Three ways we're using technology to create awesome customer experiences
Angela Hunter, Chief Customer Officer, Prudential, Singapore
Angela Hunter, Chief Customer Officer, Prudential, Singapore
A cornerstone of our new customer-focused strategy is creating awesome experiences anchored by digital innovation. We want our customers to enjoy ‘wow’ moments that will make them come back for more. Importantly, we want them to feel assured that their financial protection needs are understood and attended to by the best advisors in the business.
Technology is a key enabler in this regard. It is not only intrinsic to our deeper appreciation of customer needs but also in creating simple and smart solutions that will satisfy and delight them.
For instance in our engine room, we’re harnessing smart data from our Customer Relationship Management system and using analytics to segmentise and to determine optimal product features and pricing.
To refine the tailoring of our products and services, we’re engaging with our customers in real-time and mining online and social platforms for deeper insight into their lifestyle needs.
More visible to customers are the artificial intelligence-based tools carried by our Financial Consultants that help make consultations a breeze.
Here’s a deeper-dive into three ways we’re bringing the awesome to insurance with technology:
1. Drawing on real-time customer feedback to create awesome products: Data from annual surveys is outdated even before you have the chance to read the report. To deep-dive into customer needs and expectations, we’ve extended our feelers online to get data in real-time.
Our own online community Pru For You is where we connect with 4500 customers and Financial Consultants. This real-time interaction allows us to respond to customer feedback more promptly, to gain insight into new trends and to design solutions from the customers’ perspective.
Recently, this enabled us to have a big breakthrough with our private hospitalisation insurance plan. The health insurance business has been challenging for insurers in Singapore because of the rising medical costs, and consumers had expressed unhappiness with the incremental annual premiums. Based on this feedback, we decided to do something that was unique to the rest of the market. We moved to a concept called claims-based pricing which rewards customers who stay healthy and make smaller private hospital claims with savings on their premiums.
It Is Not Only Intrinsic To Our Deeper Appreciation Of Customer Needs But Also In Creating Simple And Smart Solutions That Will Satisfy And Delight Them
2. Empowering our consultants with digital capabilities, so we can provide awesome services on the go: Being an extremely mobile workforce, it’s critical that our Financial Consultants have the digital tools to stay connected and to have quick access to the information they need to provide the best service to their clients.
Our Financial Consultants are the first in the industry to use a cognitive-powered chatbot named ask PRU that provides real-time information specific to their customers’ life insurance plans. Ask PRU retrieves instantly data such as a customer’s policy cash value, policy premium due date and status of submitted claims. As it operates round the clock, our consultants can communicate with the chatbot via a mobile application at any time of the day, enabling them to be more productive and more responsive.
Our Financial Consultants also use PRUONE Express, a digital point-of-sales portal which generates a detailed quotation in just three seconds. It uses the latest technologies, such as SmartData Capture and Fingerprint Authentication, to facilitate a quicker and more effective consultation and sales process, and the submission of new policy requests.
3. Providing customers with awesome health and wellness innovations: Strategic partnerships with other tech-forward companies, such as the one we signed with Prenetics, add tremendous value to our customer proposition.
To help customers along the path to better health, we partnered Prenetics, one of Asia’s leading genetics testing companies, to launch the ground breaking my DNA programme. It involves the use of a simple saliva test which reveals how an individual’s genes may affect his or her nutrition needs, dietary sensitivities and fitness. For instance, individuals can find out whether they may be more sensitive to carbohydrates, fats and alcohol, as well as which exercises may be best for them.
Renewing our commitment to our customers
In the past year, Prudential has made significant structural and organisational changes to shed the old product-centric business model and to renew our focus on serving the needs of our nearly 1 million customers in Singapore.
We have invested significantly in new technology to create awesome experiences across the customer journey - from discovery and onboarding, purchase and after-sales care, to claims and communications.
Our transformation into a more customer-centric organisation involves not only tangible changes in our business but also a shift in mindset and culture.
This struck home for me on a personal level when my business title morphed from Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Customer Officer. It was a clear signal that the organisation is committed to our customers – putting them at the heart of every decision that we make. Now everything that my team and I do is put through the lens of our customers.
We will continue to transform our business by listening to our customers, using data to develop suitable solutions, and embedding digital into the customer journey. Such initiatives will enable us to progress steadily towards our aim of making every customer experience count and make it an awesome one.
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