"We aim to provide a high level of customer service to our policyholders."
How does a regional-based company fare so well against the country's bigger brands? Even though our head office is in Newcastle and our history is based in Newcastle, we're very much a national brand. We have retail outlets across the country, and more than 800,000 customers Australia-wide.
How have you been able to grow so strongly in such a competitive market? Our branding and marketing is very consistent and targeted at the under-40s segment. We aim to provide a high level of customer service to our policyholders whether they interact with us through our call centre, website or through one of our retail centres.
You've specifically targeted younger members. What strategies have you adopted to ensure continued growth and to establish leadership in that segment? Our appeal is strongest in the younger market. Young people like our brand – they identify with it. We have targeted the under- 40s market through our product design and pricing, as well as aligning our marketing and distribution channels to this segment. For example, we were the first private health insurance company to launch a smartphone app because that is something that younger people want and use. In terms of industry growth, we accounted for 24 per cent
of growth in the 20–39 age bracket for people with hospital cover last financial year. Bearing in mind that we account for just over seven per cent of the private health insurance market, having almost a quarter of that demographic growth is pretty significant. It's an important segment of the private health insurance
market because if you do everything right, hopefully you've got a customer for life.
nib was the first Australian health fund to demutualise and list on the Australian Securities Exchange. What were the benefits of this to your core customers? The demutualisation allowed us to unlock the value in our company and provide eligible policyholders with shares in our company, something that mutual funds can't do.
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