Brands need to prioritise in providing enhanced experiences: Anjali Malhotra

How are brands engaging with consumers during this time of uncertainty? How will the product and marketing strategy evolve to meet the standards for the new consumer? To answer these questions, we engage marketers from different industries with our feature – AgTalk.

In conversation with Adgully, Anjali Malhotra, Chief Customer, Marketing and Digital Officer, Aviva India, shares how post COVID-19 has shaped BFSI, how the industry adopting digital means for sales, service, and redressal at scale, and the future of the industry in the new normal.

How has COVID-19 impacted the BFSI sector?

COVID-19 has majorly disrupted the global economy, and while many business sectors were subjected to temporary shutdowns, the insurance industry is still racing forward while confronting unprecedented amounts of risk and uncertainty. Like every other industry, BFSI sector has also been impacted in terms of new business premiums. Consumers pinch pennies and their reduced spending is impacting many industries. They are also navigating the crisis with extreme flexibility and the robust response is quite visible.

While we already had a huge focus on digital and social engagement, no one honestly was prepared for a scenario like the current one. We are looking at our own portfolio to see how we can substantiate the solutions and benefits we provide to customers for better inclusion of pandemic covers and other illnesses which people may want coverage for now.

How has it impacted consumer attitudes towards financial products?

Consumers are spending more time online and are resonating with brands that are engaging and providing support, trust to them. The consumer spending behaviour has changed and has moved towards essential services in such a crisis. The current pandemic has hastened the shift towards digital payments, increased digital channel adoption, spurred consumer interest in savings, and safer investments. Insurance has also become an essential product during this situation. People have become more aware and realise that protection and health have become more important in their lives and minds, clearly showcasing their priority to be securing the health and life of themselves and their loved ones.

At Aviva, we reached out to our customers proactively via email and SMS to share information about the benefits of our customer portal, such as self-service, easy process to view their premiums, instalment information, update their contact details and more. Post this campaign, the customer portal saw a 98 per cent jump in registration on a single day, proving how digital interactions is the way ahead for consumers.

What is the priority for BFSI during crisis situation?

The outbreak of COVID-19 has engendered unprecedented disruptions and challenges across sectors. In such difficult times, the BFSI industry or any sector for that matter, the priority would be the wellbeing of the employees, customers, and other stakeholders. With these challenges, maintaining business continuity with strategic communication is of the utmost concern, providing uninterrupted services to our customers and distributors to serve them efficiently and also managing employee experience. It is important to support the government’s endeavour to promote social distancing and various guidelines issued by regulatory bodies. The biggest learning for the sector would be to stay on course and adapt to the new normal.

Some players are aggressively marketing their products during this period. Does the market sentiment show an inclination for consideration-based products?

Marketers are trying to communicate with an anxious audience and some are focusing more on marketing their products with a ‘buy now’ approach. For decades, marketers were focused on revolving their ads and campaigns around their products, branding and hard-core sales with innovative ways. A new normal is now being formed where the way people react, purchase and behave will change forever. We need to understand that consumers will remember bands for their empathy, how they created happy memories, and were ‘there’ to support them. People are now less driven by material things, and instead are investing their time and money into experiences that are meaningful to them. Brands need to prioritise in providing enhanced experiences compared to products, as consumers would contemplate subtler forms of marketing when it comes to product placements. Consumers would like to see a brand being more considerate with purpose-driven actions and human-centric messages.

What is the best way to reach consumers in this period? In your media spend, how would you prioritise reach, cost effectiveness and RoI?

I think brands are changing and adopting new communication strategies to engage, interact and sustain their customers. While the industry had already made big strides towards digitisation, COVID-19 encouraged all the players to expedite the journey. We can see a change in consumers’ pattern, and they have made a seamless transition to digital mediums. People are spending more time on their phones with an increase in screen time and are engaging with DIY videos, quirky yet empathetic content on social media. The best way to reach and engage with the customers would be adopting an omnichannel strategy.

We are trying to stay relevant with latest trends and understanding consumer behaviour. We believe engaging with chatbots, audio bots, video conferencing, DIY videos, cloud telephony aside from social channels, emails, etc., would help in reaching to masses to deliver our messages. We are channelising our resources onto social media and digital marketing with some creative ideas. At Aviva, we are focused towards digital adoption, distribution strategy and grinded content to offer an integrated omni-channel experience to the consumers.

In other sectors we are seeing a move to provide safer ‘contactless’ services. What transformation will BFSI have to undergo?

The world is transforming into digital and so are we. BFSI industry is very dependent on agents and documentations but with the increase in the spread of Coronavirus, we are moving to digital mediums. Insurance sector is ensuring an end-to-end digital delivery of insurance products. Brands are using innovative tech solutions to engage with customers and are also using WhatsApp and Zoom, thus ensuring the information flow as against emails. These not only include communication for employees or customers but also for partners and vendors. The industry is also deploying advanced automation technologies to enhance productivity, cost savings, and improvement in customer experience.

Self-service portals for policyholders are proving to be a game changer by providing a fast and easy way to connect and interact. At Aviva, we are using our Mobile Sales Tool which is an enhanced informative interface that sales teams use while interacting with customers and transparently share information such as needs analysis of the customer, the right fit plan for them, key benefits of a plan, illustrations of premium and the payment process. It also offers our customers a hassle-free buying experience without any physical documentation.

In the current scenario, insurers will also need to ramp up their call center operations to keep pace with the increase in premium payments, claims and other customer request. Going forward, new age solutions such as cloud telephony, AI-powered chatbots, and interactive voice response etc will provide the customers with contactless service and seamless experience.