Inside Prudential 'digital products' with new unit leader

Inside Prudential's digital products with new unit leader

June 16, 2022 6:45 AM

Prudential has named Utkarsh Patel as global head of digital products. He has experience with BBVA, Citigroup, and American Express. Patel will join Hema Widhani, Prudential’s Chief Customer Officer, as the two work to transform Prudential's digital experiences for customers, clients, and advisors. Patel granted an e-mail interview with Digital Insurance to get some insight on Prudential's digital transition and how he plans to navigate his role at his new company; a lightly edited transcript of that is below.

Can you tell me a little about yourself? What is your background and what made you want to work with Prudential?

Utkarsh Patel, Prudential

Prudential handout

I’ve always been interested in the intersection of data, technology and digital solutions to provide customers with an industry-leading and personalized experience. I’ve managed large-scale and complex business transformations for b-to-b and b-to-c commpanies across the globe, including BBVA, American Express, Citigroup, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Wealth Enhancement Group, and Humana.

What are some short-term and long-term goals in Prudential’s digital strategy?

In the short-term, we are laser-focused on creating more streamlined digital processes to make it easier to do business with us. One example of this is what we’re doing to simplify the claims process for beneficiaries. We are also enabling more omni-channel transactions to ‘meet’ customers where they are. In the long-term, we’re focused on delivering a unified digital transformation that will provide industry-leading customer experiences across our businesses with differentiated experiences: delivering on our strategic pillar to blend human touch with advanced technology.

What are the major duties of your new role as the head of digital products?

As global head of digital products for Prudential, I will focus on transforming customer, client and advisor digital experiences to drive critical business outcomes. I work closely with the Customer & Digital Senior Leadership Team within Prudential’s Marketing organization and partner with our U.S. Business presidents and technology leaders, to ensure that we’re consistently delivering digital products that meet our customers’ needs -- from their very first interaction to long-standing clients.

What is the purview of the digital products group?

At Prudential, we look at several factors to inform our decision-making process when it comes to new products. First and foremost, there needs to be a clear and defined customer need to address or fix. The second thing we think about is how a new product would help not only address the issue, but also elevate the customer experience to better meet experiential expectations. It’s important that we have strategic intent behind our actions so that we are consistently delivering differentiated experiences. 

Overall, we’re focused on self-serve capabilities and more seamless, intuitive and omni-channel experiences. We focus on products that provide customers with more confidence about their financial wellness, so they feel more empowered to reach their goals. There are some primary product benefits that guide our decision-making efforts. We want to deliver omni-channel products that are intuitive and easy to navigate: this means clearer, more seamless transaction requirements and easier access to important information that the customer needs. We also look at ways to make the experience more streamlined – so that we are meeting our customers’ needs wherever and whenever they need us.

What are some examples of these products?

A few digital products that come to mind: SimplyTerm, which is Prudential's direct-to-consumer, basic term life product that allows customers to purchase digitally through a seamless experience (which includes instant underwriting) or through a Prudential Advisor. We’re also transforming our digital claims experience for our life insurance products to create a more seamless experience, answering a need that exists for many of our customer’s beneficiaries. We’re also focused on providing personalized client experiences on our digital properties based on behavioral and geo-location data. Another strong example of how we’re enhancing the experience for customers is by offering a personalized, gamified experience (Prudential Rewards) with relevant content about finance, health and mindset (via connectivity to a fitness tracker), coupled with quizzes and activities to earn points toward rewards.

How do these products fit in Prudential’s strategy overall?

A key pillar of Prudential’s strategy is to deliver industry-leading customer and client experiences that blend human touch with advanced technology. Our product strategy, our digital north star, is directly aligned to this strategic pillar. Our Experience Design group closely partners with our product organization to bring the element of human-centered design into all of our products to ensure our customers’ unique needs and goals remain at the forefront during each stage of the design process.

Building and integrating the right technology to provide the Prudential customer with a unified and personalized experience they deserve, from learning about their first interaction with us to being a long-standing customer with multiple products. Not only will this improve [customer experience] KPIs, it will also provide Prudential with a better understanding of our customers and provide us with the ability to service our customers in a proactive and even automated way.

What are some challenges that Prudential may face with regards to digital product adoption?

Customers’ expectations are constantly shifting and it’s challenging for businesses across almost all industries to mirror that pace. We can combat that headwind with a digital-first and data-led approach to digital transformation. It’s also important that we prioritize digital product adoption based on the voice of our customers – we need to be smart and strategic about this, so that we work on the right thing at the right time to avoid stretching resources and delaying experiential expectations. That can be difficult, especially in the new normal brought on by the pandemic. Talent is in high-demand and more and more companies are adopting a mobile workforce – and the battle for talent can cause challenges for the speed of execution and product evolution.