Niva Bupa: Redefining customer engagement with personalized interactions

As digitalization accelerates across industries, India’s health insurance sector is moving toward digital-first operations. Traditional paper-based processes are being replaced with streamlined, real-time, and personalized digital experiences. Whether it’s policy issuance or sending renewal reminders, the use of digital technologies has simplified the entire operational process for insurance companies.

We spoke to Vikas Rathi, Senior Manager – Digital Marketing, Niva Bupa to learn how they are reimagining customer experience with data-driven personalization and real-time engagement.

According to Vikas, Indian health insurance customers expect real-time interaction and tailored communication from brands on digital channels for services such as policy recommendations or policy-related assistance.

Changing dynamics of the Indian health insurance industry

Customer expectations are pushing insurers to rethink every touchpoint, from acquisition to claims. Here are some of the key drivers for this digitalization:

Evolving customer expectations

Today’s customers expect fast and frictionless service, whether related to insurance policy selection or filing a claim. Inspired by the ease of eCommerce and rise of mobile apps, more customers now prefer to manage their insurance digitally. As a result, insurers are moving from legacy systems to connected, data-driven customer experiences.

Availability of cutting-edge technology

AI, automation, and machine learning are helping insurers better understand their customers. By using data from past interactions, companies can offer personalized policy suggestions, simplify complex processes, and deliver faster service, making it easier for customers to find what they need without spending hours researching products.

Mobile and internet penetration

India has approximately 650 million smartphone users, or about 46% smartphone penetration, which makes it convenient for customers to access insurance plans even from remote locations. Insurance companies can also educate customers about health insurance benefits and run promotions through digital ads.

Vikas Rathi, Senior Manager – Digital Marketing, Niva Bupa — **Vikas Rathi**
Senior Manager – Digital Marketing, Niva Bupa

Emerging CX trends impacting the health insurance sector

Fueled by customer demand for greater convenience, health insurance companies have started to prioritize customer experience to maintain loyalty.

A single poor interaction can cause customers to switch providers, making it essential for brands to continuously improve their CX strategies.

Let’s look into key trends shaping the future of CX in the health insurance sector.

Hyper-personalization

Personalization no longer provides 100% satisfaction to customers as they seek deeper and meaningful interaction based on their health needs and lifestyles. Hyper-personalization is a very effective way to suggest health plans, send reminders for preventive care and health checkups, analyzing customer data.

Omnichannel engagement

Today most customers use two to three channels, which can be WhatsApp, RCS, SMS, or Email, and they find it convenient when communication from brands is consistent across these channels. For example, a customer enquiring about a senior citizen insurance plan through a chatbot should receive similar communication on other channels such as email or SMS rather than an irrelevant promotional message.

AI-powered customer support

Conversational AI and Generative AI are helping insurers handle support at scale. Gone are the days when customers would wait in queue for customer service agents to attend to them. With AI-driven chatbots, routine queries, and proactive communication, such as appointment scheduling and reminders, can be easily handled, providing an intuitive customer experience.

Conversational messaging: A key driver for customer satisfaction and loyalty

Conversational customer experience is much more than just answering common queries. It is a complete one-to-one conversation with a personalized approach. AI Powered by AI and machine learning, AI-driven chatbots can analyze customer data to deliver tailored responses that build trust and strengthen loyalty.

As Vikas notes, with templates available on channels such as RCS and WhatsApp, it is much easier to customize and enhance the customer experience.

With the evolution of conversational and generative AI, chatbots can create engaging content for your customers using text, videos, and images. Creating a conversational experience through AI-powered channels benefits your customer service process and elevates your sales and marketing interactions.

Infobip making conversational experiences a reality

To bring this vision to life, Niva Bupa partnered with Infobip to build a personalized, omnichannel engagement strategy. Our partnership helped the insurance company create a robust omnichannel and remarketing strategy using WhatsApp, RCS, Email, and SMS channels.

Based on past customer interactions with their website, they were able to recommend the right health insurance plans and send notifications for completing purchases.

Rich media support on WhatsApp and RCS made these interactions more dynamic and engaging, while SMS and email ensured reliable delivery of transactional updates.

Our omnichannel expertise enabled Niva Bupa to enhance its customers’ journeys through meaningful interactions, from brand awareness to acquisition and retention.

As a leader in conversational customer experience solutions, we empower global brands to unlock the full potential of omnichannel marketing and AI driven solutions leveraging customer data to drive personalization and growth.