Recently, Sureify’s Travis Van Dyke, Senior Director of Solutions Consulting, and Ryan Matherly, Senior Director of Customer Success, discussed the need to transform the life and annuity service center from a legacy system into a next-generation strategic asset. Below is a summary of their discussion, which explored leveraging technology to maximize service center strengths, eliminate pain points, and shift the service center from a cost center to a profit driver.
Human-Digital Behaviors: Why the Phone Endures
Despite the rise of digital tools, the service center remains a vital hub. Mixed consumer preferences and the complex nature of life and annuity products continue to drive demand for human-led servicing via phone. When it comes to servicing agents, carriers have to navigate a generational divide. Agents under 45 rate live chat as their top preferred channel, whereas agents over 45 still predominantly rely on phone and email. Customers increasingly demand an omnichannel experience that includes phone-based channels. However, across all channels, they expect carriers to recognize them, know their history, be aware of all prior engagements, and not have to explain their problem repeatedly.
Effective servicing requires carriers to bridge the gap between human and digital interactions. One solution shared by Travis and Ryan utilized one-time digital transaction links deployed by representatives to collect the necessary information from verified policyholders and agents during phone calls. This simple action acts as an introduction to digital adoption, encouraging customers to use self-service channels for future requests.
Achieving First-Call Resolution (FCR)
The life and annuity industry averages an FCR rate of about 76%, slightly outperforming contact center industry standards. Despite this, nearly one in four requests still go unresolved on the first call. System fragmentation (forcing reps to navigate 20+ screens), data quality issues, and rigid, paper-based processes are the leading contributors to this. The transactions most challenging to resolve on a single call tend to be policy modifications (such as ownership or beneficiary changes) and financial transactions (surrenders, loans, reinstatements).
Travis and Ryan touched on a few ways carriers are working to address these challenges, including:
- Simplifying the UI for reps: Consolidating data and systems to fewer screens reduces training time and increases service speed.
- Integrating front-end UI with back-end workflows: This allows home office staff to start a complex digital transaction on behalf of an agent or policyholder during a call, and then smoothly hand it off for online completion, providing a “white glove service.”
To ensure a measurable ROI, carriers are encouraged to analyze their transaction volume and cost economics to identify which simple, high-volume requests (e.g., updating an address or making a payment) are “ripe for digitization.”
Transforming Servicing from Cost Center to Profit Driver
Historically viewed as a cost to be maintained, the service center is evolving into a strategic asset for revenue generation and differentiation. As life and annuity products become increasingly commoditized, the customer experience (CX) delivered by the service center is becoming a competitive differentiator.
The phone call remains the most preferred channel for insurance customers to convert from shopping to buying, converting 10 to 15 times more revenue than generic web leads. Even if service teams aren’t licensed to sell, Travis and Ryan identify other ways they can support profitability:
- Boosting Retention: A strong service center delivers a better CX, increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
- Driving New Business: Agents are more likely to drive business to a carrier they trust to take excellent care of their clients.
- Enabling Leads: Providing agents with greater visibility into service center-led digital transactions (e.g., a policyholder changing their address) can help uncover potential upsell, cross-sell, and retention opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed.
AI’s Potential Impact on Service Channels
The integration of AI, while promising, is proceeding cautiously in the highly regulated insurance sector. Only a small fraction of insurers have Generative AI (GenAI) / Large Language Models (LLMs) in full production, and the industry is expected to be one of the last to fully master AI adoption. Despite the slow progress, a recent EY study found that 68% of surveyed insurers are investing in GenAI-powered chatbots for cross-selling additional products, suggesting a proactive move into customer-facing applications3.
While full end-to-end AI-answered calls are technically feasible, the industry’s reliance on building trust for complex, long-term financial contracts makes an AI-assisted human rep the central model for the future. Travis and Ryan explored more immediate ways that AI can be applied, including:
- Agent Side-Assist: Providing reps with real-time, intuitive next-best-action suggestions based on a customer’s profile and current engagement.
- Smart IVR: Creating more intuitive and effective interactive voice response systems to direct customers to the right resources.
- Back-Office Analytics: Analyzing call transcripts and emails for trends and sentiment to improve future service strategies.
The future of the life and annuity service center lies in embracing technology—not eliminating the human element. Travis and Ryan concluded that delivering a faster, smarter, and more personalized human-digital experience requires empowering the service team with better data, consolidated systems, and AI-powered assistance.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your service center? Click here to watch the complete webinar recording on demand.
https://www.sqmgroup.com/resources/library/blog/call-center-fcr-benchmark-2024-results-by-industry
https://www.plivo.com/blog/omnichannel-customer-service-statistics-you-should-know
— Ryan Matherly,
Senior Director of Customer Success,
Sureify
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