We need to position insurance as health & wellness product: N Chittibabu

N Chittibabu, Chief Innovation Officer, Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, chose the road less travelled in life. He started working in the eighth grade and ran a cable TV business. At the e4m Pride of India Summit in Chennai, Chittibabu shared his life experience of understanding different sectors and explained how insurance is important.

In the last 23 years, Chittibabu predominantly worked in banking, payments and tech sectors. He has worked with brands like American Express, HSBC, in various local and global roles.

According to Chittibabu, over the last eight years, India has emerged as a shining star across the globe in a lot of aspects. India is talked about very proudly, the UPI payments is one of the most important ones among all, he shared.

The financial literacy of payments and the new-age method of paying for even the smallest of commodities through UPI is something other countries are still trying to figure out. And it is a matter of pride for India. The world is watching us and is wowed by the way we have digitised the payments, he said.

Chiitbabu also shared that over the years, with multiple examples, he has learnt that brands across the globe change things according to the local conditions.

“I am new to the insurance industry, and after spending 14-15 months, I am trying to innovate and differentiate how we will look at things,” he said. One interesting thing he found out about insurance is that “you never gratify the purchase. If you look at any other product that you buy, whether a watch or a phone, you feel the use of it and gratify it too,” he shared.

“So basically, my customer buys health insurance wishing they never get to use it, which is a very negative aspect for a B2C product. My customer has no chance of engaging with the brand often because they either interact when they have to pay the premium or when they want their claim,” Chittibabu explained.

So how does an insurance business engage with their consumer?

Chittibabu opines it is best to reposition insurance as a health and wellness product, rather than an insurance product. A company called Discovery in South Africa has done this really well where they keep rewarding their customers for every healthy habit like 10,000 steps or good sleep, he shared. 

Chittibabu personally suggests everyone should have insurance and quoted Zeordha’s founder who recently said that “Every Indian is one step away from bankruptcy in case of terminal illness”.