Corporate Information

AAMI is one of Australia's most successful car and home insurance companies and has changed the face of the Australian car and home insurance industry.

Since the early 1990s, AAMI has experienced strong and consistent organic growth in sales and written premium income in a mature market by working to differentiate itself from competitors and build a truly

sustainable position. During the same period, AAMI developed its unique customer focus, spearheaded by the AAMI Customer Charter (introduced 1996).

AAMI has grown from a $25m entity in the 1970s that employed 500 people, to one that employs more than 3,100 people in offices, branches and customer service centres operating in every state and territory in Australia.

As a national insurance brand, AAMI deals directly with approximately four million customers who hold 3.2 million policies.

In 2007 AAMI became part of the Suncorp Group. A Top 25 ASX listed company, Suncorp is one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest diversified financial services providers, supplying banking, insurance and wealth management products to around 9 million customers.

AAMI is admired for its excellent customer service. In fact the 2010 AFR SMILES Awards named AAMI as best nation-wide insurer, with particular praise for the quality of our staff and customer service.

Talk to a real person
AAMI pledges to have a real person available 24/7 to answer your call, not some machine. Nine out of ten AAMI customers (91%) believe that AAMI's telephone service was better than most other call centres, if not the best, and 84% consider it better than most other insurers, if not the best.

Claims performance
Continuous independent monitoring of AAMI's claims' service shows that more than 80% of AAMI customers who have claimed on their car and home insurance say they are likely to recommend AAMI to their family and friends and are likely to renew their policy with AAMI.

AAMI Customer Charter
Since its inception 15 years ago, AAMI’s Customer Charter has been a key motivator for our culture and our strong customer service values. The fact that the Customer Charter remains a living document has ensured its success. Through this process of self examination we are able to hold ourselves accountable for our mistakes and continue to improve as an organisation.

Setting standards

While AAMI people are proud of our profitable growth, we are even more proud of the way this performance has been achieved, with strong standards of customer service and innovation. An example of this is AAMI's insistence that our customers be able to speak with a real person 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We don’t use interactive voice recognition systems.

AAMI has continually challenged itself and the insurance industry, pioneering many benefits such as lifetime rating one/maximum no claim bonus protection, lifetime repair guarantee and valet service. Such AAMI firstshave changed the face of the Australian insurance industry.

AAMI introduced the general insurance sector's first customer charter and has called on other insurers to also publish information on their internal and external dispute resolution performance.

AAMI believes we can do the right thing by all of our stakeholders and, at the same time, be a successful, profitable operation, achieving strong organic growth and earning consistent profits. What’s more, we publicly report on our performance as a sustainable business in a commitment to transparent business practices and metrics.

Our passion for doing the right thing permeates all aspects of AAMI's behaviour. This is no more evident than in the AAMI Customer Charter, which enables customers to request a $30 penalty against the company whenever they believe we have breached a Charter promise. While not a financially large amount individually, the potential impact of this provision is significant considering AAMI has some 4 million customers and receives several million calls per annum, each answered by a real person.

AAMI people are vigilant about upholding the high standards we hold ourselves to – in our last reporting year, almost 99 per cent of penalty payments to customers were initiated by AAMI staff members.

"AAMI believes that when we do right by our customers, all else follows."

Competitive insurance premiums
AAMI's role in managing the repair process on behalf of our customers, including obtaining two quotations for the repair of our customers' cars, allows us to provide more competitive premiums for our customers, as well as ensure high-quality repairs that are guaranteed for the life of the vehicle, even if it is sold.

Claims service
AAMI deals with a large number of claims – over 400,000 in the 2009/2010 financial year – and has consistently achieved high levels of satisfaction among customers who claim on their car and home insurance. More than 80% per cent say they would be likely to recommend AAMI to their friends and family and are likely to renew their policy with AAMI (source: Sweeney Research, 2010).

AAMI Interpreter Service
To assist people of non-English speaking backgrounds in using our services, AAMI provides access to a free Telephone Interpreter Service in almost 75 languages. In the 2009/2010 year, this service fielded nearly 10,000 calls.

AAMI Customer Charter
Since its inception 15 years ago, AAMI’s Customer Charter has been a key motivator for our culture and our strong customer service values.

AAMI is its people. They find our purpose - eliminating stress and providing peace of mind for our customers - enjoyable and worthwhile. By helping our customers, supporting our team members and working in a collaborative way, we create the unique AAMI environment. We believe that when we get this right, all else follows.

At AAMI, we recognise and reward the skills and behaviours that enable us to succeed as a company. This enables our people to develop professionally so that they can take on new and challenging roles within the company. Due to the nature of our business and our growth, we have the scope to offer our people exciting challenges and opportunities.

