Dear NTUC Income.

Mon, 29 Aug 2011
2 min read
Add Comment

Last year, I wrote about how convenient your service was when it came to renewing my motorcycle insurance.

NOW LOOK AT THE MONSTER YOU HAVE BECOME:

Motorcycle insurance renewal letter: no, I'm not interested in calling my agent or your 24-hour customer service hotline! I just want to click a button and give you my money!

AND ON YOUR WEBSITE:

NTUC Income Online: where is the renew button for me to renew my motorcycle insurance?

What is – I don’t even – which hamster told you that customers are desirous of this heinous pigletry???

I don’t want to “call [my] agent or [your] 24-hour hotline” because I don’t need to talk to a human being to do this.

I just want to click a button and give you my money so that you can insure Le Poots and I – that is all.

Like what you see in this picture here, just in case you’ve forgotten what convenience and customer service is all about:

Customer service and convenience, circa 2010.

At the same time, it seems my premium has increased to $322.58. Why?

If you think this is an uneducated grouse, don’t worry – I know what the basic principles of insurance entail.

Nevertheless, my question centres on a logical Key Performance Indicator that all efficient insurers should adopt (or should have at least adopted), and that is: insurers must aim to maintain or reduce the year-on-year premiums that a customer has to pay.

But why can’t insurers meet that aim in Singapore?

Is it because of:

I have no ready answers.

But if anything, ladies and gentlemen, this is yet another reason why we need honest and customer-oriented people in charge of the organisations and institutions in our country.

QLRS: Six of the Best.

Mon, 1 Aug 2011
1 min read
Add Comment

Six Plays by Tan Tarn How.

My review of Tan Tarn How’s Six Plays – the text which I was busy devouring in June while recuperating from my short stint in the Weapon X Project – is now up on the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (QLRS).

Six of the Best
Compilation revives veteran playwright’s greatest hits

This collection brings together six of Tan Tarn How’s best works thus far, written and produced over a period of 11 years (1992 – 2003). Prior to this, The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ‘S’ Machine (“Soul“) was published individually in 1993, and Undercover and Home were published in play collections that featured various local playwrights. The publication of these plays in one volume are, hence, important in providing readers and scholars of Singapore literature with a holistic overview of Tan’s concerns as well as showcasing the diversity of topics he writes on, while demonstrating Tan’s dexterity as a playwright when tackling a range of subjects.

Thematically, most of Tan’s concerns, as with the majority of P65 Singaporean writers, are with the socio-political environment and machinations of the Singapore state – an ostensibly natural reflection of and response towards the environment that P65 Singaporean writers have been bred in.

(continued…)

Human beings are like currents…

Sat, 4 Sep 2010
2 min read
Add Comment

…we follow the path of least resistance.


An e-mail reply from MSIG.


An e-mail reply from AXA.


What is presented to me when I log on to the Income website.

My scooter insurance’s up for renewal; I’m with NTUC Income but I thought I’d scout around to see if I could get a better offer from another company.

Out of all the agencies I e-mailed, only two got back to me, and in no uncertain terms, informed me that they weren’t hard up for my money so I could very kindly f*** off and leave them alone.

Or it could have just been bad customer service.

To MSIG’s credit (or discredit?), the e-mail was copied to two reps, one of whom actually forwarded my message to Commercial Agency Pte Ltd, and an agent quoted me a premium of $350.96 on the same terms that NTUC Income offered.

Except, of course:

  • Income’s premium is lower,
  • it’s giving me a 5% loyalty discount which reduces the premium even more AND
  • I have complete ease of renewal – one click, enter my credit card details and I’m done.

Moral of the story: make it easy for your customers to get what they want, and you’ll keep them, even if it’s just to make $300 off of them for another year.