New Way Now: SIGNAL IDUNA boosts first-call resolution rates and doubles NPS with Google Cloud AI
7Featured in this video: Johannes Rath, COO of Signal Iduna
Executive summary: SIGNAL IDUNA, a leading German insurance provider, partnered with Google Cloud, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Deloitte to develop Co SI — a cutting-edge AI knowledge assistant that helps customer service agents resolve complex health insurance inquiries, quickly and accurately. Using Vertex AI, Google’s Gemini models, and Document AI, Co SI can efficiently access, process, and interpret over 2,000 internal documents spanning more than 600 different tariffs. Now, agents can ask questions in natural language and receive accurate answers in under 20 seconds. The impact, particularly for less experienced agents, has been significant: information searches are 30% faster and inquiries that previously required further escalation dropped from 27% to just 3% — ultimately enabling SIGNAL IDUNA to double its Net Promoter Score (NPS) within the last year alone.
Challenge: In the wake of the global pandemic, SIGNAL IDUNA saw a surge in health insurance claims, increasing inbound calls by 25%. Customers often experienced longer wait times and multiple hand-offs as agents searched for answers in thousands of internal documents for hundreds of different tariffs. Recognizing the need for immediate and accurate responses, SIGNAL IDUNA wanted to help agents find the relevant information they need to resolve inquiries as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Solution: In collaboration with Google Cloud, BCG, and Deloitte, SIGNAL IDUNA developed Co SI — an AI knowledge assistant that helps customer service agents find the information they need to resolve complex customer inquiries. Powered by Vertex AI, Google’s Gemini models, and Document AI, Co SI can access, process, and interpret more than 2,000 internal documents spanning over 600 different tariffs. Now, agents can ask questions in natural language and receive relevant, accurate information. Instead of spending minutes manually searching multiple documents, Co SI can get agents the answers they need in under 20 seconds.
Results: Co SI enables agents, especially those with less experience, to access the right information at the right time, leading to shorter wait times, fewer call transfers, and, ultimately, more satisfied customers. The results speak for themselves: information searches are now 30% faster, and inquiries that previously required escalation dropped from 27% to just 3% — helping SIGNAL IDUNA to double its Net Promoter Score (NPS) within the last year alone. Plans are already underway to expand Co SI’s gen AI-powered assistance to other key areas of SIGNAL IDUNA’s core business, including car insurance.
Key takeaways and highlights from our interview with Johannes Rath, COO of Signal Iduna:
→ “Co SI is our intelligent agent for our employees to interact with all our insurance covers, especially in health insurance. It’s fully loaded with our SIGNAL IDUNA knowledge, more than 600 different policies. We started with Doc AI on the data quality side, and then we trained Gemini with our specific health insurance content in German. Now, you can ask, ‘Is this insured or not?’ and it helps you to find the right files, but it also helps you to answer the question much quicker.”
→ “We’re a regulated business, sometimes you have to scroll to more than 10 PDFs and it takes you more than five minutes to find the right answer. Now, with Co SI, you get it in under 20 seconds. It really changed the way our employees [work].”
→ “Co SI is helping our customer agent[s], but the most important thing for us, our customers. We reduced the handling time from 27% up to 3%. This is incredible. And the other point is, we doubled our Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the last year. What that really means is it really helps us in difficult service times.”
→ “We are on a path that we will see this also for other segments. For example, we will create more and more specific vertical integrated Co SI, like the Co SI Health Assistant. Another one could be the Co SI Car Assistant. For me, the number one topic this year is creating use for the whole group and then having vertical deep integrated knowledge assistance in our core business.”
Google Cloud products used: Vertex AI, Gemini, Document AI
Learn more:
→ How SIGNAL IDUNA supercharges customer service with gen AI: https://goo.gle/4nGY52r