Life Insurers to offer customer service on WhatsApp

Life insurance companies are now turning to WhatsApp to offer policy-related services to customers. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance as well as Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance are now offering policyholder information services on the messaging platform. ICICI Prudential Life customers consenting to receive messages on WhatsApp will receive welcome kits, policy certificates, premium receipts and a host of other services too can be availed of. Puneet Nanda, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance said, “We are always looking to add new layers of convenience to offer to our customers. It is estimated that there are about 200 million active WhatsApp users in India on a monthly basis. The popularity of this app makes it an ideal channel for delivering customer service.” He said that customers already using WhatsApp to communicate with friends or family can simply send a message to the verified business account number of ICICI Prudential Life and get information on their policies. Similarly, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance has launched an artificial intelligence-enabled WhatsApp channel for customer servicing. Here, unlike the traditional menu based approach of selecting options, for the first time, a customer will be able to use the officially verified ABSLI WhatsApp account to type any general query and have it answered on a real time basis. Customers can use WhatsApp chat to get policy and due details, fund value and tax certificates. Customers can also update their profile on a real time basis and locate their nearest ABSLI branch. Besides this the channel would assist customers on key policy related processes like name change, nominee change, payment mode change and to receive claims and revival information. Pankaj Razdan, MD and CEO, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance said that the launch of their WhatsApp customer service is in line with the organisation’s goal of providing best in class experience to our customers while building a robust digital platform. In case of policy specific queries, customers would  first receive an authentication; post which they will get real time information about their policies, making the channel extremely secured.  Aditya Birla Sun Life said that they will continue to service its customers using multiple channels including its network of branches, portal, contact centre and chatbot.