Can consumer documentation be simplified and what have Insurers progressed – Insurer views
For the second half of our November Protection Forum heard from the insurers who shared their views on how consumer documentation can be simplified, discussing:
- How can we ensure language is better?
- Can documentation be dynamic and only include info that is relevant to the client?
- What progress have insurers made?
Panellists for this session included:
Rachael Welsh – Guardian
Alan Jenkinson – Scottish Widows
“So digitisation of documents, we’ve talked quite a bit about that already and the need to reduce physical paperwork. Think we are all agreeing that there’s a need to have that paper based and all that information, but what other ways could we make that information more accessible? We did do some customer testing recently on our terms and conditions and our welcome journey. And the feedback that we overwhelmingly got is that people just don’t want to be looking at PDFs in the same way that they used to anymore. PDFs are not the way forward. So whether it’s as us moving to video or podcast or even just as basic as taking our policy terms or conditions wording onto interactive web pages, how can we just take that next step forward? And it also came back and said we should write the way we speak across everything we do. And this for me is sort of such an important one. I’m always a big advocate for just write exactly as you would see it and think you’re more likely to land it.”
“We should be personalising our documents and this got me thinking… What world do we live in if someone has got an exclusion, for example, and their documents just didn’t talk about, they only saw the stuff that was actually relevant to them. A document that was fully curated for them does feel a little bit far away from where we are right now, that you’re getting a fully bespoke journey, but that should be the goal for all of us.”
“They liked the use of subheadings, bullet points, summaries, being able to skim read it and they didn’t like it being a PDF. They wanted to be able to interact with it. They wanted to be able to click on it. They wanted to be able to open up sections. They wanted to be able to move from the glossary to the contents page more easily.”
“It’s all about small incremental changes. We’re not going to rapidly change everything overnight. But if we can just keep making continual changes that every time our documents get better and better, I think that’s the journey that we’re that we’re on.”
Click the audio playback below to listen to the full session.
Full session audio
“Digitalisation of documents has removed that cost barrier. So it’s now easier for these documents just to be added to and added to and added to, rather than them being having that robust conversation about, okay, are there elements of this that we can reword? Are the bits of here that aren’t as relevant anymore? So it’s possible that then because they’re now digital rather than paper based, they just get bigger.”
“Digitalisation is very, very handy. But is that a negative to it? Does it stop that robust review process of content just being added and added and layered in and layered in because there’s no cost implication anymore?”
“…But certainly you’ve got fairly experienced risk specialists sometimes struggling to make clients understand exactly what they’re covered for.”
“If you simplify the wording sometimes due to advances in medicine, think of things like thoracotomy, for example, that might lead to claims not being paid. And obviously we want to achieve the opposite. So I would approach was to broaden the definition wordings if you like.”
“Some of us clients that might be medical professionals and some advisors will want to see the actual definition and wording. So there is full transparency within the literature. But also more importantly, it’s very, very easy for the client to see at a glance exactly what they’re covered for.”
“We do not need a claims form. Some clients might be comfortable or more comfortable with a claim form. We have to remember this, but there is the ability to start and finish the claim and sign the claim form digitally and remotely. That can save weeks sometimes in paying a claim.”
“Before Covid, only about 25% of GP’s were coming in to us, perhaps electronically. We’re now seeing nearly 75% and they’re coming in in an average of 14 days. I think we should have been in this position. I think this was driven by Covid, and perhaps we should have been in this position about a decade ago, but at least we’re going in the right direction.”
