Philam Life takes digital road well traveled

TOP PHILAM TEAM(from left) Leo Tan, chief marketing officer; Kelvin Ang, chief executive officer; Gigi Pio de Roda, chief operations officer; and Noel Mendoza, chief technology officer

As businesses continue to grapple with digitization, a life insurance company is confidently claiming that it is the first to build a system that is completely digital—making its entire sales process easier for both policyholders and financial advisors.

Philam Life’s digital journey started in 2013, when the company went paperless, says Kelvin Ang, Philam Life chief executive officer, long before the local insurance industry was even looking at such processes.

The company did this through the iPoS (interactive point of sale) system, an iPad-based digital platform.

It is the only fully functional digital end-to-end selling tool in the local life insurance industry, which makes the buying process seamless and convenient for both the customer and financial advisor through the collection of necessary information needed to generate a policy proposal instantly, and close the sale immediately.

“That took away a lot of the complexity,” Ang says. “And I think we were even able to inspire other companies to do somehow the same.”

But it was in 2017 when Philam Life began looking at digitalization from a wholistic point of view, says Gigi Pio de Roda, chief operations officer.

The company divided its digital strategy into four pillars: learn (about Philamlife’s products based through their website), buy (through iPos), aftersales and claims (through the platforms iServe and ePlan).

Making life easier with the different digital tools at the Spark by Philam office in Makati City

Philam Life’s website serves as the company’s primary educational tool when it comes to its different product offerings, Pio de Roda says.

Easy to navigate, intuitive and comprehensive, this platform makes learning about insurance uncomplicated by using simple language to present intimidating concepts and terms.

A self-help financial calculator called Liv is also available on the site, which allows customers to quickly assess their financial needs.

Once a customer decides to meet with a financial advisor, they are introduced to iPos, which allows the latter to make a more detailed assessment of one’s financial goals and priorities and risk profile.

Once a proposal has been generated and the customer has signified confirmation to purchase, he or she can just sign directly on the iPad, and pay via credit card or arrange through auto-debit.

The e-receipt and e-policy (now legally binding, says Pio de Roda) will be sent immediately via email.

Aftersales service comes in the form of iServe, Philam Life’s digital customer service platform that enables its 8,000 financial advisors to perform various functions that would normally require a customer to drop by one of their customer service centers.

iServe allows financial advisors to be self-sufficient in servicing the needs of customers by allowing them to perform various transactions: receive payments (including through credit card), submit requests, change details and process claims, among others.

The more self-sufficient and independent customers who want to access their details and perform transactions by themselves (such as view policy details, view billing notices and other relevant notices, view the value of their investments, manage portfolio, request for assistance and update their contact information), can do so via another online portal called ePlan, which can be accessed from anywhere, 24/7.

“We have designed our digital road map with the customer journey in mind. By putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes, we were able to understand their pain points and we developed our digital tools to address their concerns,” Pio de Roda says.

With such systems in place, Ang says Philam Life also plans to expand its coverage to tap more of the Philippines’ C and D markets.

“The A and B segments are insured, but the hardworking class who live check to check are largely not. And when something happens [to the breadwinner], everyone collapses,” Ang says. “Through these e-services, we can improve financial literacy and distribution in these segments.”