
tenth largest listed life insurance
company in the world. Within
AEGON, AEGON Bank provides
banking products and services to
1.5 million customers. It is one
of the pioneers in the domain of
social media in the Dutch financial
industry.
AEGON’s mobile app developed
with HCL as a partner represents
the company’s conscious effort
towards innovation. According to
Director ICT & Operations Tom
van der Poel of AEGON Bank,
“The application was developed
between HCL and us in 6 weeks in
a new kind of partnership. It was a
big success.” The Mobile Mortgage
App – Wonen -- helps prospective
home buyers get free mortgage
eligibility, EMI and neighbourhood
details, while maintaining full data
sensitivity. The objective is to boost
a multiple channel distribution
strategy to enhance adoption levels
and reduce complexity. This app is
available for iPhone users and can be freely downloaded. Here Tom
van der Poel tells Communiqué
what the app does and why it is
such a big success in the Dutch
mortgage market.
Q: Traditionally Dutch financial institutions relied heavily on
intermediaries and agents. Do you see significant change in
recent times in the market in terms of customers switching to
other channels like the Internet and mobile?
A: AEGON Bank has been a strong player in the direct distribution
of banking and insurance products since the mid 90s. Starting from
2005 and onwards, the Dutch market is moving rapidly from the
intermediary channel towards the direct channel. AEGON Bank has
10+ years of experience in sales and service through the Internet
channel.
Multi channel banking and insurance are the future. The Internet
and mobile technologies allow cross border, region-agnostic
transactions. We see these as self help channels although the trend is
moving towards video being used over the Internet and the mobile
for conversations related to complex product information, advice,
sales and some minimal post-sales support. Our focus should be
on understanding the services that customers want, simplifying the
flow and structure of information, increasing personalization and
lowering the barriers they face in using these channels. But when
you think about mobile financial services, it is such a compelling
proposition for retail and enterprise customers that they will have to
adopt it. It will be safe to say that mobile financial services will drive
technology adoption by customers because they enable cheaper, realtime
and more personalized services. By this what I mean is that those customers who are technology phobic or have been slow to adopt
technology will also be forced to use the Internet and mobiles for
their financial services.
Q: What are the trends in demand for mobile services from the
end-customers of financial institutions?
A: The trend is quickly moving from ‘mobile apps as a
gimmick’, towards a situation where mobile service is a
default option, a commodity. However, given this situation
it is very well possible to differentiate from competitors the AEGON Bank Wonen App is unique in the following sense (for
more details see Wonen – the Intuitive iPhone App)
- It is the first app providing free detailed social demographic
information on neighborhood and city level
- The data is provided by Experian. This is the first time they have
made their data available for consumers via a mobile application.
Their data is very rich and more elaborate than other sources
available in the app store
- It is the first app combining mortgage calculations, social
demographic data, mortgage rates and a call-me-back functionality
- The AEGON Wonen App gives a very detailed
insight into the gross and net monthly costs for the
customer
In our experience, convenience is the most important
factor in the adoption of remote and mobile channels.
Usage of these channels goes up when the information
is simplified, richer and more personal, accurate (driven
by customer analytics and not knowledge of products
only), there is demonstrated security to reassure the
customers about privacy concerns and the service is
better priced.
Q: What is the scope of mobility in relation
to addressing the business needs of financial
institutions? Does mobile technology enable them to
compete with large competitors in terms of providing
superior customer experience and service?
A: In the Dutch market mobile apps are becoming a
kind of commodity. Almost all of the big competitors
have mobile apps especially in the banking domain.
AEGON is mainly an insurance company and in
insurance it is a little rarer to have a mobile app and
in banking it is quite standard. What we are trying to
do is not have a “me-too” application and we try to
differentiate. We have found some new functionality
in our apps and the customer will tell you that we are
differentiated.
The only way to improve customer experience is by
understanding the customer’s needs better and then
meeting those needs. The challenge to keep pace with
changing customer needs will always persist. It is how
quickly you gain insights into new behaviour patterns
that matters. This means tightly integrating customer
information across channels, capturing data and being
able to process it in real time for use. So yes, mobile
technology can enable all this and ensure that everyone
is better placed to compete with whoever it is they see
as competition.
Q: Some of the prime concerns in rapid mobile
application development are data sensitivity and
interoperability. How did you address them?
A: Interoperability and cross system communication
was achieved by utilizing existing systems such as the
CMS and back-end web services. Data sensitivity was
assured by providing only a select number of backend
business integration services to the mobile application
through the use of a secure middle application.
