Tech to help insurance industry meets customer’s expectations on real time: Rakesh Jain, CEO, Reliance General Insurance

For Reliance General Insurance, the current financial year has been good and consistent with last few years. It has seen a topline growth of 21% for half year ended for September 2018 which is far better than the industry growth of 13% for the same period. The bottomline has also grown commensurate to the growth of the top line.

On technology front, company’s commitment to technological advancement has been underpinned by its IT spend in recent years which has resulted in digital interactive communication with customer through WhatsApp integration, AI enabled BOT for customer servicing and sales quotes.

In an exclusive interview with EC’s Mohd Ujaley, Rakesh Jain, ED & CEO, Reliance General Insurance said, “We completely believe, technology will play a big role in supporting human decision in times to come and insurance industry will use to improve customer experience and offer real time services.”

Recently, Reliance General Insurance came out with virtual assistant RIVA. How has been your experience with it?

RIVA (Reliance Interactive Virtual Assistant), our interactive chat-bot on our Facebook Messenger and on the website is exceedingly doing well. It offers many services on its platform like generates a policy quotation, accept claim intimation, and provide claim status & policy copy in less than a minute to our customers. The Indian customers are very much habituated to a technology-based interaction. For example: We can see how WhatsApp is commonly used in the country and hence we have also gone with the company being on WhatsApp. This is supported by RIVA which works and meets customer’s expectations on the real time basis.

The insurance industry seems to be very dry, there is hardly any engagement with consumers after sales. Do you think that may change with adoption of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Chatbots?

It was not long ago that buying an insurance policy was a time-intensive and confusing task. Today, the customer can get real time advice to buy policy, pay premiums and file claims on their mobile phone. This digital revolution started with on boarding of customers and is now expanding in claim-processing, product-personalization and other engagements. The processes are user friendly & fosters a consultative & real time approach.

Our commitment to technological advancement has been underpinned by our IT spend in recent years which has resulted in digital interactive communication with customer through WhatsApp integration, artificial intelligence enabled BOT for customer servicing and sales quotes. Therefore, looking at this, we completely believe, technology will play a big role in supporting human decision in times to come.

In your views, what are the major challenge the general insurance industry faces?

The appalling lack of awareness with respect to insurance products is a big issue plaguing the Indian insurance sector. This has a ripple effect that has resulted in an under penetrated insurance market. A lot of people unknowingly carry risk till an event happens. In a scenario where homes have been affected by various cyclones & floods, people can hedge their financial losses through home insurance. Further it is important for people to really understand the policy coverage’s as all policies are not the same.

Another challenge we face in this industry is lack of customer contact. It is advisable to make contact mandatory so that the right number is shared with the insurance company & real time services can be delivered to customers, especially at the time of claims.

How has been the current financial year for Reliance General Insurance?

The current financial year has been good and consistent with last few years. We have seen a topline growth of 21% for half year ended for September 2018 which is far better than the industry growth of 13% for the same period. The bottomline has also grown commensurate to the growth of the top line.

What are the segments that you see may drive the demand for Reliance General Insurance services and products?

For FY 2018, most of our verticals & segments like Motor, Fire & Health we have witnessed higher growth rate than the industry as compared to FY 2017.

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