It just got a whole lot easier for clients of Jackson National Life, as well as for their customer contact representatives. Their Genius Operations Manual helps customer reps answer any possible question about any one of their annuity products, according to Anthony O’Donnell of Insurance & Technology. In the article, “Jackson National Life’s “Genius” Project Boosts Annuity Service, Reduces Errors,” we learn that the Genius system gives reps real-time annuity information through the use of Thunderhead’s software.
Since December of 2011, service reps have had the software available for fixed annuities. It should be available for variable annuities in a couple months. If a producer or customer calls into the center, the reps almost immediately have access to the client’s specific product, the issue age and state, and the resident state. The Genius system basically creates an individual product reference guide for Jackson’s customer reps to use with their clients. It had been difficult to avoid errors in the past, as well as time consuming for reps to search for individual information related to each annuity product and client. The system was less than efficient.
With more than 5,000 plan codes, SEC regulations, and individual state and territory differences, it was close to impossible to give the best information to everyone. One of Jackson’s biggest problems was quoting annuity rates because of all that went into an individual quote. It took at least 9,000 hours of content development and 3,700 programming hours to get the Genius system in place, but Jackson believes that it was well worth the cost. They just won’t disclose what that cost was. They haven’t yet determined what metrics they’ll use to gauge success, but they’ve seen the elimination of incorrect annuity rate quoting as well as immediate improvements to service.
Written by Rachel Summit
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