(January 5 – 10:50 ET) – Manulife Financial’s Group Benefits division is ramping up its efforts to automate customer service. It launched a new Internet site to provide its benefits plan members with online access to their health and dental benefit and claims information.
Manulife says it spent more than a year developing the site to ensure client information will be secure. The site offers access to much the same data as clients would have available from customer service reps or Manulife’s Interactive Voice Response system. That includes the status of claim cheques and information about their coverage. An e-mail feature also automates customer inquiries, ensuring one-day response times.
Manulife is currently rolling out the new functionality to its bigger clients, but expects it to be demanded across all its markets soon. It has 8,000 plan sponsor clients.