The continuous investment we make in our people bears fruit: AAMI was named ‘best-in-show’ Australia-wide (General Insurance sector) in The Australian Financial Review 2010 SMILES Awards, with particular praise for the quality of AAMI’s people and customer service.

As a national insurer, AAMI recognises the need to reduce waste and conserve natural resources.

AAMI made an initial green promise in the early 90’s to significantly reduce our waste-to-landfill. This promise has since led to a range of company-wide environmental initiatives, including use of ‘no-emissions’ paper in all our printed materials (our paper is either recycled or carbon-off-set), recycling printer cartridges and buying back these materials as useable products for our customer service centres.

It has also led to the introduction of smart building guidelines, which feature energy saving material and technology and recyclable products. AAMI has also installed devices that reduce the electricity usage for lighting in our offices and customer service centres.

More recently, AAMI has begun offsetting our fleet and flight emissions by purchasing trees planted by Greenfleet and carrying out research into green living and driving practices in Australia in our annual Green Home & Motor Index.

AAMI values the communities in which our customers and staff live and work and we believe in protecting them and giving back. AAMI regularly contributes to the community via a range of key sporting and community sponsorships and investment in not-for-profit activities.

In the 2009/2010 financial year, AAMI contributed more than $3 million to the communities in which we operate through a range of initiatives, including:

• AAMI Skilled Drivers Program
• Victoria SES Partnership
• Belonging Small Grants Program
• National Trauma Research Institute P.A.R.T.Y. Program
• NSW Country Rugby League Grants Program
• Philanthropy and support of charitable staff endeavours

AAMI has pioneered many unique benefits and services that were unheard of at the time of their introduction. AAMI has also been a pioneer in communications and has revolutionised the marketing of insurance products and services in Australia.

AAMI Skilled Drivers (introduced 1982), a safe driving course for licensed drivers aged under 25

AAMI lifetime repair guarantee (introduced 1992), guarantees the quality of authorised repairs for the life of the car, even if the car is sold

AAMI valet service (introduced 1992), a service where AAMI looks after all repair arrangements following a motor vehicle claim and provides the customer with transport to and from a repairer

AAMI lifetime rating one/maximum no claim bonus protection (introduced 1994), protects the customer's rating one/maximum no claim bonus status, regardless of who was at fault in any claim

AAMI Customer Charter (introduced 1996), provides claims service, access, reporting and performance promises that are supported by financial penalties in customers' favour.

AAMIonline quoting and purchase process (introduced 2001), for new and renewed car insurance policies

AAMI Flexi-Premiums™ (introduced 2004), allows AAMI customers to choose the premium that suits them best – the higher the excess they choose, the bigger the discount on their annual premium, providing an upfront saving on their car insurance

AAMI Fire and Theft Contents insurance (introduced 2006), also known as AAMI ‘renters' insurance', a simple, affordable policy providing up to $25,000 home contents insurance against loss/damage due to fire or theft for a low, fixed premium

AAMI International Travel Insurance (introduced 2008) was launched alongside research into uninsured travellers

AAMI Safe Driver Rewards™ (introduced 2009), recognising safe driving with a range of additional benefits

AAMI was the first insurer to accept Bankcard payments (1975)

AAMI pioneered radio as an advertising medium for the insurance industry (1976)

AAMI introduced its humorous television crash commercials, the first to actually show accidents (1981)

AAMI was one of the first Australian companies to sell insurance by telephone, holding customers' cover for 30 days for $30 (1981)

AAMI introduced a toll-free number, 24 hours, seven days (1987)

AAMI introduced its paperless claims process, allowing the customer to lodge and complete their claim immediately over the telephone (1996)

AAMI launched its website (1996)

AAMI introduced online quoting (2001) and online renewal payments (2002)

AAMI remains committed to ensuring that our customers always speak to a real person when they call AAMI, 24 hours, seven days a week - we do not rely on push-button telephone menus or interactive voice recognition systems

From customer service and ethics in business, to technology and road safety, AAMI has regularly been awarded and recognised for its innovation, commitment to our customers and its support of the community.

These are but a small sample of awards received by AAMI in recent years:

2011 Gold Award for Cheapest Car Insurance, Money Magazine Best of the Best Awards

2010 ‘Best in Show’ Australia-wide (General Insurance), Australian Financial Review SMILES Awards

2010 Best Online Insurance, AMBER Awards, recognising excellence in eServices

2009 & 2010 Canstar Cannex National Award for Best Value Car Insurance

2008 Best Call Centre Award, Australian Banking & Finance Awards

2005-06 Best of the Best Award (under 10,000 staff), Australian Service Excellence Awards (Customer Service Institute of Australia)

2005-06 National Australian Service Excellence (Large Business) Award, Australian Service Excellence Awards (Customer Service Institute of Australia)