Sustainable sales and marketing

The trust that customers have in Sampo Group’s integrity is the foundation of the company’s positive reputation. Therefore, paying attention to the risks associated with sales and marketing is important to Sampo Group. Such risks include inappropriate customer advice and product sales; lack of clarity in terms, prices, and fees; errors in claims handling; and errors in the complaint process. To minimise the risks and increase value for the customer, Sampo Group continuously works to develop and improve customer service, and sales and marketing practices.

Sampo Group’s sales and marketing practices focus on meeting the demands and needs of customers and providing customers with the information necessary to make well-informed decisions.  Sampo Group ensures that customers are given transparent and easily accessible and understandable information about the costs, risks, and conditions relating to the product or service in question, as well as the reasons leading to a decision regarding an insurance application, where applicable. In addition, at Sampo Group all customers are to be treated fairly and no individual customer is given preferential treatment at the expense of other customers. Insurance premiums are only based on relevant data and not on discriminating factors.

Governance

The Sampo Group Code of Conduct sets the group level requirements for responsible sales and marketing practices. In addition, each Group company has adopted supplementary and more detailed policies, guidelines, and processes for their own purposes. Sampo Group has controls in place to ensure that information provided to customers is accessible, relevant, and timely before a customer commits to any purchase, and that the company satisfies all regulatory and conduct obligations. The associated controls and measures are regularly assessed and developed. Sampo Group assesses products regularly to ensure they remain appropriate.

Customer feedback channels are offered to make it easy for customers to provide feedback on the products and services, and to complain if they are dissatisfied. Sampo Group aims to clearly inform customers of their complaint options, as well as to ensure a fair and transparent complaint process. In the case of a complaint, the priority is to discuss with the customer to find a solution that is satisfactory to both parties. If a consensus cannot be achieved, the customer is entitled to appeal to external complaints boards (ECBs) or similar, according to local practices in each operating country. In addition, as required by law, Sampo Group has internal customer representative functions that the customer can contact to submit a complaint. Regardless of the outcome of appeal cases, Sampo Group always analyses how it can improve its sales and marketing practices.

Employee training

To ensure compliance with laws, regulations, and internal policies, Sampo Group has continuous training programmes that develop personal conduct and increase the competence of sales teams and other customer representatives. Training is given on topics such as insurance products, evaluation of risks and customer needs, legislation and guidelines, business ethics, and conflicts of interest. The training varies depending on the country and business area in question. Sampo Group also provides training to its external distributors and monitors that training requirements are fulfilled by them and products are sold to the right target group, in line with the company’s guidelines.

Remuneration

Sampo Group does not remunerate or assess the performance of its employees in a way that conflicts with the duty to act in the best interests of customers. For example, Sampo Group has no sales targets that could provide an incentive to recommend a particular insurance product to a customer when a different insurance product would better meet the customer’s needs. In addition, fixed compensation represents a sufficiently high proportion of the total remuneration in Sampo Group’s remuneration structures to avoid employees being overly dependent on variable compensation and to ensure that they act in the best interests of customers. Variable compensation programmes also include a clause that gives Sampo Group the right to cancel, in whole or in part, the payment of variable compensation, if material, non-acceptable risk-taking or breaches of internal or external business rules have materialised.