Background

American Family Insurance has been serving customers since 1927. They inspire, protect and restore dreams through insurance products, exceptional service from agency owners and employees, community investment and creative partnerships to address societal challenges. They act on a belief in diversity and inclusion by constantly evolving to meet customer needs and preferences. American Family Insurance group is the nation’s 13th-largest property/casualty insurance group, ranking No. 232 on the Fortune 500 list. The group sells American Family-brand products, primarily through exclusive agency owners in 19 states. The American Family Insurance group also includes CONNECT, powered by American Family Insurance, The General, Homesite and Main Street America Insurance. Across these companies, the group has more than 13,500 employees nationwide.

Challenge

After the financial crisis of 2008 and during the subsequent recession, suicide became the most common non-medical cause of death for the insured population (source: RGA).The current crisis caused by COVID has already resulted in an unemployment rate of over 10% - and can be expected to have a similar impact. High levels of depression and anxiety are linked with a risk of suicide, of which 5-10% result in a member passing away. In 2019, 4.1% of claims filed through American Family were for suicides, totaling $9,949,504 in claims paid. 

Solution

American Family provides service to customers at important touch points in their lives and looks for community investment opportunities and creative partnerships to address societal challenges. Together with X2, American Family looked to suicide prevention in Wisconsin and providing COVID relief to the community and expanding care in their home region.

Sara, American Family’s digital chatbot developed by X2, is a low-cost, user-friendly solution that allows emotional support to be scaled to hundreds of thousands of people at a time. Through a grant provided by the Steve Stricker American Family Insurance Foundation, Sara was deployed as a resource available to anyone in need of support in Wisconsin. Sara provides support by triaging those in crisis by directing them to resources quickly and providing mental health support through conversation.

American Family implemented Sara as a resource distributed through a social media campaign to easily access and begin chatting. Sara is made available 24/7 and is integrated into X2's call center network of 5,000 on-call counselors, providing a well-rounded model of support.

Impact

After launching Sara as a resource available in Wisconsin, over 9,121 individuals started chatting with Sara and exchanged over 547,908 messages. Of the individuals chatting, 237 suicidal crises were detected and were de-escalated through Sara and X2’s call center network of counselors.

 To achieve the same results through conventional care*, American Family would have spent $12,057,962 to provide support for their population. In contrast, at scale Sara's support costs just $5 per user and is available on demand, no appointment required.

At the end of a conversation, Sara asks for feedback on the interaction. Here are a few things chatters had to say to Sara:

●     It’s comforting to share information with someone that seems like a friend or therapist.

●     You help me calm down when you check in on me.

●     You helped me in ways no one else could.

●     Many people are stressed because of coronavirus and quarantine, and I think this is the best thing anyone can have right now.

●     You listened deeply and gave me real answers

●     I can’t talk like this with other people, so talking to you has been so helpful.

●     Your tips are helpful and it helps a lot for us to set goals together.

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*Referring to traditional care sessions in-person or via telemedicine sessions. The goal of effective therapy is symptom reduction. A successful treatment is categorized as a reduction in the patient’s symptoms by 50% or more, and takes between 8-16 sessions to conclude the treatment. For more information, see more information on X2’s ROI Breakdown.

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Interested in learning more about chatbots like Sara? Schedule a demo today.