Transforming Insurance Through Empathy and Innovation: Aflac's Journey in Enhancing Customer and Employee Experiences

Aflac manages customer interactions during highly stressful life events, such as cancer diagnoses, where empathy and support are crucial. “This can be a very traumatic and emotional time. You really don’t know how to navigate everything, you are scared, and processes can be complicated. We recognize a special need for those customers,” Daniel explained. Ensuring that employees are well-equipped, trained and motivated to handle such sensitive interactions is essential. Aflac’s challenge was to prioritize ease of interaction, help reduce stress for both customers and employees, streamline processes, and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.

Actions

Aflac adopted a holistic approach to the human experience, integrating customer and employee experiences to achieve tangible business results. Key initiatives included:

• Establishing a specialized team to handle first-time cancer claims, providing personalized support during traumatic times.
• Shifting metrics from inward-focused to customer-centric, with "Customer Ease" becoming the primary metric.
• Implementing continuous training programs, including micro-learning and engagement initiatives.
• Forming an employee advisory council to involve frontline staff in decision-making, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement.
• Adopting technology for a non-disruptive integration of new capabilities, such as call journey automation, workforce optimization, natural language speech routing.
• Continuous evaluation of new technologies, such as current developments with Avaya AI agent assist – referred to by Aflac as their ‘Bionic Eye’ - to enhance both customer and employee experiences.