Sagicor Life sees 400% increase in use of digital insurance portals
Sagicor Life Jamaica is reporting a significant increase on its specialised digital portals as more of its clients pivot towards online transactions.
The company, which last year launched elife for the purchasing of life insurance policies, said it had seen a 400 per cent increase in the use of the platform since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as clients become more willing to take a digital approach to insurance transactions.
The elife platform allows the purchase of coupon life insurance, critical illness, and investment-type policies and does not require a medical certificate. It also enables application review within 24 hours and 24/7 online technical assistance.
Mark Chisholm, executive vice-president, Sagicor Life Jamaica, Individual Life Division, said while no one could anticipate the novel coronavirus pandemic or its implications, it proved a significant benefit that the company already had systems in place to facilitate the broad-based transition to digital usage by the public.
“We could not have planned for a situation like this, but we already had a strategy in place to prioritise the use of digitally enabled platforms in being able to offer personalised service to our clients. Clients can access from anywhere and at any time and be able to get real-time service delivery,” he said.
In addition to elife, Sagicor Life also launched the Client Web portal last year, which allows Sagicor Life individual life insurance clients to securely request disbursements, view policy information in full and transfer policy payouts directly to their bank accounts.
Since the pandemic, the portal was updated to also facilitate the online payment of insurance premiums. Within the first month of this update, the company saw over 5,000 transactions of premium payments being conducted on the portal.
Chisholm said having these systems in place ahead of the pandemic allowed the company to have minimal disruption in client service delivery and made the transition to doing more transactions online significantly easier. He said it also meant more convenience for clients who were doing business from home. People living or sheltering in place overseas could also continue to pay premiums directly using their debit or credit cards.
“Most of our clients have been very receptive to this digital transition they have had to make. While we have had these services in place for at least a year, we see that persons are gravitating to the use of them now because of the ease and convenience, and especial because of the social distancing restrictions brought on by COVID-19,” Chisholm said.
Sagicor’s Employee Benefits Division also recently implemented an online service centre for its health insurance clients and members. The custom-built software – Sagicor Connect, allows employers to efficiently and conveniently serve clients by reducing the use of manual and paper-intensive processes.
Through Sagicor Connect, members are able to complete enrollment forms, make card replacement requests and check the status of claims digitally. Employers are also provided with wellness reports which provides comprehensive analysis of their employees’ claim and wellness profile. The portal also has a wellness component, which allows access to Sagicor Engage, a 24/7 interactive wellness portal for employees, that offers health and wellness tips and gives support and rewards.