Q: What are your future plans for going mobile? Do
you expect the mobile channel to play a significant
role in increasing AEGON fan score?
A: To serve our customers well, we have defined
different customer journeys. We will constantly look
for opportunities to optimize these journeys and add
value to our customers. We believe that mobile will play
an integral component within these journeys. If we get
this right it will increase the AEGON fan score, here I
am sure. Our next step is to optimize our existing Apps
and learn from the outcome to develop new initiatives
in the future.
Q: We understand that the mortgage industry is
growing fast in Netherlands (except for a dip last
year) and the need to tap into the growing market.
Our question is – why focus on mobility instead of
any other distribution channel?
A: We already have quite a strong presence in the other
channels. Traditionally in the Dutch mortgage market
the main channel is the agents. They are the basis for
closing the mortgage. We have been investing in what
we call Advice on a Distance channel. It is possible to
get advice by telephone, email, chat or video chat. Video
chat is another channel that is going to be emerging in
the Dutch markets.
Q: Briefly describe the response to the recently
launched Wonen App in the Dutch market?
What were your objectives and did it meet your
expectations? What is the next step in Wonen?
A: The response was overwhelming: 14,000 downloads
in the first three weeks. Individual responses and
feedback were both positive as well as critical. The
objective is to bridge the gap in the orientation phase of
finding a new house. In the beginning consumers find
us to make an online calculation but after that we have
no services to offer until the mortgage quote. With the
Wonen App we have a medium that is relevant for users
during the complete mortgage journey. The next step
is not clear yet. Our strategy is to continuously analyze
the results so far and determine next steps based on
user insights. We can imagine that an Android version is
a logical next step to broaden the user group.
We want to strengthen relationships with our clients
throughout the orientation process of closing a
mortgage and we are convinced that the use of mobile
will help us realizing this engagement and top of mind
awareness with the AEGON brand and services.
 Scaling is one of the aspects of our success that we will
look into. Apps that return rich customer data will help
us address a larger set of customers and be relevant to
them. We want to focus on scaling and replicating this
success with all our customer facing businesses.
Q: How much of an impact has the Wonen App
created in your mortgage business in terms of new
revenue or number of new contracts or leads?
A: This is not a direct target of this app. The target is to
create a brand preference and top of mind position for
those consumers looking for a new house.
Q: Do you have an enterprise mobile strategy for
your organization? How do you plan to consolidate
various mobile initiatives happening all over
AEGON-NL?
A: There is a delicate balance to be kept. On one hand,
the freedom the business needs in order to experiment
and grow new initiatives and on the other hand the need
to create a consistent and sustainable mobile experience
for our customers.
In the past year, we have focused on freedom for the
different business lines to explore the possibilities of
the mobile channel.
Currently we are in transition towards a more guided
approach, based on a set of mutually shared principles
around the look and feel of the application and a shared
technical architecture for the mobile environment.
Within these boundaries, business lines still have
the freedom to expand the mobile strategy towards
AEGON’s customers, based on the customer’s needs.
Wonen – The Intuitive iPhone App
Wonen is a handy tool for home hunters and buyers
in the Netherlands. It’s the first time that an iPhone
app, apart from calculating housing costs (maximum
mortgage eligibility and EMI) and current market
interest rates, also provides a deep understanding
of the residential locality that the house hunter is
considering.
The app, developed by HCL, was launched to improve
branding and positioning for AEGON, increase leads
and prospects, add to fan ratings and improve
customer loyalty.
The mobile app offers the following features:
- Calculate the maximum eligible mortgage amount
given the salary of the user and partner if any
- Calculate the EMI (monthly gross and net) amounts
for the chosen property value based on the chosen
interest rates and loan components
- Email the summary of calculation to the chosen mail
id
- Call-me-back functionality that can also capture
leads for marketing
- View the prevailing mortgage interest rates and
product descriptions offered by AEGON Bank for
various products offered
- View the social demographics information for a
selected location (zip code). This feature provides
the following data in the form of pie charts within
the neighbourhood and village/city:
- Number of occupants in a house – single, couples,
families with kids, age groups etc.
- Family income ranges
- Housing types – individual, corner homes, row
houses, apartments, duplex etc.
- Ownership – percentages of owned and rented
houses
- Value of houses
- Education levels of occupants
- Vehicle status
- Duration for which people have been living in the
chosen area and people movement trends
- Feedback feature
- Analytics feature to capture user events and
generate analytics reports on app usage
Technology Involved:
- iPhone SDK,
- Objective C
- Web Service, XML
- Tools – XCode 3.1.2, iPhone Simulator, Mac OSX
10.4, iOS 4.0 and above
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