Голова правління СГ "ТАС" Pavlo Tsaruk: "Впевнено випереджаємо ринок!"

The crisis has become a test for many markets, in particular for insurance. Companies had to rearrange their business models, adapt their services to new conditions and changing moods of Ukrainians.



The one who coped with such challenges confirmed his leadership ambitions.

Pavlo Tsaruk, chairman of the board of the TAS Insurance Group, told how his team did it.

How was the past year for your company? What challenges have you faced?

— Of course, the lockdown could not but affect the company's work. First of all, we are talking about the reformatting of the portfolio, because due to the closure of the borders, sales of "border" types of contracts: "Green Card", travel insurance, customs guarantee insurance, which accounted for a considerable share of revenues, fell significantly. Considering the "quarantine" realities, we had to cover the "lost" (and these are huge sums: more than UAH 100 million per year under "Green Card" contracts alone) by increasing sales volumes in other segments. Yes, we managed to increase the sales volume of health insurance contracts by more than one and a half times and seriously grow in the CASCO segment. In general, we ended the year with record figures: the volume of premiums reached UAH 2.027 billion.

Keeping the team spirit in the team was an equally serious challenge. Purely technically, we were ready for the immediate transition to the remote mode of work, but here another factor came to the fore - a psychological one. Many had a hard time experiencing forced isolation, felt depressed due to the impossibility of communicating with colleagues in the usual way. And our main task was to let people feel that even at a distance we remain a single team. For this purpose, and now trying to make good use of the freed time, we have introduced a unique program of personal development of managers and sellers, aimed at significantly increasing the productivity of their work.

What is its essence? In my opinion, most often people do not do what is required of them, not because they do not want to, but because they do not know how. External trainers who are invited to conduct training cannot always provide the necessary knowledge, let alone skills, because they are outsiders, so they cannot fully understand the specifics of the team's work. Therefore, such training usually does not bring results. It is another matter when the mentor is a person who knows firsthand what the collective lives by, what it strives for, what its weaknesses and strengths are.

Therefore, we decided to create a team of coaches from among our managers who are well versed in sales and have achieved significant results in this area.

Насправді, для того щоб стати класним продавцем, потрібно не так багато часу. Початківця у продажах простих продуктів відділяють від профі лише кілька вмінь, знань, навичок, опанувати які можна буквально за два тижні. І ми це довели! В рамках програми я особисто щодня займався з трьома менеджерами з головного офісу, кожен з яких проводив навчання з трьома заступниками директорів регіональних підрозділів, а ті вже "вели" 3-5 продавців у регіонах. Так нам вдалося провести через програму майже 150 фахівців СГ "ТАС" з усіх куточків України. Сьогодні результати їх роботи вражають. За два місяці люди змогли здійснити колосальний професійний прорив, в рази збільшивши обсяги своїх продажів і, відповідно, власних доходів. Та не менш важливим досягненням стало те, що ми змогли мотивувати людей, подолати їх зневіру, позбавити сумнівів та надихнули спробувати й оцінити свої враження від успіху. Такий підхід довів свою ефективність: продажі почали зростати, продавці, які раніше продавали лише "цивілку", вже успішно продають комплексні продукти і надихають своїм прикладом інших.

And was it possible to implement any technical innovations last year, taking into account the quarantine?

— We continue to work on improving customer services. Many processes have already been transferred to Viber, the chatbot has been improved. Now, in order to receive payment for "simple" losses, the client just needs to call our contact center and inform about the insurance event. On the basis of the received information, the operator creates a case for payment and, even in the case of minor insurance cases, when up to three elements of the car are damaged, announces the amount of compensation. After that, the client uploads the relevant documents through the chatbot and... gets paid. Simple, convenient and fast! We plan to further develop this functionality and eventually transfer all communications to client-friendly messengers.

Did the quarantine affect customer preferences?

— According to our observations, the client himself has changed to some extent. Many people found themselves in a difficult financial situation due to the lockdown, some lost their jobs, plus the panicked mood due to the pandemic - all this could not but affect the customer's behavior. Someone felt depressed, someone behaved aggressively, of course, all this affected our work and at the same time forced us to mobilize and work even harder. As for customer preferences, yes, they have changed somewhat. Due to the epidemic, people began to think more often about the issues of health protection, so the demand for health insurance products has increased significantly.

Some experts said that the transition of the market under the control of the NBU will lead to the establishment of fairly high standards of operation in the market. What exactly has changed in the rules of the market?

— Ми задоволені тим процесом, що зараз відбувається, і підтримуємо НБУ в його бажанні вивести страховий ринок на кардинально новий рівень. На відміну від попереднього регулятора Нацбанк, маючи більше повноважень, одразу почав впроваджувати необхідні зміни. Вже в одному зі своїх перших звітів він наголосив, що страховий ринок суттєво недокапіталізований. Регулятор розділив всі компанії на чотири групи за критеріями суспільної значущості та величиною. Примітно, що до першої групи, найбільш великих та значущих страховиків, увійшло лише 11 компаній, до яких регулятор не має претензій. А ось щодо інших в НБУ виникли питання, адже рівень їх недокапіталізації становить від 30 до 65%! Це дуже тривожна ситуація, яку треба виправляти. І НБУ готовий це робити. Водночас дуже тішить, що регулятор налаштований на розвиток ринку, а не лише на очищення. Відчувається, що він зацікавлений у розбудові сучасного страхового ринку, що відповідатиме європейським стандартам.

The transition to a new regulator has consolidated the market: companies that adhere to the principles of honest and transparent business conduct, in which there are no problems
with capital and payments and which account for 55% of payments and 65% of payments in the risk insurance market and 93% and 98% of the life insurance market, respectively, merged into the National Association of Insurers of Ukraine. The purpose of the association is to promote the development of a civilized market and in dialogue with the regulator
and with his support to introduce high quality standards of insurance services in Ukraine.

What are the company's plans for the future? How do you see "TAS" in five years?

— Five years later, we see ourselves as the absolute market leader. And I know for sure that this goal is achievable. We have already come a long way to it. So, over the past five to six years, we have increased sales by four times, three years ago we became number one in the OSCPV market, although six years ago we were one and a half times behind the leader, and now we are already ahead of the number 2 company on the market by 19%. However, our achievements are not limited to the "autocivilka" market. In 2020 alone, we significantly increased CASCO sales, rising from the eighth place on the market to the fifth. In 2018, we set a threshold of UAH 1 billion in revenue, last year — UAH 2 billion, and in five years we want to collect UAH 5 billion per year. And we believe that we will do it.