International insurer BDAE receives award for special customer service

23 January 2023

According to an analysis of more than 20,000 German companies by the renowned German institute F.A.Z., the foreign health insurance specialist BDAE stands out for the quality of its customer care.

The institute focused on what the customers themselves had to say about the individual companies in its survey. After all, in many areas, it is not only the quality of the service provided that counts, but also the contact with customers and how their problems and wishes are met. And this applies whether the company in question is a local bakery or a manufacturer of complex machinery, the authors of the study point out.

Public perception of thousands of companies

For this analysis, the F.A.Z. Institute worked in collaboration with the Institut für Management- und Wirtschaftsforschung. Between 1 February 2020 and 31 January 2021, they collected a total of 11.6 million mentions of all the companies studied and processed them using special crawling and processing methods.

The analysts then examined these statements, comments, and ratings with a particular focus on the content and tone of these messages. The statements were then standardised for all companies, which made it possible to establish a ranking and reward the companies whose customers were the most satisfied.

In 2019 and 2020, the F.A.Z. Institute had already awarded the BDAE Group the label of best customer care provider for specialist insurance.

Personal proximity makes the difference at BDAE

"Offering the best possible customer service is something we take very seriously", emphasises Group CEO Philipp Belau. "Our customers can rely on the fact that we always look after their interests personally. We have therefore decided not to rely on call centres to handle our customer service. We look after and advise our customers ourselves.

What defines BDAE is that even within the group everyone is really on a first-name basis and even the boss calls each employee by their first name. "We're not a big company," says the CEO. "And that's precisely our strength: flat hierarchies and a direct internal communication style have been institutionalised for a long time.
And ever since the BDAE Group was founded more than 25 years ago - at that time as a travel association for expats - it has always been about using this internal cohesion to best serve people travelling abroad, whether for personal or professional reasons.

The entire team is delighted that this closeness is also well perceived in online reviews and social media: "We thank all our customers for this high regard", concludes CEO Philipp Belau.

Flat hierarchy helps the group bring innovations in the industry

Being a well-oiled team with direct and fast internal communication also ensures that BDAE can innovate. For example, with the AI health assistant "Emma", the intelligent and friendly alternative to "Dr. Google". With "Emma", the international insurance expert offers all its customers their own digital health assistant, which combines the best of both worlds: a competent chat robot that can be reached 24 hours a day from anywhere, and the possibility of direct contact with a doctor for more complex questions.

And even when it comes to insurance products as such, BDAE always sees room for new ideas: For two years now, BDAE has been offering EXPAT INFINITY health insurance abroad with the option of a so-called waiting period. In this case, the state of health is queried once, and the cost of the insurance is calculated accordingly - even if insurance coverage is not yet required. This price applies when the insurance is taken out later - even if a new illness has arisen in the meantime, which should have increased the price significantly! BDAE thus guarantees transparency and the possibility to plan your stay abroad - something that is so far unique in the German market for health insurance abroad.

About the BDAE Group

Since 1995, the BDAE Group has focused exclusively on bringing expats, digital nomads and frequent travellers abroad with security. And this is reflected in the broad product range. The insurance policies offered are tailor-made packages that are the result of more than 25 years of special expertise in long-term health insurance abroad. Its own management consultancy - BDAE Consult - supports companies' HR managers with legal questions on the subject of international employee assignments.

Since 2017, the group has been part of the MSH International group, which supports more than 500,000 expats worldwide with its health insurance offerings.