Corporate Responsibility

At Aviva, our customers are at the heart of our business. We need to make life easier for them by giving them the best service and value that we can, and we are committed to treating them fairly at all times.

We also need to consider the impact our products could have on the environment and society more widely.

Across Aviva, we're working in a number of ways to ensure we're treating customers fairly in all that we do, and that we are the company customers want to buy from and stay with. We are committed to:

• Offering responsible products, whether it's about ensuring our customers get the right products at the right prices or expanding our range of sustainable or 'green' products
• Selling our products responsibly, ensuring we are delivering clear, fair and transparent pricing across our product range
• Increasing financial capability, to help customers develop their own financial understanding and make decisions appropriate to their needs
• Responding to customers, making sure we are listening to customers' views and delivering the service they expect from us.

Offering responsible products

Aviva is constantly reviewing its product range and seeking opportunities to develop new products that will meet a social need or help customers live 'greener' lives. Among the key areas in which we are currently working:

• Ford Insure (sold through Ford) - the first product of its type in the UK - enables drivers of flexi-fuel and bio-ethanol Focus cars to benefit from a 15% reduction in their insurance premium.
• 'Pay As You Drive' insurance uses telematics technology to assess where, when and how far customers drive, giving them more control, choice and flexibility over their premiums. When we trialled it with 1,500 young drivers, limiting night-time driving, car accidents in this group fell by 20% and premiums by approximately 30%.
• We offer Aviva private car policyholders up to £100 towards a new child car seat at Halfords, should their car be involved in an accident or an incident of fire or theft.
• We have invested millions of pounds in developing the largest and most accurate digital map of Britain ever undertaken, and used this to pinpoint the risk of river flooding to individual properties. This means that more than 600,000 properties in flood risk areas now qualify for insurance and five million people living or working in flood risk areas enjoy more accurate premiums and a better understanding of the risk to their property.

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Selling our products responsibly

Aviva has several initiatives in place to ensure that, across the group, we sell products and services according to customer need. For example:

• We commissioned an independent research company to understand customer reactions to our equity release products and to assess reactions to the risk warnings that we offer through each area of our marketing.
• We have revised our with profits product literature to include a Plain English sales aid. We are also undertaking rigorous research to check that it is easily understandable for customers.

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Increasing financial capability

Aviva is committed to helping customers build their financial knowledge and understanding so that they can make decisions appropriate to their needs. We're particularly keen to encourage customers to take an active role in financial planning.

Our work includes developments in the following areas:

• We have developed new retirement planning literature to help customers understand the options they have and encourage them to plan more proactively. The literature received an understanding rating of 97% in customer research.
• We are also helping to develop financial literacy among young people. For example, we are supporting pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group), an educational charity with a mission to make sure that all young people leaving school have the confidence, skills and knowledge in financial matters to take part fully in society. Our funding of the website www.pfeg.org is one of the key components of our support and pfeg's prime means of communication, ensuring that personal finance teaching resources are easily accessible - a one-stop shop for financial education.

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Responding to customers

A focus on customer service and satisfaction is, of course, vital to every business. At Aviva, we want to make sure we are systematically seeking customer feedback, responding to their needs and putting things right if something goes wrong. We also have dedicated teams in place throughout the businesses to monitor customer satisfaction and help us make changes where necessary.

Some of the key areas we focus on:

• Aviva has introduced a number of measures to improve customer service, including a free-phone '0800' number and - for protection claims meeting our criteria and which are under £50,000 - removing the need for clients to fill in forms.
• Aviva actively supports the Association of British Insurers' Customer Impact Scheme, supporting our objective of treating customers fairly. We are also helping to develop a set of Customer Impact guides, which outline good practice in areas such as claims handling and clear language.

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WC06036 07/2010