Southeast Life Insurance (SE Life) honoured for pioneering digital transformation in Thailand's life insurance sector at the Asian Experience Awards

Their innovative journey from traditional call centres to a cutting-edge digital channel with a 24/7 chatbot earns them the Thailand Service Experience of the Year - Life Insurance award.

Southeast Life Insurance (SE Life) has achieved a remarkable triumph at the esteemed Asian Experience Awards, securing the Thailand Service Experience of the Year - Life Insurance award. This accolade celebrates SE Life's extraordinary achievement in elevating its services, taking a significant leap from traditional call centres to a cutting-edge digital channel powered by the SE Life Line Official Account with a 24/7 chatbot.

Traditionally, customer interactions relied on phone calls during standard working hours. Recognising that every interaction was an opportunity to strengthen relationships with customers, SE Life aimed to extend service hours and improve customer experience. However, the high operational costs associated with call centres presented a challenge in achieving this objective. 

In the era of digital transformation, the company identified that digital self-service could serve as a viable alternative to traditional agent-assisted channels, thus facilitating customer interactions.

In response to the rapidly evolving business landscape and the need for sustainable growth, SE Life embarked on a strategic journey grounded in four key pillars: Healthy Growth, Productivity Improvement, Customer Experience, and Digital Transformation. Within the realm of customer experience, the focus was on expanding and enhancing interactions beyond conventional boundaries.

The introduction of the SE Life Line Official Account (Line OA) marked a turning point in the company's approach to customer service. Line OA was equipped with a 24/7 chatbot, offering users a seamless and accessible digital channel beyond the constraints of working hours. The results were impressive, with over 500,000 registered users on Line OA and a remarkable shift, with over 50% of traditional inbound calls transitioning to this 24/7 digital platform.

The digital channel implementation encompassed two core components aligned with business processes. Firstly, the digital customer-facing aspect on Line OA provides an array of services, and secondly, the digital automation of backend operations to execute customer service requests. To identify the services for initial implementation, benchmarking studies and data-driven approaches were deployed.

The historical data analysis revealed five core services that were frequently sought by customers through traditional call centres and were prioritised for implementation on Line OA. These services include 'e-card,' which allows customers to present their policy cards at healthcare facilities; 'My Port' for easy access to policy and coverage details; 'Top-Up' to empower customers to purchase additional benefits for their policies or family members; 'e-Claim' to streamline the online claim process, eliminating the need for physical document submission; and 'Self-Service' features that enable customers to initiate changes such as updating policyholder information, making renewal payments, downloading documents, and more.

Moreover, the implementation of a chatbot was instrumental in handling customer inquiries around the clock, with more than 100,000 transactions annually. This translated to substantial cost savings of approximately 6 million baht in call centre operational expenditures.

The implementation of SE Life Line OA followed an agile methodology, with service selection occurring in each sprint. This approach ensured flexibility to meet customer requirements, adapt to shifts in business direction, and explore progressive opportunities in the future.

SE Life's transformation from traditional call centres to the innovative SE Life Line Official Account with a 24/7 chatbot is a testament to the company's commitment to elevating the customer experience. 

The Asian Experience Awards is presented by Asian Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be acclaimed for providing meaningful brand experiences to stakeholders, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].