Suncorp injects personality into digital insurance sales

Suncorp has seen a rise in insurance sales from a coordinated effort to make its digital assets and channels more personable.

Speaking at a CX Circle by Contentsquare event, executive manager for digital insurance sales Sam Wadsworth said the company targeted a range of initiatives, from simple tweaks to the use of digital assistants, to improve the way customers interacted with its digital assets.

Suncorp owns seven insurance brands including AAMI, APIA, Vero ad GIO. Between them, there are over 50 digital assets such as websites and apps, supported by “a team of 120" people.

Wadsworth said Suncorp set out to understand what humans did better than digital channels when it came to customer service and sales, and how to close that gap.

He said humans remained superior in going the extra mile to create trusted relationships, in being empathetic to customer needs, and in being to work out when is and isn't a good time to engage a customer or prospect in conversation.

But, through a range of digital initiatives - some simple, others complex - Wadsworth indicated that Suncorp had been able to close some of the gap between the human and digital experience - and that this was apparent from an uptick in insurance sales.

The insurer experimented with the placement of different "trust messages" on its webpages, as well as the source - some customer-generated, others in the 'voice' of Suncorp.

It found that not displaying ratings and reviews on its webpages caused a noticeable drop in insurance quote "start rates".

It also continued experimenting with a virtual agent called Ava, which has been trialled in its AAMI business.

Trials began with Ava in June last year to answer customer questions relating to policy coverage, price, discounts, excess, optional extras, claims and payment options.

Wadsworth indicated there had been some early challenges with introducing Ava to customers. 

"The first release of this didn't work - we got a 46 percent drop-off rate [from customers whose interactions went through Ava]," he said, adding, "We put it in the wrong spot."

The company has since inserted Ava "about a third of the way through our sales flow", said Wadsworth. He saw the technology as having "a huge runway ahead of it" to make an impact.

Suncorp is also aiming to be more empathetic in the design of its digital services.

Wadsworth said that redesigning the application process for compulsory third-party (CTP) insurance in NSW, making it more "guided", had produced "an amazing result in sales."

"This is one of our standouts for this calendar year," he said.

"When you come to buy CTP insurance, it can be quite an overwhelming experience. We ask for your licence number, your [vehicle] registration number, stuff that's just not front-of-mind.

"We're trying to put ourselves in the shoes of these customers and say, 'Well, actually, we can give you a guided website experience'."

After seeing how his own parents found the experience of interacting with some digital channels difficult, Wadsworth said the team made tweaks to its "over 50's" brand APIA, making the default font size on its websites and apps larger, and introducing an audio option.

Both had improved accessibility as well as sales, he said.

Further efforts were invested into making the experience of interacting with Suncorp more "conversational".

Wadsworth cited a “Reimagine project” that had taken the complexity out of online application forms for insurance products.

"Traditionally, when you tried to get an insurance quote, you'd be met with five pages, each with about seven to eight questions on them," he said.

"That's not a conversation. That's not an experience. That's just a form put online.

"So we converted that and now it's [a] single question focus, reducing cognitive load, and all the questions have been written [in a] conversational style.

"This has been amazing for us. [We've seen a] 20-25 percent lift in sales as a result of our Reimagine projects, and it's been a huge highlight for us.

"We're rolling this out across all of our brands, all of our products, and I can't over-emphasize how amazing this project has been for us."