Our client is a leading Canadian insurer who offers a broad portfolio of financial and benefits plan solutions for individuals, families, business owners and organizations.

In todays “never fast enough” service world, our client wanted to implement significant changes to their current plan set-up, shortening the process considerably from weeks to a single day. Doing so meant communicating and developing contracts faster using electronic formats rather than traditional methodologies.

The primary objectives of the research included:

• Identified how sensitive respondents would be to standardized forms, specifically contract wording, if it would greatly improve the process.
• Uncovered respondent awareness of innovations with respect to the contract and the accompanying sales collateral material.
• Determined preferences towards receiving materials electronically versus paper based.

The tools to gather this information included one-on-one executive interviews with senior staff, traditional quantitative research with current customers, and multiple focus groups covering all the relevant stakeholder groups.

Here’s what we found out:

• The proposed contract changes were acceptable by clients
• There was an appetite for electronic materials
• Members were not receiving the necessary communication materials
• Paper materials cannot be eliminated
• Stakeholders felt there were several key areas for improvement which could be largely addressed through automation;
  • Documentation is overly involved and labour intensive to create
  • Inefficient processes result in poor turnaround and delivery time
  • Increased room for error due to being primarily paper-based and open for interpretation

Not surprisingly, the client has moved forward with the plan to convert more documents and processes to e-formats in an effort to serve its customers better and quicker.