About SBI
SBI is an Uruguayan insurance company integrated to the Fairfax Financial Holdings global network. It has a local office with more than 25 years of experience and a strong regional presence.
Provides personal, professional, commercial, industrial and corporate coverage. It works hand in hand with insurance advisors and risk managers. In addition to the support and experience of this local network, it is characterized by its capacity to innovate and undertake new challenges.
The challenge and the project
In 2020, during the pandemic, SBI proposed to us to work together to be closer to its policyholders and make the processes more fluid.
The first operation that we automated was the report of an accident without injuries: a person crashes, contacts the SBI bot via WhatsApp and reports the case. The virtual assistant asks questions to assess the seriousness of the event and sends advice on how to act on the spot. Among the information it collects is the location (which the injured person can share from the platform) and key data (ownership book, document and driver's license). It also guides the user to take photos of the vehicle and confirms once the case is entered.
This allows the person to leave the site quickly, without having to wait for an agent, which is often a stressful or nervous situation. It also allows SBI to improve the efficiency of the process, as it does not require sending a technical report.
Over time, other operations were incorporated, such as contracting insurance without leaving WhatsApp, requesting mechanical assistance and viewing information about the insurance and the policy contracted. In addition, the chat also functions as a service for brokers.
A channel that continues to grow
Gustavo Spinella, head of SBI's Service and Solutions Center, values the experience of undertaking this project with Hey Now as positive: "Whenever there was a concern or situation, the response was quick, and so were the solutions, in the short or medium term".
Gustavo highlights the constant evolution of the channel, to which new functionalities are frequently integrated, and how today "it has become a central means of communication, almost on a par with the telephone".
He also points out the practicality and accessibility of WhatsApp, both for clients and brokers. "Brokers have adopted this channel as an initial source of consultation, because they know it is a faster way to obtain information," he comments.
Some results
In the last year, SBI's WhatsApp service channel recorded almost the same number of sessions as calls to the call center. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 people prefer to report a claim through the bot rather than the traditional telephone channel.
How do customers perceive the attention they receive? 81% of those who interacted with the bot rated the experience as "good" or "very good".
