Dive Brief:
- Prudential Financial is looking to improve its customer service “through enhanced sales and claims platforms,” said Charles Lowrey, chairman, CEO and president of Prudential, during its Q3 earnings call last Thursday.
- The insurance company announced seven customer experience technology partnerships for its group insurance offerings this year, including Enrollify, a benefits enrollment platform that connects employees to counselors, and EvolutionIQ, an AI-powered platform to streamline disability claims.
- Prudential says that EvolutionIQ’s data-driven insights will allow disability claim examiners to focus on claims where their expertise is most required, eliminate low-skilled manual work, and expedite claims processes.
Dive Insight:
Prudential continues to focus on improving its customer service even as the overall business is operating at a loss and layoffs loom.
Prudential ended Q3 with $10.1 billion of revenue and reported a net loss of $2.49 billion prior to adjustments. Earlier in the month, Prudential also disclosed impending layoffs of nearly 250 employees, including many in senior leadership positions, in an effort to reduce operating costs and rid the company of “unnecessary complexity,” according to a memo sent by Lowrey, Bloomberg reported.
On the earnings call, Prudential touted its moves to streamline organizational structure as efforts to improve customer service, with Lowrey saying that agility was needed to meet changing customer needs and expectations.
“We're taking new steps to simplify our organizational structure by reducing management layers, complexity and costs while making investments in technology and data platforms. Our goal is to empower faster decision-making and bring our integrated business teams closer to our customers and clients,” Lowrey said.
Group insurance — and the focus on technology partnerships to improve customer service — was a bright spot in the report.
“And in Group Insurance, we continue to execute on our strategy of product and client segment diversification while leveraging technology to increase operating efficiency and enhance the customer experience,” said Robert Falzon, executive vice chairman of Prudential. “Our strong results this quarter included favorable group life underwriting experience, which resulted in a benefit ratio of 82.4%."
