A Loss isn’t Always a Disaster
“Maciej, why did you come to Moscow? Exactly what services has your company brought to Russia?”
“Assistance to people in the event of them losing valuable possessions or documents. For example, you have gone on vacation and lost your wallet, containing all your credit cards. You are left with no money. What does mySafety do? As soon as you call our contact center, the operator will block all your cards. And from the beginning of 2012, the ICE service will immediately be provided in Russia, so that you can complete your vacation or business trip in the normal way.
We offer other services concerning the loss of a passport, baggage, keys… Clients of mySafety will have all their articles which need to be checked and protected marked in a special way. Stick-on labels carry information about a cash reward to be paid to the person who has found these things. He only has to call the given phone number. A courier will deliver the reward to him at any point in the country or in the world, and will pick up your article. Then we shall return it to you as soon as possible, wherever you may be”.
“That’s interesting! An intriguing idea…”
“And one that is far from new! Services such as Personal assistance have long been popular throughout the world. It’s just that we have been rather late in getting to the Russian market. Take Sweden. Services for the return of lost keys have been provided there since 1954”.
“And what do you offer in Russia?”
“All of the best that we have. From the possibility of returning a lost key to… Recently, for example, services for the protection of children and the return of animals were launched”.
“And where do you most often find clients?”
“Everywhere, where we have partners. Today, these include ‘Alphabank’, ‘Rosbank’, ‘Moskomprivatbank’, ‘Perviy Respublikanskiy bank’, ‘UniCredit Bank’; also chain stores like ‘Svyaznoy’, ‘Eldorado’ and ‘Tekhnosila’; and the travel agency chain ‘Goryachiye tury’. That is, where people get credit cards, which they may lose, where they acquire valuable articles (cell phones, notebooks and other gadgets), which need to be treated with particular care. Our partners also include the ‘Sekundochka’ chain of shops, with particular reference to the express cutting of keys. These are all our Federal partners. Negotiations are now in progress with one of the ‘Big Three’ most popular cell phone operators in Russia…”
Now Moms and Dads are Calm
“So how do you protect children, then?”
“A silicon bracelet is fitted to the child’s arm. It is anti-allergenic, very bright and attractive. Children like it. It carries information in Russian: ‘I am lost…’, a telephone number and a number by which the child can be identified. The same information is written in English on the other side”.
Personal assistance has long been popular throughout the world. It’s just that we have been rather late in getting to the Russian market.
“All so ingenious is so simple! And how many children do you have insured in Russia?”
“Several thousand. The product is very new; it was only launched a few months ago. The process is indeed very simple: for example, if a family is going on vacation, they can visit our web page and leave information on where exactly they will be, in which hotel and for what period of time. If something has happened, if a child has been found by the police or an ambulance service, our English-speaking operator can tell them who the child is, how old he/she is, the blood type, where the parents are staying and so on.
You must agree that this gives much more peace of mind to moms and dads concerned about the safety of their child. We are offering our clients peace of mind regarding just such concerns”.
“How much does such a service cost?”
“Five hundred rubles (17 USD) per year”.
How Much, What for, and Why
“So how much does it cost to insure keys, for example?”
“The protection of any object for a year costs 400 rubles (13 USD). The more objects there are in a package, the cheaper it works out. The protection service for keys, a passport and a cell phone together costs the client 800 rubles (27 USD) per year.
We are offering our clients peace of mind.
“So the price does not depend on the size of the object? What does it cost to protect a notebook?”
“For a notebook, there is a separate package deal costing one thousand rubles (33 USD)”.
“And credit cards? Do the banks need the cards returned to them?”
“To help the client in a difficult situation, each card has the bank’s phone number on it, but very few card holders copy this number into a notebook or a cell phone. So when the card is lost, its owner doesn’t know where to call. But mySafety provides the client with extra stickers, so that they can always find the number of our ‘hot line’. For example, one of the stickers goes on the back of a watch”.
“What reward do you offer those, who find someone’s property and call you about it?”
“There are fixed rates. For keys 200 rubles (7 USD), for a phone 600 (20 USD) and for documents 800 (27 USD). We don’t haggle about this, because if we paid two or three thousand (70-100 USD), it would attract a lot of swindlers.
“But why should banks, for example, cooperate with you?”
“Firstly, to help a client in an emergency situation. We are a client-orientated company. Our business is to help people. Their people, their customers.
mySafety provides the client with extra stickers, so that they can always find the number of our ‘hot line’.
And secondly, the bank is selling an additional product, on which it earns a commission. For example, a package with a limit of liability in protection against fraud costs about 40 dollars a year”.
“And why should cell phone operators do so?”
“We offer their clients the possibility of recovering their lost cell phone. This is better than simply blocking the SIM card, as is usually done in such cases. Client loyalty to the operator increases, since now he not only saves money on his cell phone account, but has a chance of getting the phone back!By the way, our statistics show that about 35-40 of every 100 lost cell phones are returned to the clients. Those who find them are decent people”.
Andrei ROSTOVTSEV, Executive Director of mySafety in Russia, answers questions.“Are there many people working in the Russian office?”
“About 20”.
“Is that all?! For the entire country?”
“We outsource everything. Virtually all we do is fulfil operational and organisational functions. Then there is our call center, which works 24 hours a day, seven days a week”.
“How, for example, do you organize the return of found articles to their owners?”
“There are two major courier services with which we have contracts. They have the capacity to cover practically all Russia. These are the companies ‘Zest Express’ and ‘SPSR Express’”.
“What are the turnover and profitability of the company in Russia?”
“The turnover is about $20,000,000 a year and the profitability is about 20%. In this respect, Russia is now in second place after Sweden. This shows the potential of a country with such a large population!And this is beneficial not only for us. We don’t have any open Russian statistics, but in 2003-2004, the British Barclays Bank published the information that the assistance services which it sells are in second place for profitability after its banking products. This is a very successful product in terms of market penetration. It is easy to sell. And the main thing is that it is a product which really helps people in difficult situations”.
Success Comes to Persistent People
“How many clients do you have worldwide, and how many in Russia?”
“The company already has about 2,200,000 Russian clients. And that’s starting from scratch five and a half years ago! About 1,500,000 of them are active ones. By active, we mean those who constantly use our services and renew their contracts with us regularly.
We have about 1,500,000 clients in Sweden. Considering that the country’s population is only 9,000,000, this is a very high portion of it. It is a small country, so we prefer to work there independently rather than through partners, from the base we already have plus new sales. We give out free trinkets to people at exhibitions and shows, in exchange for their cell phone numbers and email addresses, and offer them a free three-month trial period. After three months, we call with a proposal for the paid service. As a rule, 25% of these proposals are accepted. We call the potential clients again after another three months… That’s how we build up our client base”.
“What do your clients lose most frequently?”
“Keys. That’s about 80% of all losses”.
“And are many of the keys found?”
“On average, nine out of ten. They’re no use to anyone, after all”.
The company already has about 2,200,000 Russian clients. And that’s starting from scratch five and a half years ago!
“What are the statistics for other categories?”
“Keys and documents are the most often returned. The situation is worse with cell phones. Only 35% of them are returned, whereas for documents it’s almost 100%. Over the past year, we have returned about 10,000 lost articles to our clients. Of these, about 5,500 were keys. The rest were mostly cell phones and documents”.