COVU Reduces Call Abandonment by 20% with AWS and Storm Reply

California-based COVU is a full-service, AI-native services platform that helps independent insurance agencies deliver great customer experiences. Its end-to-end offerings include dedicated operations teams, technology resources, and market access. As part of its business model, COVU provides contact center services to a growing number of insurance clients, addressing customer needs and assisting with sales on their behalf. As COVU grew, the limitations of its legacy call center platform became more apparent. These limitations affected visibility into critical metrics such as first-call resolution, average handle time, average wait time, and call abandonment rates. COVU needed those insights for tracking and optimizing contact center performance to support its expanding client base. With the contract for its current platform nearing expiration, COVU recognized an opportunity to further elevate both the client and employee experience.

Central to the COVU mission is harnessing the power of AI to drive cognitive automation, enhance the customer experience, and scale operations. The team wanted an AI-centric solution that could both improve performance and enable expansion. “We felt that the new platform would elevate the customer experience, boost efficiency, and enhance scalability, positioning us perfectly for implementing AI-driven solutions,” said Amin Zarshenas, cofounder and chief product officer at COVU.

COVU was especially considering Amazon Connect, an easy-to-use, AI-powered cloud contact center. It appreciated that Amazon Connect had received several accolades from Gartner and Forrester, as well as investments from AWS. But with the contract for its legacy platform expiring in just a few months, COVU didn’t have the time or staff to customize and implement a new solution. That’s when the team partnered with Storm Reply, a systems integrator, strategic consultant, and managed service provider. COVU chose Storm Reply because of the partner’s AWS expertise, reflected in its nine AWS certifications and 15 AWS competencies. After viewing a demo of Amazon Connect, COVU decided to move forward with a minimum viable product (MVP).

Storm Reply began by assessing and prioritizing COVU-specific business needs from the perspectives of agents, supervisors, and customers. This ensured alignment with the company’s previous platform while identifying opportunities for future customization. Seeking to achieve one-to-one functionality with the previous platform, the team focused on configuring Amazon Connect. They integrated it with the existing COVU customer relationship management (CRM) platform for case management, and built custom interactive voice response (IVR) flows for both voice and SMS communication. With this setup, COVU agents can instantly access customer information—including case histories—for a seamless customer experience. “It was important that we work within their existing DevOps systems to minimize risk and ensure COVU could continue enhancing the solution after our contract ended,” explained Sheryl Hampton, director of data strategy and governance at Storm Reply.

Within two months, Storm Reply delivered a fully operational MVP. The solution uses Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to store data, which integrates natively with Amazon Connect. And by integrating Amazon Connect with Amazon Kinesis—which collects, processes, and analyzes real-time data streams—COVU can store and more readily access case-management information from its CRM platform. With the help of Storm Reply, COVU introduced AI-driven capabilities such as real-time call transcription, call summaries, and sentiment analysis. This helps agents and supervisors respond appropriately, which improves customer satisfaction. Amazon Connect also provides automated redaction of personally identifiable information in both transcriptions and recordings, which is crucial for compliance. This eliminates manual processes that were previously required to remove sensitive information. Before the solution went live, COVU and Storm Reply conducted extensive testing to ensure a smooth transition and a high-quality omnichannel customer experience. “By transitioning to Amazon Connect, we could meet operational needs more effectively,” said Zarshenas.