Summary
Policybazaar, India's premier insurtech, is committed to transparency and customer-centric innovation. Recognizing the unique needs of India's middle class, we introduced PB Meet—an in-house telecalling, video conferencing, and screen-sharing platform. Tailored to bridge the digital gap, PB Meet ensures face-to-face communication, fostering customer trust. Accessible on both phones and desktops, even in low-bandwidth areas, it has significantly boosted conversion rates by 12%, reinforcing our dedication to an unparalleled insurance experience.
Challenge
Convenient, real-time assistance is at the heart of PB Life. It allows customers to reach our insurance contact center advisors for 360 degree service virtually. To use the platform, all a policyholder has to do is click on the link shared by us via WhatsApp or SMS. Once the link opens, they find their advisor waiting for them on call. The combination of video calling and screen sharing in addition to voice assistance does wonders to customer experience. Whether it is navigating through our website, or filling up insurance forms or looking for the right features when comparing policies - PB Meet goes a long way in helping our customers achieve their goals in a highly time-efficient fashion.
Objective
Briefly describe the initiative? "You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology - not the other way round." These words by Steve Jobs perfectly fit Policybazaar's intent behind PB Meet, our in-house customer experience functionality. PB Meet is a result of Policybazaar's persistent endeavor to take a genuine interest in our customer's needs and help each of them meet their unique goals. Developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a one-stop solution for our customers to reach us. It is an integrated platform which allows video conferencing, screen sharing, in addition to regular audio calling all in one place. Since our inception in 2008, it has been our pursuit to empower India's uninsured middle class through a transparent and personalized insurance experience. To this end, we would provide them assistance at every step of their insurance journey on the phone. However, as India's leading InsurTech, we felt that we could further enhance this experience for the customers. This inspired the launch of PB Meet which was especially reassuring to our customers during the pandemic.
Strategy
PB Meet is a powerful tool designed with precision to revolutionize customer engagement and enhance the effectiveness of interactions between buyers and advisors. One of its key strengths lies in its cross-device functionality, catering to the tech-savvy Indian population that predominantly uses smartphones. With the second-highest number of smartphone users globally, the platform's availability on both mobile devices and desktops ensures seamless connectivity for a diverse user base. The platform's innovative features extend to smart customer-advisor pairing, fostering efficient communication. The window panel displays detailed profiles of both customers and advisors, allowing them to gain insights into each other's backgrounds. This not only facilitates improved communication but also enables advisors to tailor their approach based on a customer's history, creating a personalized and effective engagement. Flexibility is at the core of PB Meet, offering users the option to customize their interactions. Whether customers prefer video calls, screen sharing, or a combination, the platform accommodates diverse preferences. This adaptability ensures that users can engage with their insurance advisors in a manner that suits their comfort and needs. PB Meet provides an integrated experience by consolidating all interactions into one location. Whether it's navigating the website via screen sharing, engaging in video calls, or promptly addressing customer queries, the platform offers a unified and consistent experience. This streamlined approach, coupled with comprehensive profile histories, enables both advisors and customers to better understand each other, leading to rapid and effective solutions. Security is a top priority, and PB Meet addresses this by simplifying the tracking of consumer and insurer information. The inclusion of Pre-Issuance Verification Calls (PIVCs) adds an extra layer of protection, eliminating the risk of data collusion and safeguarding customers from potential fraud.
Data
At Policybazaar, we have always believed that as long as your customers believe in you and feel satisfied, revenue is bound to follow. So, to study the impact of PB Meet on our overall revenue we rely on the changes in our conversion rate i.e. the number of potential buyers who actually bought insurance products from us. During the analysis period, the conversion rate recorded through PB Meet was 20%, compared to 8.8% through phone calling. So, since the launch of this initiative, our conversion rate has improved by 12% than what it was when we mainly relied on voice calling. So, the impact on our overall revenue has been palpable. Moreover, we take pride in PB Meet being a cost-effective solution to India's insurance problems. It is our in-house capability wherein we have used an open-source solution. It allows nearly 3000-4000 sessions per day. So, our solution cost is 30-40% of what is available in the market such as Zoom or Hangout. PB Meet not only gives our customers the luxury of an omnichannel, it does so at a highly competitive cost which further adds to our revenue.
Solution
Results
We are the first ones in the Indian insurance industry to have designed this innovative assisted policy-buying process. Our basic purpose behind launching PB Meet was to give our customers a one-click solution to all their insurance queries. So, it was vital for us to study the improvement in customer satisfaction since the launch of the product. Fortunately, PB Meet has hit just the right chord with our customers as the response of its users has been highly encouraging. A huge marker of success has been first-time PB Meet users who have been so satisfied with the experience that they have gone on to purchase five different plans on a single video chat. Our average discussion time has hit an all-time high of almost three hours. Customers spending their valuable time on call with our advisors while trying to evaluate their insurance needs shows that they put their faith in the platform and get their time's worth out of the experience.
