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<p>GetUp, a new arm of Metropolitan that offers innovative financial solutions geared towards a younger, digitally-savvy consumer, has collaborated with CompariSure in order to offer financial solutions via social media, with the aim of expanding its digital service channel.</p>

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<p>CompariSure is an independent, tech-enabled platform that specialises in conversational commerce, and was identified by GetUp as the ideal partner to assist in the development of a Facebook Messenger chatbot. </p>

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<p>Explains Berniece Hieckmann, Head of GetUp: “Co-creation and collaboration are part of the very fabric of our business model, which was established as a platform that welcomes partnerships. We believe in teaming up with specialists who are experts and industry leaders in their respective fields, in order to offer our clients relevant and intelligent solutions that address their needs as digitally-minded individuals.”</p>

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<p>Hieckmann says that with the development of a chatbot, GetUp aimed to offer an interaction mechanism that was efficient, but still allowed for a personal and warm experience that would encourage trust among users.</p>

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<p>“After conducting extensive research into our market - the young and tech-savvy - we established that, while our target customer was predisposed towards digital ‘on demand’ services, consumers are still wary of completely digital experiences in the financial services arena. </p>

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<p>“Individuals value a human experience when dealing with money, and therefore we knew that our intuitive chatbot, supported by a virtual sales and service mandated team, would contribute towards providing a ‘human’ - albeit online - experience.”</p>

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<p>“Backed by VC giants Allan Gray, 4Di and UW Ventures, and having had conversations with almost 500,000 South Africans, CompariSure has refined the art of partnering human empathy with machine learning to enable financial institutions to seamlessly integrate conversational AI into their service offering, says Matt Kloos, CFO and co-founder at CompariSure. </p>

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<p>“From day one of our partnership with GetUp, it was clear that combining CompariSure’s chatbot technology with GetUp’s insurance products and strategic focus from top management would result in a service offering for customers that is world-class. Witnessing the CompariSure and GetUp teams collaborating so well together in service of the end-customer, has been a special journey to be a part of.”</p>

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<p>The introduction of a chatbot has already shown time and cost-saving efficiencies for clients and the business, with clients giving us a virtual thumbs up. “As a client-driven business, a key indicator of our strategy’s success is based on feedback. An independent entity recently ran a competition on Facebook asking users to share their favourite insurance brand, and GetUp was nominated as a result of our ongoing thought leadership content as well as the chatbot experience, which reflects our commitment to offering clients a seamless, value driven, digital interaction.”</p>

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<p>Hieckmann says that the collaboration with CompariSure is an example of a symbiotic relationship that creates value for both parties, while enhancing the value proposition to clients. She maintains that shared values are the key to an effective partnership. </p>

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<p>“In order for us to engage in a partnership, the potential partner must demonstrate a deep connection to our market, while also having a sound reputation for delivery.”</p>

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<p>The information economy has grown exponentially, and today’s younger consumer is exposed to a huge influx of data everyday. Hieckmann believes that given this continuous inflow of information, there is a preference for simplicity, relevance and accessibility in client interaction channels. “We achieve this through leveraging the expertise of our identified partners, while co-creating solutions that are tailor-made to our client needs and preferences.</p>

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<p>“The journey has only just started and we look forward to revealing some exciting new partnerships in the very near future,” says Hieckmann.</p>

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