Aegon : launches new Chinese joint venture

In June, Aegon received approval to change the name of its Joint Venture in China to Aegon THTF Life Insurance Co., Ltd, or Aegon THTF for short. This week the new corporate branding was launched to the outside world.

The 50:50 joint venture agreement between Aegon and Tsinghua Tongfang (THTF) was signed back in October 2014, and was subsequently approved by the Chinese Insurance Regulatory Committee in December. The new company name reflects the shared commitment and expectations of Aegon and THTF in the Chinese market.

Tsinghua Tongfang, a Chinese technology company listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, was established in 1997 as Tsinghua University's flagship technology industry cluster. Since then they have successfully nurtured 12 start-ups, as well as supporting a Science and Technology Park and a number of listed companies.

In 2014, Tsinghua Tongfang had assets of more than 49.7 billion yuan, with annual revenues of nearly 26 billion yuan. The company is named in China's E-Commerce Top 100, the Chinese Manufacturing Enterprise 500, and ranked among the world's top 500 brands.

Aegon and THTF complement each other strongly in the areas of enterprise development, experience in life insurance and technology capabilities. The two companies have a closely aligned purpose of helping customers to plan ahead, to achieve financial security, and to enjoy the future. And in line with Aegon's global ambition, their goal is to become China's most recommended life insurance company. The company's strategic objectives are also closely aligned - fully digital platform, outstanding customer loyalty, expert staff and diversified distribution channels.

Like Aegon, THTF had already implemented the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure how willing a respondent would be to recommend the company to their friends and relatives. The JV also plans to introduce Aegon's successful customer license program, to ensure that employees have a clear understanding of their customers.

Employees use face-to-face interactions with customers to explore a specific area of customer service. This provides an in-depth customer evaluation of existing services, and recommendations for enhancing the customer experience. It also encourages employees to think from the customer's point of view and trains staff to become more customer centric.

Aegon THTF's headquarters are located in Shanghai. It has a registered capital of 2.1 billion yuan (approximately 300 million euro) and assets of over 10 billion yuan (approximately 1.5 billion euro). They have offices in the key cities of Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Tianjin, Qingdao, Hebei, Fujian, Sichuan as well as 11 further branches.

Aegon THTF's key business lines are life insurance, asset management, pensions and health. Across all products their focus will be high-quality, innovation and the highest level of customer service.

Aegon THTF has already launched a range of products, including "Kang love life", a cancer protection critical illness insurance, and "healthy life" critical illness cover. The launch of "healthy life partner insurance" is planned for this month. Moving forward, trusted pensions that address the aging population in China, and the expansion of health management services with a focus on the complete customer life cycle, will continue to be the company's product development focus.

Service excellence has always been at the heart of both companies. Aegon THTF has established an advanced and diversified customer service platform to meet the needs of its diverse customer base, including traditional service counters, call centers, mobile telephone customer service messaging platforms, online policy inquiry, digital self-service platforms, and the latest smartphone and tablet platforms.

Given the increasing geographic mobility of the population, the company plans to accelerate the development of virtual platform services. In the first half of 2015 Aegon THTF already launched the country's first, "video visits" service to support customers virtually via video conferencing, which received industry-wide attention and praise. In the second half of 2015 self-service portals will also be made available for IOS and Android.

The new corporate branding is reflected in the new logo. This uses a square graphic form inspired by Aegon's global logo. The upper and lower parts of the square in two colours represent the blue and red signature colours of Aegon and THTF. The logo is already in use on the recently launched THTF website, which is the first step of a complete and consistent re-branding.