Suncorp customers embrace digital offerings

Despite a less-than-stellar performance in the first half of its financial year, Suncorp’s digital operations have seen more customers move online.

More than 3.2 million customers had started using the bank's digital offerings, up 17 percent from June.

Insurance claims are also turning increasingly digital, with 15 percent of all claims from the first half of the financial year lodged online - up from 12 percent in June.

Four major natural hazard events between June and December, including hailstorms and floods near Sydney and in Southeast Queensland, saw around 40 percent of claims being lodged through Suncorp’s zero touch digital capability lodgement.

Suncorp CEO Michael Cameron said in an investor briefing that one of those events, the hail storm that smashed into Sydney on December 20, was singularly responsible for 31,000 claims that resulted in a gross loss of around $370 million to the company.

Overall, the shift to digital self-service models has meant the company has sent 1.5 million fewer mailpacks in the six months to December, and 340,000 fewer calls came through to Suncorp’s contact centres.

The cost savings of customers choosing self-service options means the bank will now increasingly rollout free wi-fi and deploy iPads to its shopfronts.

Suncorp also flagged that it’s looking to deploy intelligent virtual assistants to guide and assist customers online.

Other priorities for the second half of the financial year include the consolidation of its mobile apps into a single app, underpinned with a push to further develop a single customer view, as well as further preparing for the New Payments Platform and open banking regimes.