WINNER, Product Innovation of the Year
at The Underwriting Service Awards 2017
We are proud to be winners for our work with Zurich, against a strong entry from GUARDHOG.
Challenge
The challenge was to launch a new SME Commercial Combined to market in less than 3 months from a standing start, and for the broker experience to be ‘delighting’. Historically, this would be about a year’s worth of work: we had a quarter of the timescale, and a quarter of the budget to deliver the promise.
Solution
Drawing on our “Change Different” approach to product innovation, we utilized our 3-month pilot framework and ran a 12-week Agile process with Zurich Insurance. Through that process, and in line with our key tenet of customer co-design, we worked closely with a group of pilot brokers, involving them in the room with us from the very first day of the very first sprint. By the end of the first 2-week sprint, we had an operational quote & bind capability for PL & EL products, and worked through subsequent iterations to build out a sophisticated and powerful commercial combined product, policy wording and quote & bind experience, complete with live web chat support from underwriters, referrals processes and more. The project employed the core tenets of our “Change Different” methodology: test & learn & scale, customer co-design, and Agile collaboration.
Benefits
In just 56 working days, from a standing start, we were ready to launch a sophisticated SME commercial combined product to a pilot group of brokers, complete with all necessary covers, policy wording, e-documentation, quote & bind, email confirmations, web chat and more. The close alignment with our pilot brokers, driven by Zurich’s Product Owner, ensured that every part of the product design, policy wording, quote & bind experience, and user interfaces, were prioritized and reviewed by the end users on a weekly basis. Our innovative, market-leading approach to trade selection, for instance, allows brokers to fast-track to a trade or helps them through a multi-stage process where they need help. Brokers said it was “brilliant”, “intuitive” and “instinctive”.
When asked “How satisfied are you with the overall experience of requesting a quote from Zurich?”, our pilot brokers showed a 3 point improvement on a 10 point scale. Delivering product innovation is one thing, delivering product innovation with high levels of satisfaction is quite another. We are proud to have been able to work with Zurich and bring about such a change.
Testimonials
Your approach is totally different to your competitors’.
Pilot broker
Quick, slick, easy…it’s done!
Pilot broker
56 working days to take a new sophisticated proposition to market is a phenomenal achievement. With any other approach, it would have taken 3 or 4 times as long, and we’d probably still be working on it.
Paul Tombs, Project Sponsor and Head of E-trading & SME, Zurich Insurance
