Prudential Singapore: Shaping the future of customer experiences through digital innovations
In an age where technology and digital transformation shape the financial sector, Prudential Singapore (Prudential) stands tall with its innovative initiatives. With a storied heritage in Singapore dating back to 1931, it has taken great strides in recent years to establish a firm footing in the digital realm.
This year, Prudential Group released a new purpose statement — For Every Life, For Every Future — to reflect its mission to be the most trusted financial and health partner for present and future generations. A key pillar in the company’s new strategy focuses on enhancing customer experiences through the support of digital initiatives.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic shifted customer preferences towards digital platforms, Prudential had already set its compass towards a tech-powered future. Beginning in 2016, the firm invested in technology and digital training for its employees, introducing design thinking and agile processes as part of its innovation efforts. These early steps proved invaluable as they enabled a quick pivot when the pandemic accelerated the digital transition.
Vikas Sinha, chief operations officer of Prudential Singapore, remarks: “Our early investment in technology and efforts to create an innovative and digital work culture enabled us to transition seamlessly to remote operations.”
Recognising the importance of continuous learning to stay ahead of the digital curve, Prudential provided certification courses like AI in Finance and Machine Learning for Humans to its employees. In 2022 alone, the company’s corporate staff completed over 40,000 enterprise learning hours.
Sinha further notes: “We have been on our digital journey since 2016 with the intention to reinforce our business strengths and reimagine new revenue streams and ways of working to continue thriving in the future. Our journey continues as we tap the latest digital innovations in the market to meet evolving customer preferences and needs.”
Digitalisation has not been just a buzzword following the Covid-19 pandemic, but one that Prudential is committed to embedding in every stage of its customer journey.
Fine-tuned approach
Right from the beginning, when financial consultants engage potential customers, Prudential has had digital solutions that support both its financial consultants and customers in the sales and advisory stage.
For one, PRURemote Advice was launched during the pandemic to help customers stay connected with Prudential’s financial consultants especially during the circuit breaker period. Developed in just seven days, the video conferencing and e-signature solution allows customers to receive advice and complete the signing process remotely, and was instrumental in helping customers get the necessary insurance protection without having to meet in person.
“Ultimately, insurance is a people business, and there is a need for human connections to be made. PRURemote Advice enables this connection to be done online, without our financial consultants and customers having to be physically present, allowing them to stay safe during the pandemic. This continues to be a key channel of customer engagement even today when we are allowed to have more face-to-face interactions,” says Sinha, noting that 45% of the company’s sales in 2022 were done remotely through this solution.
“This trend continues in 2023, and is a strong testament to how it’s become an integral part of the way we engage customers,” adds Sinha.
The company also uses data analytics to drive customer insights and personalisation. To provide its financial consultants with a better sense of customers’ product needs and life stages, Prudential has a customer segmentation model that creates customer micro-segments or “personas” based on their characteristics, such as age, gender, affluence and more.
Sinha explains: “By analysing data from past customer behaviours, we can also anticipate what actions customers are likely to take next, and provide them with more targeted recommendations.”
He adds that this is part of Prudential’s efforts to enhance customer experiences and be a step ahead, in terms of understanding what they need and providing the right solutions during the sales advisory process.
On top of this, Prudential has introduced a customer network solution, a new dimension on top of this customer segmentation model, to understand customer portfolio dynamics and product relationships. “With this, we are looking at insights beyond the individual, including those from a social network level, such as our customers’ family members and dependants, to determine their needs,” says Sinha.
“This provides more insights for us to understand our customers better and deliver more value to them,” he adds.
Subsequently, when it comes to onboarding customers, Prudential has an instant underwriting engine that was introduced in 2019. During onboarding, the company collects customer information for verification and policy application.
“This solution enables us to perform realtime risk assessment on policy applications and make underwriting decisions on the spot. We now offer underwriting for more than 45 products that can deliver a decision instantly,” says Sinha.
The instant underwriting solution has drastically reduced turnaround times. Successful customers can receive a copy of their electronic policy contract in as little as two hours, compared to the traditional two days.
Enhanced servicing
Digitalisation is not just in the process of reaching out to and onboarding customers.
It is also embedded in how Prudential services its customers. Prudential’s customer experience has been transformed by the support of digital solutions like video servicing, AI talkbot, as well as intelligent automation solutions such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for efficient document processing, and digital collection options for premium payments.
Prudential’s Customer Service Centre started offering video servicing in 2021, allowing customers to safely connect with Prudential customer service officers during the pandemic. Both local and international customers can connect with a Prudential representative from the comfort of their own homes.
Sinha comments that this has a healthy take-up rate among Prudential’s customers, with an average of about 100 video calls made every month. Customers have also given highly positive feedback on this service.
Additionally, Grace, Prudential’s AI-enabled talkbot, was launched in 2022. “If you listen to Grace, she speaks normally, just like a human, and can even have a conversation with the customer,” explains Sinha. Grace is programmed to listen, understand and respond with empathy, just like a human, allowing Prudential to retain the human aspect in customer interactions while going digital.
“We use this to remind our customers to make payments for their premiums to ensure that there is no lapse in coverage so that they remain protected. We have come a long way since we launched our first chatbot, askPRU, in 2017 to answer queries from financial consultants with real-time information on their customers’ insurance policies,” says Sinha, adding that Prudential also has PRUChat, an online chatbot for customers.
Apart from customer engagement, Prudential uses OCR RPA, a type of intelligent automation technology to mimic back-office tasks done by employees, as well as computer vision to support activities during the onboarding and servicing stages.
At its core, OCR enables computers to read documents in the same way that a human can: by recognising patterns in letters and words and extracting text from an image.
This technology is used in the onboarding stage in the PruVerifAI process for Know Your Customer verification automation, and in the servicing stage to digitalise medical invoices as part of the claims process.
On top of this, Prudential offers digital payment options for customers to make their premium payments. Today, 99% of Prudential’s premium payments are collected digitally. Further, since 2021, PayNow has been the default payout method for all customers, who are able to get their payouts within two days upon approval.
By leveraging AI, machine learning, automation and other technological advancements, Prudential has succeeded in elevating its customer experience as well as streamlining its internal processes. It has masterfully combined its rich heritage with modern technological advancements to redefine customer experiences in insurance. As technology continues to evolve, Prudential is well-positioned to adapt and thrive, with a firm commitment to enhancing customer experiences as it continues to innovate the future of insurance.