Marketplace

Our goal is to embed corporate responsibility into how we manage our business, customer and supplier relationships and to seek opportunities to reduce the impacts of our products and raise awareness of this with our customers.

Our research shows that clear and transparent communications are absolutely critical to how much consumers trust financial services providers. Clear communication is a global priority for AXA and is part of our ambition to be a trusted market leader by 2012. In the UK this is a key theme in our service excellence programme across all our operating companies. In the Association of British Insurers (ABI) Customer Impact Scheme 2008 survey which assessed the clarity of our communications and the service we provide when customers buy products, our performance had improved between 2007 and 2008.

My Budget Day

To help people get into the habit of regularly looking after their money, in 2007 we launched My Budget Day, our UK online financial education programme. My Budget Day provides financial planning tools for individuals as well as guides for how employers can use the AXA My Budget Day with their employees.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the UK economy delivering 50% of business turnover and almost 60% of employment¹. So understanding SMEs attitudes to climate change and talking to them about the risks is critical both for the UK economy as a whole and for our business. In 2006 we commissioned Professor David Crighton to publish a report on SME attitudes to climate change. The report found that most did not recognise that there were impacts on their operations. We produced another report in 2007 that aimed to give SMEs practical advice for reducing the impacts of climate change on their business. We also joined forces with the CarbonNeutral Company in 2008 to create a carbon calculator specifically designed for SMEs.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is an important way of attracting new customers yet it can have significant environmental impacts. Sunlife Direct, part of the AXA Life business sends millions of direct mail items each year but will soon become one of the first companies to trial the new British Standards Institute specification for reducing the environmental impacts of direct marketing, called PAS2020. The specification establishes environmental objectives in a number of areas from efficient targeting of new customers, paper sourcing, recycled content and bleaching of paper to the weight of paper and ensuring environmental best practice in printing. Paper recyclability and the provision of customer information on recycling are also included.

Nutrition and Fitness

Promoting customer health is an obvious priority for our health insurance business. With this in mind, AXA PPP healthcare has launched a website providing fitness and nutrition advice to help customers achieve their nutrition and fitness goals and stay healthy.

 

¹Department for Business Innovation and Skills - Statistical Press Release, 14 October 2009