Sabio Group Swoops to Help Multinational Insurance Provider

• Sabio launched new Contact Centre Platforms in the UK and US in just 24 hours after the Insurance Provider’s contact centre platform vendor was hit by a cyber attack 

• The speed and agility shown by Sabio meant customer service was maintained and policyholders continued to receive the support they needed 

In today's digital age, companies of all sizes and operating in all sectors face the threat of cyber-attacks. 

And while such incidents are rare, when they occur, they can have a significant impact on a company's operations - particularly when that company is reliant on technology for customer service. 

One leading multinational insurance provider, and a long-term Sabio customer, experienced this first hand recently. 

Their contact centre platform was rendered inactive following a cyber-attack on the databases of their third-party provider. The attack was serious enough for them to shut their contact centre platform down not only in the UK, but in the US as well – taking down all core voice, payments and its Contact Centre Automation (CCA) platform. 

With no automation journeys available, and no way of taking calls, this was a potentially catastrophic situation for the business. 

And with no concrete timeframe as to when their platform would return, the insurance provider was forced to launch their Business Continuity Plans (BCP) in both regions. 

For the US, all calls were outsourced – which had an impact on customer experience (CX). And in the UK, the BCP proved to be incompatible with hybrid working, meaning all agents had to travel to a remote facility. Although calls were being taken, it wasn’t the greatest experience for the advisor nor the customer. 

Due to the nature of the contact centre outage, and unknown time-to-resolution, a better solution was required...  

Aiding the Multinational Insurance Provider... 

The insurance provider in question has been a Sabio customer for more than 17 years. 

In that time, Sabio has supported their contact centre and CX infrastructure in the UK, the US, Spain and France; with both Spain and France continuing to be supported by Sabio to this day.  

Thanks to this historical relationship and our subsequent and intricate understanding of their business, when it became apparent that they needed support to navigate its cyber-attack challenges, they turned to Sabio. 

As a vendor-agnostic organisation with a strong network of partners, Sabio was able to assess the situation and identify a solution quickly, eventually being given the go-ahead to set up new contact centre platforms both in the UK and in the US – a feat that was successfully achieved in around 24 hours. 

The US Story... 

The insurance provider’s USA business had lost their contact centre as part of the cyber-attack. However, this didn’t affect their inbound call routing or the Sabio-built CCA - but it did mean no calls could be routed to their agents. Instead, 100% of calls were being routed to a third party. 

We put a plan together to launch a contact centre platform on the Twilio Flex solution for the US-based business which was quickly given the go-ahead by the insurance provider. We validated the Flex compatibility with their agent devices successfully before then building a call queue and basic routing capability for their Repair & Management call types. In addition, a PSTN phone number and map to the call queue was created, while dashboards were launched to provide them with real-time reporting. 

Working through the night, our team conducted some end-to-end testing, looping in agents from the insurance provider and performing tasks such as queuing, voice quality checks, real-time reporting, agent handling and wrapping calls. 

The UK Story... 

In the UK, we responded to concerns over failed call routing requests into the insurer’s existing platform. They launched into their BCP, which involved a temporary touch tone IVR in place and their calls routed to an external BCP provider. 

However, we quickly switched their contact centre platform to an Avaya platform, allowing more than 630 agents to work from home. This platform enabled calls to be retaken and the home emergency specialist’s automation capabilities through its CCA technology re-launched with relative contact centre continuity achieved. 

Speed & Agility Wins 

In a matter of hours, the Sabio team had successfully launched replacement contact centre solutions for the insurance provider in the US and in the UK. This enabled them to continue supporting the home repair needs of their customers – and on two different contact centre platforms across two continents. 

The speed with which Sabio was able to set up these new contact centres is testament to our expertise and agility in the face of a crisis. The company's ability to respond quickly and effectively to unexpected challenges is what sets us apart and makes us a trusted partner for companies – such as this insurance provider in this example - in their time of need. 

Sabio's support in this case highlights the importance of CX and customer service in today's business landscape. Companies that are unable to provide timely and effective support to their customers – even if it is not their fault - risk losing their loyalty and damaging their reputation. 

In this instance, by partnering with Sabio, the insurance provider was able to ensure that their customers continued to receive the support they needed, when they needed it, in the face of a potentially critical situation. 

Alls Well That Ends Well... 

By setting up new contact centres as quickly in the face of a crisis, Sabio was able to ensure that the insurer’s customers continued to receive the support they needed during what was a stressful and challenging time for the company.  

In summary; 

• We stood up a contact centre platform in hours which provided a service for several days in the UK and in the US using the insurer’s own agents with little training or preparation 

• The Sabio solution across both countries handled over 10,000 hours of agent time combined, and more than 1000 unique agents across both systems 

• In total, more than 39,000 calls were handled across the UK and US, (22.500 in the US and nearly 17,500 in the UK) with a pick-up rate of 93% 

• In addition, there were 5k outbound calls made with an AHT of c.6mins 

• At the same time, and despite being in the middle of a live crisis, our team were also on hand to respond to requests for rapid changes while still offering options based on features built for other customers 

Although a troubling and challenging time for the insurance provider, Sabio proved it places its customers interests front and centre at all times. We demonstrated expertise, technological know-how and the agile mindsight required to ensure that their business hardly missed a beat despite a potentially business critical and reputationally damaging cyber-attack targeted to their third-party contact centre provider. 

The insurance specialist in this case tells customers that they can count on them to be there when it matters most.  

For us at Sabio, it was our pleasure to be able to return the favour...