Bajaj Allianz Life: Providing digital insurance services to remotest areas

At Bajaj Allianz Life, we are using digital capabilities to take life insurance to the remotest of towns, where we may not even have a physical branch. For this, we have empowered our insurance consultants with digital tools that enable them to sell and service insurance policies at the customer’s doorstep, says Goutam Datta, Chief Information & Digital Officer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What technologies are you implementing in your firm to redefine traditional insurance space? 

With digital transformation taking over the insurance industry, we are leveraging technology across all aspects of our business to offer value to our stakeholders – both internal and external. Insurance is transitioning today from a push product to a pull product and technology innovations in business and claims processing, sales, and customer service are the need of the hour.

At Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, we are deploying technology to enhance customer experience at every step of the purchase and claims process, as well as to provide greater convenience to customers at every stage of their journey with us. We are using Artificial Intelligence to identify our customers’ needs and engage with them to offer customised products and services.

Give us an overview of your chatbot BOING, branch-in-a-box solution MOSAMBEE and iSmart app?

 Our chatbot BOING is one of the most used chatbots in the industry. Available in five languages, BOING takes care of queries that come in from customers, employees and insurance consultants, at any time of the day. Since its launch, BOING has had over 3 lakh, unique visitors. For our customers, we also have a ‘branch-in-a-box’ solution i.e. Mosambee to provide them with virtual branch services at their doorstep. We were the first ones in the industry to introduce the virtual branch services to customers.

To take care of the needs of our internal customers such as our insurance consultants (ICs), we introduced a comprehensive digital app called iSmart. This app facilitates the ICs with information about products, fund performance, customer’s portfolio, information on their performance payouts and commissions. More than 4,000 consultants are using this app on a daily basis for their various requirements. For our consultants, we also have a tablet-based insurance application INS-tab that helps our sales force facilitate policy issuance, policy renewal, and servicing through tablet and smartphones even in offline mode, at the customers’ doorstep.

 What does this Budget mean for you?

In addition to promoting economic growth in the country, the Union Budget has definitely provided a fillip to the digital economy with its several announcements. The Budget proposal to waive charges or Merchant Discount Rate on customers has the capability of transforming the payment landscape in a big way. The adoption of digital services will move rapidly henceforth, given the Government’s view to move all transactions online and reduce cash led transactions in the economy.

How challenging is it to cater digital insurance services to rural India?

Taking digital insurance to rural India is no longer a challenge, given the rapid proliferation of the internet and the adoption of smartphones across the country. And we are seeing an increasing trend in rural India adopting the digital medium rapidly. As per a report by Kantar IMRB ICUBE, there are 200 million active internet users in rural India out of the 493 million internet base in India. Our challenge is to educate customers to view life insurance products as a preferred investment choice to achieve their life goals. This is where we are making a difference by making life insurance about living benefits, and no death benefits. This change in outlook is gradually transforming insurance from a push product to a pull product. At Bajaj Allianz Life, we are using digital capabilities to take life insurance to the remotest of towns, where we may not even have a physical branch. For this, we have empowered our insurance consultants with digital tools that enable them to sell and service insurance policies at the customer’s doorstep, educate the customers on the living benefits of life insurance and guide customers to choose life insurance solutions that are best suited for achieving their life goals.

What new innovation are you planning to implement in the next five years?

We will continue to innovate in our business processes to have an end-to-end digital environment and to create the right kind of value for every stakeholder. Our current focus is to deploy technology to reduce process TATs, increase customer satisfaction and offer differentiated, customised solutions to enable people to fulfil their Life Goals.

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