With Maif, estimate your vehicle insurance by taking a photo of its number plate

Complementing its web Coach Auto Maif site, the French mutual insurance company has just launched an eponymous application. Its aim is very simple: enable current or prospective customers to get a real-time estimate of their future car insurance contract.

When the application first starts up you need to enter your age, no-claims bonus or insurance surcharge and postcode. Now you can exercise your photography skills by taking a picture of the number plate on the vehicle you want to buy. By combining this photo with your particulars, Maif can calculate your estimate. With the photo it recovers the car’s main characteristics: make, model, engine type, fuel, etc. Then in the application you receive the estimate in real time and the cost of registration.

To finalize your contract just contact Maif on your telephone by clicking the ‘estimate’ or ‘call’ button. You can then finalize you contract.

Buying or selling a car is a significant act, all the more so when you are dealing with private individual. For‎ Maif’s Marketing & Internet Manager Nelly Brossard, “nearly 7 out of 10 vehicles are sold between private individuals, and scams are very commonplace”. It was high time to offer Maif members and consumers as a whole a reassurance tool.

The Coach Auto Maif web site assists them throughout their path-to-purchase or sale. Many services are available, ranging from practical advice (checklist of key points to check during the visit, financing offer or even downloading the certificate of sale) to business offers provided by partners (damage assessment report, washing, online vehicle registration, number plates and statutory vehicle tests).

But while the site is primarily a reassurance tool (the Foresight driver of consumption in L’Echangeur’s analytical grids), the application aims to enhance the motorist’s experience. It assists the motorist throughout the purchasing process (Fulfilment) by helping him save time (Facilitation). It mirrors the model developed in 2014 by the American America First Credit Union and its “Mobile Banking” application launched in 2014.

Moreover, if the vehicle is sold and insurance is taken out, both the buyer and the seller are rewarded, respectively with a 3-month mechanical breakdown warranty and a cheque for €60.
On the model of the online furnishings retailer Camif.com, Maif thus transforms its 350,000 members into a formidable sales force. Genuine brand ambassadors, it is they who will make a success (or failure) or the service. As project manager Nicolas Catesson says, “It is true to say that this should help us develop customer loyalty at a financially stressful point in life. If it works, it could generate a lot of business”. As well as being a significant differentiating factor, undoubtedly the service and its application will generate a ROI!