Customers have become comfortable managing myriad aspects of their lives through digital experiences. Yet many customer service interactions still begin with a phone call and a maze of menu options.
For organizations trying to balance rising customer expectations with operational efficiency, that creates a growing challenge: How do you make self-service easier without forcing customers to abandon the channels they prefer?
The answer increasingly lies in meeting customers where they are. Rather than replacing voice, some organizations are extending it with visual and digital experiences that simplify complex tasks, reduce effort and improve containment.
Grupo Nacional Provincial (GNP), one of Mexico’s largest insurance providers, offers a compelling example of what’s possible.
By building on the Genesys Cloud™ platform and extending self-service capabilities with a Visual IVR experience from Zappix, available through the Genesys AppFoundry® Marketplace, GNP transformed two of its most common customer journeys: bill payment and roadside assistance. The results included more than 99% containment for bill payment interactions, more than 90% containment for roadside assistance requests. And the production deployment took less than 12 weeks.
The insurer’s approach offers a practical blueprint for organizations looking to modernize customer journeys without disrupting existing operations.
The self-service challenge isn’t access — it’s effort
Most organizations have invested in providing customers with self-service options. Customers can access websites, mobile apps, chatbots, virtual assistants and automated phone systems. Yet many contact centers continue to struggle with low containment rates, particularly for interactions that involve multiple steps, decision points or information gathering.
The problem is that, in many cases, customers find them frustrating or difficult to use.
Traditional IVR systems work well for simple transactions. Checking an account balance or confirming a payment can often be completed quickly using voice prompts or keypad inputs. But as interactions become more complex, friction increases. Customers may need to review information, compare options, enter multiple data points or explain their situation in detail. What begins as a self-service interaction often ends with a transfer to an agent.
This challenge is especially common in insurance, where customers frequently need assistance with tasks that involve policy details, payment options, coverage information or service requests. These interactions are often high-volume, but they’re also too complex for traditional voice-only automation.
As a result, organizations face a difficult balancing act. They want to increase automation and reduce operational costs while also making interactions easier for customers. Achieving both requires rethinking how self-service is delivered.
Extending voice with visual experiences
For many organizations, the next evolution of self-service isn’t replacing voice. It’s augmenting it.
Visual self-service allows customers to move seamlessly from a phone call to a mobile experience that presents information on-screen instead of through audio only prompts. Customers can view options, enter information, verify details and complete tasks using familiar digital interfaces on their smartphones while in their preferred language.
This approach combines the convenience of voice entry with the simplicity of visual interaction.
Instead of listening to multiple menu options and navigating through lengthy prompts, customers can access guided digital workflows designed specifically for the task they’re trying to complete. And because the interaction remains connected to the customer journey, organizations can maintain context and provide a smooth escalation path when human assistance is needed. The Visual IVR platform from Zappix is a widely deployed example of this category, synchronizing an on-screen, mobile-friendly experience directly with the live voice channel in real time.
For GNP, this approach represented an opportunity to improve both customer experience (CX) and operational performance.
Start with the journeys that matter most
Like many insurers, GNP manages a high volume of customer interactions across billing, policy management and roadside assistance services. While many of these interactions were routine, they often required customers to navigate complex processes through a traditional IVR experience.
Rather than attempting a large-scale transformation across every customer touchpoint, GNP focused on two specific journeys that shared three characteristics:
- High interaction volume
- Significant customer effort
- Clear opportunities for automation
The selected use cases were bill payment and roadside assistance.
Both generated substantial contact center demand. Both involved multiple steps that were difficult to complete through voice-only automation. And both had measurable outcomes that would allow GNP to evaluate success quickly. Just as important, both journeys offered a clear, near-term ROI timeline. Outcomes that could be measured within weeks of launch rather than quarters, giving leadership an early, concrete signal that the investment was paying off.
This targeted approach enabled the company to deliver meaningful business value while minimizing implementation complexity.
Reimagining bill payment through visual self-service
Billing interactions are among the most common reasons customers contact an insurance provider. Yet they’re often surprisingly difficult to automate through a traditional IVR.
Customers may need to review balances, understand payment options, select payment methods or split payments across multiple sources. These tasks are straightforward when presented visually but can become frustrating when handled through audio prompts and keypad entries.
