BUSINESS ROZHOVOR
RBP: Modern Life
Insurance With an Extensive Heritage
RBP health insurance recently underwent large-scale modernisation, visually and functionally.
We spoke to RBP CEO Antonín Klimša about what the company can offer clients and
employers and what makes it unique.
Mr Klimša, first of all, could you give us
a little bit of an introduction to yourself?
I spent the vast majority of my career
working in the mining industry under
OKD, where I spent seventeen years.
Throughout this journey I worked in many
positions, including some of the highest.
The final two and a half years I spent at
the company were as part of the executive
board and as CEO. In 2018, I left OKD to
become CEO of the RBP health insurance
company.
Can you tell us something about RBP’s
history?
Not everyone realises this, but the origins
of the RBP date back to 1802. Back then,
mining accidents were exponentially more
common than they are now and convenient
tools for social and health security had yet
to exist. This meant that a miner’s family
was left without an income if he were to
get injured. As a means to mitigate this
risk, so-called ‘fraternal district treasuries’
(Revírní bratrské pokladny, in Czech, or
RBPs for short) were created. Miners
would contribute a part of their income
to the fund and, if they were to get injured
or sick, they would then receive financial
aid. The name for this social safety net was
devised as a compound of its purpose.
‘Fraternal’ referred to the brotherly bond
the miners shared in their employment.
Approved mining areas were divided into
districts and RBPs’ function as a treasury
is self-explanatory. After all, we saw how
treasuries work in the Czechoslovakian
comedy film U Pokladny Stál… with Vlasta
Burian. Fraternal treasuries have survived
feudalism, the Austria-Hungarian empire,
the First Republic, fascism and even
communism. That is the origin story behind
the modern RBP insurance company.
What innovations did you bring
to your clients at RBP?
I entered RBP with a plan to modernise
the company. My strategy consisted of three
main pillars: content updates, a face-lift of
the company’s brand and visual style, and
communication modernisation.
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By content, I mainly mean health programmes
for clients. Certain services have to be
provided by insurance companies by law.
In addition to that, however, we also offer
special health programmes. These include
projects aimed at increasing the availability
of healthcare, or, for example, telemedicine
projects where the vital signs (such as
blood pressure or blood sugar) of chronic
patients are measured remotely through
tools the patients are given and remote
access technologies. The data is then sent to
contracted doctors and the patients’ state of
health can be monitored long-term.
that, by 2030,
“weWewillexpect
be a fully digital
company.
”
In terms of marketing, we have focused
on the visualisation and modernisation of
RBP’s brand. We decided that it is time
for us to consider the company’s image
in the context of future generations. At
the same time, we also did not intend to
change the firm’s name and turn it into
something completely unrecognisable.
These two concerns gave rise to two
thoughts: shortening our name from Revírní
Bratrská Pokladna to RBP and updating
our graphic style. We had to deliberate
over the best methods to incorporate our
symbols into our logo. Eventually, however,
we managed to include all the important
motifs, including our code, 213.
Communication between clients and
insurance companies is most often done
through branch offices, call centres,
websites and mobile applications. We
analysed our current standing and created
a programme that will help us adapt
our offices for the future. Our goal is to
renovate and modernise our offices as
well as make them barrier-free. We were
also Czechia’s first insurance company
to offer a virtual office where clients can
hold video calls with operators. These
calls take place on a platform that is part
of our website. Virtual offices allow clients
to arrange a date and time, during which
our employees can take care of requests
the client would otherwise have to take
care of at a physical branch office.
The final part of our communication strategy
is an update to our mobile application and
website. Our new application, ‘my213’, has
significantly improved the speed of our
safe online communication with clients.
In addition to that, we have also launched
our new ‘barrier-free’ website, which is
programmed in a way that allows regular
as well as physically and visually impaired
clients to interface with it. We have added
features that allow for more comfortable
mouse movement for people with a limited
range of motion, and purblind users have
the option of increasing text size by up to
400%. The website has also been designed
in a way that allows fully blind clients to use
special readers that capture text and image
descriptions and read them outloud. These
readers give the client a full overview of the
site’s content and allow them to navigate to
their desired service using only a keyboard.
We had to follow and guarantee strict
international norms, such as the WCAG
(Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) in
the creation of this website. I believe that
we are currently Czechia’s only insurance
company with a barrier-free website.
Your insurance company’s registration
number, 213, is also tied to a number of
your projects, my213, magnet213, and
dia213, just to name a few.
Could you tell us more about them?
I already talked a little bit about our
application ‘my213’ as part of our new
communication strategy. Other than
being able to monitor an overview of their
doctor’s records, we now also gave our
clients the option to electronically ask for
contributions from the prevention fund
directly within the app. Before, clients
had to visit a physical office and provide
the required paperwork to do this; now it
can be done in five to ten minutes from
the comfort of their homes. After a year of
its existence, over 25% of our clients, that
is, over 100,000 people, started using our
app. We consider this to be a great success.