carrier of choice
commercial insurance ux RESEARCH
We were invited to research and understand the cultural, behavioral and cognitive aspects that influence the relationship between agents and our client (a Fortune 500 Insurance company) and thereby enable them to become the carrier of choice for a particular market segment within commercial lines insurance.
the challenge: Opportunity finding
Looking into the work lives and processes of Agents/Brokers and Underwriters (from insurance agencies) to try and understand why our client was not the carrier of choice for middle market commercial lines insurance.
Although this project started out as an operations consulting projects, it morphed into experience research as our client was open to the idea of evaluating their currently tools and suggesting a plan for digital transformation of the existing process.
My Role
Alongside the lead anthropologist, I planned, designed, executed and synthesized this research which took place in 3 locations - LA, Chicago and New York. Following the synthesis, we identified opportunity spaces in the market for our client to explore further in order to move the needle for their business & become the Carrier of Choice for agents in the middle market space.
RESEARCH ROUND 01
Watching focus groups conducted by the client's market research group with insurance agents, we were able to understand one side of the story. We pieced together the process and also gathered two initial themes which we to expand upon in the following phase of ethnographic research.
TEAMS
Agents viewed underwriters from the carrier side as a part of their own team and felt a combined sense of ownership over the deal/insurance purchase but were finding that the aptitude of certain underwriters was not up to the expected standard.
RELATIONSHIPS
The opinion that agents had about the carrier were almost entirely contingent upon their relationship with the individual underwriter they worked with.
PROCESS: FROM NEGOTIATIONS TO SELLING A POLICY
This is a quick representation of the complex web that is the commercial lines insurance sales chain. While it appears to be a complex multi-touchpoint process, what we learnt is that it is still a human-centered business.
client
agency
CARRIER
RESEARCH ROUND 2
We conducted 1-on-1 contextual interviews with agents and underwrites over 3 geographies to further explore the agent-underwriter relationship and place it in context of the processes and technology that they use to get the job done. We sat with them in their work environment and watched as they took us through their daily routines, their software and tools and their thoughts.
/ 6 Agents / 3 Underwriters
/ Chicago / Philadelphia / Irvine
/ 45-90 minutes with each participant
Philadelphia
2 Agents
chicago
2 Agents, 2 underwriters
irvine
2 Agents, 1 underwriter
Upon talking to both agents and underwriters, we found signals that fell into one of the following themes:
PEOPLE
Agent-Underwriter relationship
PROCESS
New business and renewal processes
TECHNOLOGY
Digital touch-points in the process
BRAND
Perception
NDA
PROTECTED
synthesis
indicative PERSONAS
During the course of this research, agents and underwriters across our client’s network brought their viewpoints on their process, tools and the human element that combine to form their experience. Through discussion and observation, three personas emerged as the most important markets for our client to pursue in the future.
Functional Follower
"I don't like online quoting. With that, there's no relationship with the underwriter.
Innovative
Tech-adopter
Trend-setter
Traditional
Old-school
Trend-follower
Innovative Leader
"As a broker, we can never say no."
Passionate Leader
"We are selling them[clients] a customized program and a collaborative experience."
pain points in the current process
We used a beautiful WeWork space to synthesize the information in hand. Audiotapes on repeat, searching for quotes, pouring through notes and post-its and of course multiple cups of tea & coffee later...
We found some interesting patterns in the things that people said and did. The process chart describes the pain points in detail but overall, we noticed that the relationship between the underwriter and agent is broken by the convoluted process and the new predictive models which have a steep learning curve. We realized that this is an industry with an incredible amount of tacit knowledge (all stored away with the underwriters and agents in their heads) and this knowledge needs to be more transparent in order for the process to run smoothly and to build trust among the teams involved.
OPPORTUNITIES IDENTIFIED
01 client story
During the course of this research, agents and underwriters across our client’s network brought their viewpoints on their process, tools and the human element that combine to form their experience. Through discussion and observation, three personas emerged as the most important markets for our client to pursue in the future.
02 FUTURE AGENCY
Agencies are reinventing themselves – cube farms are being replaced by digitally enabled collaborative workspaces. There is a need to understand and adapt to these new agencies in order to become the carrier of choice.
03 DYNAMIC PROPOSALS
The shift needs to happen from traditional printed proposals to dynamic digital proposals, both on the front and back end. There needs to be a way to keep up with fast-paced decision making and on-demand market needs and the only way to cater to this growing need is to go natively digital.
04 information design
Reduce error by providing a consistent and best-of-breed design of quotes, binders, and policies.
05 visibility & transparency
There is a need for a tracking system in place, there should be room for the underwriter to choose and edit their preferences. Some options may be automating the process of real-time tracking with ability for manual overrides and creating a space for open dialogue and tracking between the carrier and the agency to help the process flow smoothly, especially during periods of waiting/silence.