Before its transformation initiative, GNP saw many customers abandon self-service and request assistance from an agent. The result was longer handling times, increased operational costs and unnecessary friction for customers trying to complete a relatively simple task.
Using Genesys Cloud and a visual IVR experience from Zappix, GNP redesigned the journey around customer convenience.
When customers call regarding a billing issue, they can receive a link via SMS or messaging channels that opens a mobile-friendly visual interface. Rather than navigating menus by phone, customers can view balances, review payment information and complete transactions through a guided digital experience. The Visual IVR from Zappix renders GNP’s live billing data directly on screen, including itemized charges and the option to split a single payment across multiple methods involving steps that are difficult to execute reliably through voice alone.
The impact was dramatic.
Today, bill payment interactions achieve more than 99% containment, meaning customers can complete their tasks without agent involvement. More than 80% of eligible customers choose the visual self-service option when it’s offered.
Those numbers highlight an important lesson for CX leaders: Successful automation depends as much on customer adoption as it does on technology. Customers won’t use self-service simply because it’s available. They use it when it’s easier than the alternative.
Improving roadside assistance when every minute matters
Roadside assistance presents a different challenge.
Unlike billing interactions, these situations are often stressful and time-sensitive. Customers may be stranded, dealing with vehicle issues or seeking emergency support. In those moments, speed and accuracy become critical.
Traditionally, roadside assistance requests required customers to speak with an agent who gathered policy information, verified coverage, collected vehicle details and determined the customer’s location before initiating service.
While effective, the process consumes valuable time for both customers and agents.
GNP recognized that many of these steps could be automated if customers were given a more intuitive way to provide information.
Through Visual IVR, customers are guided through a structured digital workflow that helps verify account information, confirm vehicle details and validate coverage. Perhaps most importantly, location information can be captured using smartphone GPS capabilities rather than relying on verbal descriptions.
This reduces customer effort and lowers stress while improving accuracy.
Once the required information is collected, service requests can be initiated automatically. If additional support is needed, the interaction can be escalated with context preserved across channels.
The result is a customer experience that feels faster, simpler and more reliable during moments when customers need assistance most.
Today, more than 90% of roadside assistance interactions at GNP are contained within the automated workflow.
The role of a connected customer experience platform
While the customer-facing experience receives most of the attention, successful self-service transformation depends on something less visible: orchestration.
Organizations often struggle with automation initiatives because customer journeys span disconnected systems, channels and applications. Every handoff introduces complexity, increases maintenance requirements and creates opportunities for friction.
GNP approached the challenge differently by building on a unified customer experience platform.
Genesys Cloud provided the foundation for interaction routing, journey orchestration, digital engagement and agent support. Through the Genesys AppFoundry Marketplace, GNP was able to extend those capabilities with visual self-service experiences from Zappix while maintaining a connected customer journey.
This integration enabled customers to move naturally between voice, messaging and assisted service without losing context. It also helped simplify implementation and accelerate time to value.
In fact, both the bill payment and roadside assistance solutions moved from contract to production in less than 12 weeks.
GNP’s story illustrates several lessons that extend well beyond the insurance industry.
First, organizations don’t need to transform every customer journey at once. Starting with a small number of high-impact use cases, paired with a clear, realistic ROI timeline set from the outset, often delivers faster results and builds momentum for broader innovation.
Second, customer adoption should be treated as a primary success metric. The most sophisticated automation strategy won’t deliver value if customers choose not to use it.
Third, visual experiences can dramatically improve self-service outcomes for interactions that are difficult to complete through voice alone. Customers increasingly expect intuitive digital experiences — even when their journey begins with a phone call.
Finally, connected customer journeys matter. The ability to maintain context across channels and seamlessly escalate when needed helps ensure that automation enhances the customer experience rather than creating additional friction.
As customer expectations continue to evolve, organizations are under growing pressure to deliver experiences that are both effortless and efficient. Traditional self-service approaches alone are often insufficient for the complex interactions that drive significant contact center volume.
Visual self-service offers a path forward. By combining the familiarity of voice with the simplicity of digital interaction, organizations can reduce effort, improve containment and create experiences customers actually want to use.
GNP’s results demonstrate what’s possible when customer needs, thoughtful journey design and connected technology come together.
