IATI increases its conversion rate by 30% with Oct8ne

A journey towards new technologies

IATI, a leading company in the travel insurance sector, was founded as an insurance brokerage in 1885, expanding over time and embracing digital transformation in recent years. Today, it offers 100% online services without losing its essence. One quality that has always set IATI apart from its competitors is its excellent customer service. Email and phone calls were their main communication channels, but in 2017, IATI decided to implement Oct8ne’s live chat, changing the way its customers made inquiries. Shortly after, recognizing the possibilities offered by new technologies, they configured a chatbot to provide 24/7 instant support, and finally, they integrated AI to further humanize responses and ultra-personalize communications.

Setting up IATI Help, the Bot

When discussing the bot configuration process, as most companies do, they first identified the most frequent queries to automate them and provide quick responses without human intervention. For the AI integration, the process can be divided into two phases. In the first phase, they created and configured the general prompt, where all the information the bot needed to respond was introduced. The key focus was ensuring that the bot specialized in travel insurance, providing generic information as needed but primarily focusing on their products and answering frequent customer inquiries. The second phase involves continuous improvement of the prompt since the bot needs to keep learning and improving over time.

The main reason for contacting IATI’s Bot

Sandra Villar, Customer Service Specialist at IATI, explains that “customers are looking for personalized service based on where they’re traveling, the type of trip they’re taking, and their needs, so we can recommend the best product for them”. This is made possible by the integration of Oct8ne with ChatGPT, which allows the bot to respond as if it were a human agent, recommending the best insurance depending on the destination and offering other complementary information.

IATI Help + traditional customer service channels

Today, when you visit IATI’s website, the first communication channel is the chatbot, which handles over 400 chats daily and, thanks to artificial intelligence, offers almost the same level of service a human agent would provide. However, while the bot can successfully handle most inquiries, the company always likes to offer the option of speaking with a human agent, as many customers still prefer this.
Sandra explains: “We always offer a second option, which in this case would be either a phone call or email. There is always a percentage of customers, though small, who want to be served by a person. Today, we handle a high volume of chats, and the percentage that reaches our customer service department is very low—around 5%, more or less.”

Furthermore, since implementing the Oct8ne chatbot, the volume of inquiries received through other channels has significantly decreased. “Initially, we had a live chat because we were able to have people responding to our customers, but with the current volume of inquiries and clients, it’s impossible for us to handle that manually.”

Customer reaction

The fact that only 5% of help requests are transferred to human agents reveals that customer satisfaction when interacting with the chatbot is positive, as the remaining 95% received the assistance they needed without requiring extra support. Another indicator of customer satisfaction is that 30% of the chats result in a sale, which is a very high figure. Sandra clarifies: “We’re talking about a 30% average conversion rate in our chat before implementing AI, so we believe that now, with AI, this conversion rate will stay the same or even increase”. Another key aspect of the chatbot interaction that customers value most is the immediacy and availability for inquiries at any time on the website. Sandra adds: “Today, we all seek immediacy. When we have a question or inquiry, we want the answer right away. What the chat allows is exactly that—you can ask a question, and the chat responds instantly, 24 hours a day. Our customer service team has defined working hours, but we have customers who contact us from any country in the world”.

The benefits of complementing Oct8ne at IATI insurance

Among the main benefits of implementing the Oct8ne chatbot, IATI highlights the ability to offer customers an alternative communication channel beyond traditional ones like phone and email. Additionally, the 24/7 availability enables ultra-personalized responses to customer queries, reducing the number of help requests transferred to the customer service team. This optimizes resources by only handling the most complex cases.

Why should a service company provide quality customer service?

According to Sandra, providing quality service sets the company apart from its competitors. As mentioned earlier, we’re used to not waiting for answers. To better understand this: if a customer visits our website and receives an immediate response to their inquiries, they’re more likely to purchase or sign up for the desired product. On the other hand, if they need to contact us via phone or other time-consuming channels, they’re less likely to do so. In conclusion, Sandra believes that “the chat tool is very interesting nowadays. I’d say it’s essential for any customer service department without a doubt”.

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