Digital transformation and growing the agency force are the top priorities for new Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. president Alex Narciso as he leads the company towards maintaining its leadership in the industry.
“Part of my mandate is to ensure that Sun Life remains at the forefront of the changing landscape of the insurance industry amidst changing consumer preferences, a more volatile environment, and new business models emerging,” Narciso said in a recent media briefing.
“To begin with, we want to drive digital transformation to adapt to the changing needs of our clients. At the same time, this is an opportunity for us to leverage on the power of data and technology. We want to enhance customer experiences across all channels and lines of business by simplifying processes and reducing customer effort,” Narciso said.
In the past few years, Sun Life has been boosting its offerings via the said platform by creating the first ever mobile app in the insurance industry with account management capability, launching massive open online courses on financial topics, and creating an automated leads conversion program that allows its advisors to quickly respond to inquiries of potential clients.
Among its initial offerings in 2018 are the new tools that will now be embedded on the Sun Life website (sunlife.com.ph), such as the Online Financial Assessment, Life Insurance Calculator, Investment Calculator and the Advisor Match.
But as it boosts its digital capabilities, Sun Life will also continue to grow its agency force, which is now 11,000-strong. “Recruitment is definitely a priority, because the agency force remains to be a significant component of our business. They bring in the personal touch, which is very important because the topic of money is very personal,” Narciso said. “We aim to have more Sun Life advisors nationwide in order to reach more Filipinos.”
The executive, who also acts as the company’s chief agency distribution officer, said that with these two components, Sun Life is confident that it would accomplish its goal of serving 5 million Filipinos by year 2020 under the company’s long-term growth plan dubbed “RI5E PH.”
“We gave ourselves five years to accomplish this, and halfway through it, we are already at 3 million clients. That means we have nearly doubled our client base in just two years, and we are definitely on track to complete this goal,” Narciso said.
“We will continue to anchor our efforts on financial literacy to help Filipinos become more savvy and empowered when it comes to managing their money and utilizing financial instruments,” he said.