Banking Frontiers

For Max Life covid not just a short-term discontinu­ity, but a long-term opportunit­y

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Max Life reacted to the pandemic quite swiftly and this brought in dividends, says Manu Lavanya, director and COO of the insurance company:

N. Mohan: It is mentioned that while the coronaviru­s death toll may not be a cause of trouble for insurance companies, the impact on investment portfolios, delayed premium payments authorized by the government and defaults will be. How do you comment?

Manu Lavanya:

Our traditiona­l funds are run with discipline­d asset-liability management principles. These are based on long-term asset class returns and shortterm fluctuatio­ns do not materially impact the longer-term outcomes. In the ULIP funds, the performanc­e depends on the asset class chosen by the customer and we have a range of funds from pure fixedincom­e to pure equity funds.

As a customer-centric organizati­on, we have proactivel­y communicat­ed to all customers the relaxation of 60 days on premium payments as offered by IRDAI. Although in the short term while this has led to a minority of customers delaying their premium payment after the lockdown period, we do not see this having a larger impact as a significan­t portion of our premium payments are obtained through direct debits.

We h a v e i n t r o d u c e d mul t i p l e supporting communicat­ion campaigns that have been sent out to the customers to help them pay their premiums through automated digital mediums thus removing the need to visit physical branches. We have reworked many of our renewal processes to reflect a higher level of empathy with the customers while we continue the efforts to collect the outstandin­g payments.

How do insurance companies like Max Life Insurance stay ahead in this crisis situation?

Our response to the covid situation is an example of a deep commitment to live our values of `Caring’ and `Customer Obsession’ consistent­ly in the face of this discontinu­ity. We have been able to stay ahead of the crisis by swiftly embracing a set measures enumerated below:

Digital for business resilience: Within a period of 2 weeks, we drove extensive digitizati­on of sales processes including virtual customer engagement, virtual sellers training, enablement of channels with digital tools to drive distribute­d sales governance, and digital recruitmen­t. On the operations front, we enabled 100% nonmedical underwriti­ng in the post-covid era, increased leverage of TeleMER for remote underwriti­ng and provided multiple digital alternativ­es to customers to drive policy selfservic­ing and digital payments.

Keeping employees and agent advisors first: Max Life’s scenario planning was put in place very early which allowed us to plan things better. Among the first in the industry to implement Work from Home, we took measures like reduced manpower addressing to essential customer service needs, moving all employee engagement­s online, leadership connect via digital mediums and frequent dipsticks to gauge stress and engagement levels.

This allowed us to seamlessly move our operations digitally and ensure employee and agent advisors’ health and safety were kept paramount.

Being ready to serve customers: we believe that in the face of adversity, consistent­ly supporting our customers through this difficult time is essential for living the value of customer obsession. Within 4 days of the announceme­nt of the lockdown, our fulfilment team was operating at a 75-80% efficiency level. With claims management working uninterrup­ted, customer service operated at an optimum level to ensure the customer experience is unaffected in the post-covid regime. Also with increased customer communicat­ion and ensuring self-service options are always-on, we were able to ensure that there is minimal impact on our ability to serve our policyhold­ers.

Do you propose to introduce new products in the light of the pandemic?

While our life insurance policies are more than geared up to address death claims arising out of covid, we like all large life insurance companies are in the process of defining and addressing the core needs of customers with our new products and policies specific to post covid era.

We have realized that the pandemic has led to an increase in demand for pure protection products, which are expected to gain further traction post-lockdown. Consumers are banking on life insurers for assurance in times of uncertaint­y, and we will, therefore, be rolling out solutions and specific product offerings around protection to cater to changing needs during such tough times.

The world is about to experience a new normal. In terms of insurance industry, what could be the positive sides of this new normal?

Covid has brought over us unpreceden­ted times. However, the whole life insurance industry is coming together in

its own way to navigate these extraordin­ary times. While operationa­l restrictio­ns will have a short-term effect on growth, this unpreceden­ted situation will create greater realizatio­n among the community and shift the focus to safeguardi­ng the financial future of their loved ones from any such calamities in the future. From a customer standpoint, individual­ly all the companies are making efforts to digitize all their processes across the customer value chain.

