Prudential Singapore launches chatbot to aid advisers

| 12 Sep 2017

Prudential Singapore has launched an intelligent chatbot, named askPRU, to help its Financial Consultants with real-time information specific to their clients' life insurance plans.

askPru is able to retrieve instantly data such as a customer’s policy cash value, policy premium due date and status of submitted claims, among others. As askPRU operates round the clock, Prudential’s Financial Consultants can communicate with the chatbot via a mobile application at any time of the day to obtain information pertaining to their customers’ insurance plans, enabling them to be more productive and more responsive.

The cognitive-powered chatbot is built on IBM Watson technology and integrated into Prudential’s backend systems. Since the pilot launch of askPRU in July, more than half of Prudential Singapore’s 4,000 Financial Consultants have started to use the chatbot.

askPRU complements PRUONE Express, an enhanced digital point-of-sales portal, to help Financial Consultants engage their customers more efficiently. For instance, PRUONE Express is able to generate a detailed quotation in just three seconds.

Ms Theresa Nai, Chief Operating Officer at Prudential Singapore, said: “In today’s fast-paced, time-starved environment, our customers do not have the patience to wait for information. With askPRU, our Financial Consultants can now get faster access to customer-specific information and respond to their customers’ queries even more promptly. askPRU is one of the ways in which we digitally enable our Financial Consultants so they are equipped to meet increasing consumer demands and expectations.”

Apart from improving customer experience, askPRU also creates operational efficiencies for the life insurer. Prudential estimates that approximately 30 per cent of its Financial Consultants’ queries received by its Contact Centre consultants today can be answered by askPRU. With frequently-asked queries channeled to the chatbot, Prudential’s Contact Centre consultants will be able to focus on handling more complex enquiries and provide a better service to its Financial Consultants and customers.