Mr. Aalok Bhan is a Seasoned business professional with close to three decades of experience across life insurance, banking and education. Passionate about growing business and building leaders in equal measure. Strongly believe that humility, re-learning and governance are critical for success.

 In the current role, overseeing the company’s Product, Branding and Corporate Communication strategies towards strengthening Customer-Oriented Product Design strategies, Brand Positioning and Marketing, as well as managing all Corporate & Internal Communications.

In the past, led the company's distribution footprint across the nation with the responsibility of managing and driving Agency and all bank partnerships, further strengthening the company’s multi-channel distribution architecture and growing its market share.

Always believed in having a strong bias for action, unleashing people potential for maximising revenue and identifying new pockets of profitable growth. 

Q. In Marketing what kind of challenges you have faced in the last 4 months?

For brand and marketing leaders, the challenge remained in changing things which have been there for years and to make sure that new technology perfectly integrated with the legacy systems, some of which could not be replaced easily, for instance physical touchpoints. As this phase required social distancing, the biggest challenge was to drive engagement and constant reassurance and build trust on the back of strong digital fundamentals.

In line with our values of ‘customer obsession’, at Max Life we were quick to respond to changing consumption patterns and stayed on top of latest trends to cater to customers’ changing preferences in the midst of the pandemic. As the world moved online, we quickly adapted to change by channelizing our resources onto social media and digital marketing to drive sustained engagement. For instance, our simple yet innovative approach to staying connected with customers on social media #The21DayDifference challenge received a positive response and engagement. More recently our e-Super Customer Week, digitized customer engagement creatively. 

Furthermore, life Insurance is a long term business. To sell long term savings and protection solutions, “Trust” became the bedrock for all our actions and conversations. During the initial stages of lockdown, when customers needed reassurance, we enabled digital modes to service all their policy related needs. We helped customers through ‘Self- Serve Do It yourself’ videos which were easily understandable to guide them to explore the various digital servicing options we have enabled on our website to help them. We also created a separate Covid-19 section on our website to proactively take care of customer queries related to the topic. 

Furthermore, in order to get closer to the customer, Max Life also built a conversational interface powered by Google Cloud to solve queries and improve services. The all-in-one solution is bringing efficiency to customer services by building conversational interface, enabling self-servicing as a way to handle customer queries. 

Q. What are the challenges you anticipate for the next 8 months?

While the long term impact of COVID-19 on consumer buying habits, brands and consumption remains to be seen, there are many factors that will guide short-term decision making. However, some changes are here to stay post pandemic, like digital becoming the new normal in almost every arena and industry. Data insights will have an instrumental role to play when it comes to personalizing user communication for prospecting from different target audiences. To remain on course, marketers will have to do what they have always done best – adapt. Staying on top of the latest trends, watching the data for insight, and understanding new consumer behaviors by reaching out to them more diligently, will be key in driving successful marketing strategies moving forward.

Q. Do you think online sales will take over traditional sales in the next 3 years? If Yes, Why? If No, Why?

Over the last few months, under lockdown, there has been a significant shift towards the digital way of life. The movement towards ‘Digital’ only mediums is expected to be the new normal post the pandemic as consumers are growing acquainted with digital channels. This has further translated into how consumers search, interact with insurers and buy policies. Insights from google analytics show an 89% growth in term insurance google searches.

At Max Life Insurance too, as operations across the value chain have been digitized through COVID-19, there’s been a significant growth in our e-commerce channel. Our digital first consumer mindset has resulted in 31% growth of e-commerce channels during the first quarter (AMJ) with a YoY growth of 37%.

Q. Which are the new products you are launching in the next 3 to 6 month?

We are very aggressive on designing new products and bringing more innovation to the fore, bringing varied offerings in both products and riders category to address customers’ emergent needs in today’s times. Keeping in mind the current context, we are looking at introducing products within the non-participating and savings segment as customers are increasingly opting for solutions with more certainty and will come up with a product variant towards the second half of the year. We are also looking at launching Covid specific riders to address the incremental demand of consumers, while aiming to improve our term plan portfolio. 

Q. Which product/s do you think will do well in the next 2 years?

Based on past experiences, it has been observed that pandemics provide tailwinds to two types of products, namely protection and guaranteed products and we already foresee shift towards such product forms. At Max Life, we have assessed and witnessed that more consumers are preferring investments in protection products and guaranteed saving products to secure the future of their loved ones in these uncertain times. While the demand for guaranteed savings products will increase, we believe people will continue to focus on important life-stage goals such as children’s education and marriage which are time-bound.

As per Max Life’s ‘India Protection Quotient Express’ Survey (a Covid-19 centric study conducted in association with Kantar) too, 41% intender respondents said that they would purchase term plans because with increase in spread of COVID-19, it is important to have a financial protection for self and family.

Q. Have you launched any product looking at the present situation? If yes please explain.

We have had two recent product launches; Max Life Flexi Wealth Plus which is a ULIP product that offers a range of flexible solutions and options to personalize investments basis different risk appetites and Max Life Group Saral Suraksha Plan, a group-micro insurance product with flexible options and accelerated benefits which helps enhance protection by covering Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) caused due to accident. 

At Max Life Insurance, we believe it is important to rapidly adapt to a future more aligned with the contemporary expectations of customers. The future will not only require insurance products to become more innovative but to take personalization and customization to a new level.