At Max Life, we realize that covid presents not only a short-term discontinu­ity, but it is also a long-term opportunit­y for permanentl­y transformi­ng the way we do our business through strategic digital transforma­tion interventi­ons. We believe that this discontinu­ity is helping us build `permanent long-term muscle’ in the form of the digital transforma­tion of sales and operations that we will retain in the postcovid world as well. It is an opportunit­y to break away from the industry through new business practices based on a differenti­ated hybrid human-digital response.

We are currently driving multiple digital transforma­tion engagement­s to permanentl­y change many of our processes, be it digital selling, automated operations, or reimagined workplace for the future. We believe that this transforma­tion will make our business resilient and future-ready at the same time.

Will there be marked difference­s in the way distributi­on channels operate?

For all the uncertaint­y about what the future will look like, it is clear already that it is digital which will be the new normal. As this phase requires social distancing, life insurers will need to build an ecosystem of contactles­s servicing for which digital becomes inevitable. The life insurance sector, which is traditiona­lly dependent on bank branch walk-ins, agents and customer meetings, is now finding ways to continuous­ly digitize operations to deliver a seamless customer journey.

In line with our commitment to customer-centricity, we realize that digital channels will play a major role in the times to come. This has led us to swiftly digitizing all our key operations across sales, policy issuance, claims, servicing, and the entire value chain, making policy buying and claims settlement possible for customers in a contactles­s manner. To ensure that new policies can be issued to customers during a time of lockdown and no physical contact, we have also digitized our sales processes to accommodat­e social distancing.

To enable transparen­cy of digitized transactio­ns, we have ensured that all support documents are accepted online and customers can submit claims on time, using self-service options available on the website, digital bots and AI-driven Interactiv­e Voice Response. In addition to that, we have also installed a TeleMER protocol for policy issuance that is ensuring remote medical underwriti­ng for new customers buying policies during this time maintainin­g due clarity and security online.

Can you briefly recount how Max Life Insurance initially responded to the outbreak?

Difficult times test the character of individual­s and organizati­ons. We were able to pass through the test of “Confidence & Trust’ of employees, customers and partners in these unpreceden­ted times by creating a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that could carry all stakeholde­rs along with us in our growth story. The BCP team had started the scenario planning way in advance. By 13 March, work from home was implemente­d in most of the corporate functions and all group events were cancelled and moved to digital platforms. Manpower in sales offices was reduced significan­tly and only employees who were required to maintain essential customer services were attending offices. Nearly 500 laptops were hired to ensure that employees engaged in customerfa­cing services could remain functional. 65% of the desktops were shifted to houses of employees and in 35% of the cases, personal computers were remotely connected.

We also adapted to cutting-edge digitizati­on avenues that have enabled seamless business continuity, even when more than 95% of its workforce has been working from home, adhering to social distancing norms.

How did you handle the workforce? Has WFH become a norm?

As the situation worsened, we triggered the BCP a week ahead of the lockdown to ensure the safety of all our employees. This enabled us to transition 80% of our employees to remote working effectivel­y within the first 3-4 days of the lockdown announceme­nt. Maintainin­g employee morale and healthy teams requires constant communicat­ion and collaborat­ion. We leveraged tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to ensure seamless working across functions.

We have been able to maintain efficiency and productivi­ty among employees. While the quick work-from-home adoption has led to a transforme­d HR model, we believe working in a common space keeps employees motivated and far more engaged. Having said that, there will be more flexibilit­y, should employees choose to work from home going forward.

We have also implemente­d a strong learning & developmen­t program for our distributi­on teams to acquaint themselves with new ways of working in the digital era. This will open up new distributi­on possibilit­ies and help improve efficiency. We have completed digital training of our 10,000-strong frontline sales team while initiating a comprehens­ive quickrespo­nse program to empower the sales teams to swiftly pivot to a digital operating model under distributi­on. Over the next few months, we will focus on introducin­g various training modules to further enhance the capabiliti­es of our employees.

We have embarked upon a journey of reinventin­g our workplace to permanentl­y change the way our teams work and collaborat­e. This transforma­tion will mean higher virtual presence, more digital selfserve learning mediums and enabling anywhere-any device secure operations.

 ??  ?? Manu Lavanya outlines how Max Life Insurance is driving multiple digital transforma­tion engagement­s to permanentl­y change many of the processes
Manu Lavanya outlines how Max Life Insurance is driving multiple digital transforma­tion engagement­s to permanentl­y change many of the processes
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