Korea Life Insurance Co., which was taken over by Hanwha Group, is on the verge of changing its name to Hanwha Life Insurance Co. in the fall if the change is approved at the upcoming shareholders’ meeting, industry sources said recently.

The board of the life insurance company already agreed to the name change at its July 8 meeting and now it’s up to the shareholders, who are scheduled to meet on Aug. 29. If approved, the company plans to use the new name from Oct. 9, the 60th anniversary of the group’s foundation. Korea life celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

In order to change the name of the company, Hanwha needs to muster 70 percent of shareholder votes. It has just over 50 percent, while Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. holds 24.7 percent as the second largest stakeholder, with the rest split among foreign investors and individual shareholders. Hanwha must win the approval of Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. to change the name, although the second largest stakeholder has been reluctant so far.

In the meantime, Korea Life, led by Vice Chairman Shin Eun-chul, has been pursuing its “triple S” management strategy based on the words “speed, sharp, and soft” in dealing with its customers, strengthening internal communication, and the buildup of a fun corporate culture centered on the slogan “The Customer Center where customers and staff are happy.” 

The strategy calls for speedy service to visiting customers. The waiting rooms have been renovated to have the ambience of a cafe so that they can relax while waiting for their business to be finished. The company has also begun providing customer services online through its homepage and ARS. The company has also been providing “sharp” consultations with customers by strengthening the education of financial consultants or planners through the most appropriate knowledge management system and the professional certificate system so they can provide the right services to satisfy the customer’s needs.

The company has been awarding consultants and financial planners for managing “soft” consultations with customers to make contacts with customers more smooth and kind. Lecturers on customer service have been holding customer service clinics and monitoring the customer service provided by the consultants and financial planners and informing the consultants of the monitoring results so that they can improve their service.

The company has been requiring meetings between those working face to face with customers and those in related departments at the head office on a regular basis to exchange their experiences to improve customer service.

Korea Life, in upholding Hanwha Group’s key values of challenge, devotion, and the fair way, declared in August, 2010 its charter, “The Customer Service Way,” which has steered the thoughts and actions of every officer and staff of the company to be in line with customer value creation to provide an all-out customer-oriented service.

In order to spur all officers and staff to have customer service minds and encourage them, the company has been holding special events every year to upgrade the office environment such as the happy working office, the book donation campaign, and the smile for customers campaign. The Love for Our Customer Families event has taken place in May every year.

Since 2007, financial consultants visited customers at their homes to accept applications for insurance money, to make changes in insurance contents, and to provide consultations under the company’s brand-name Visiting Service program.