Covid-19 has placed additional pressure on customer-oriented industries to maintain service levels amid the challenges of remote operations, but one insurer found a way to beat the game.

As with most businesses, life insurance companies were forced to close physical operations at the height of the pandemic. With face-to-face meetings and branch walk-ins no longer an option, entire customer service operations were upended in an unprecedented situation that no operational rulebook had ever planned for. While Prudential’s call centres were operating at approximately 50% of the usual capacity due to strict operating measures, they received an overwhelming increase in calls as it became the only way to deliver service. It soon became clear that the existing tools of the trade were inadequate to handle the large volume of customer service requests and that a smarter solution was needed to keep up with their customers during the crisis.

Prudential expanded their customer service channels to include WhatsApp, using a solution called Hyped Mind Enterprise (HME) that delivers after-sales insurance services through a mix of human and bot interactions. HME is compatible with all major web and mobile-based messaging apps, including Facebook Messenger, Line, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, and WeChat. Depending on the complexity of the case, a human agent or a bot is assigned to handle a customer query. The agility of a human and bot response with Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities improves performance by up to 5 times. Almost all types of call centre solutions like Genesys, Avaya, and Microsoft Dynamics are supported. HME has passed stringent testing and is fully compliant with Security Requirements of Financial Servicing Industries as regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia. In addition to customer queries, HME also offers features for customer on-boarding, access to plans/coverage and healthcare services, claims submission, payment processing, and live support.

Prudential’s customer service teams are now empowered with the support of an AI-enabled messaging solution and the robustness of a WhatsApp chatbot to manage their customer service request volume. The call centre is able to handle up to 5 times the usual load with the aid of this technology while maintaining a reputation for fast and responsive service through the business WhatsApp channel. Constant engagement and updates on the status of customer requests are automated through more than 3,000 daily interactions, surpassing all other modes of communications utilised by the call centre to date. HME was pivotal in Prudential’s ability to overcome business difficulties during the pandemic and to build a resilient customer engagement strategy.