Is Your Firm Doing Enough to Ensure That Your Insurance Products and Services Meet the Needs of Customers?

Under Consumer Duty, firms must act to deliver good outcomes for customers and enable them to pursue their financial objectives. They are required to ensure that all their products and services meet the needs, characteristics, and objectives of customers in their target market, including those with protected characteristics or characteristics of vulnerability.

Making sure that your products and services are created with inclusivity in mind is an effective way to meet the demands and needs of all those within the target market.

Here are some factors that you should consider during the design process:

The Team

People from all different backgrounds purchase insurance, so it makes sense that the team designing these products and services are also diverse. A team with a range of characteristics – such as age, ethnicity, gender, and ability – will help reduce bias and lead to more comprehensive designs. Depending on your location, it is understandable if your team does not include members of every background but it’s still important to investigate and implement measures to increase diverse hiring practices.

Working with Customers

Testing your product or service with customers is vital and can lead to valuable feedback. Your participants should come from a range of backgrounds and abilities, as people with different perspectives and experiences can provide insight into how you can improve your product or service.

Reviewing internal data and complaints, talking to customer service staff, and conducting surveys, are other ways to gather information about your customers and their needs. It can also help identify any barriers your customers come across when using your products or services.

Adaptations and Removing Barriers

The same product or service design will not meet the needs of all of your customers, so adaptations and alternative options should be available.

 Examples include:

• Accessibility features
• Personalised support
• Multi-channel communications
• Translation support

Any information provided about your product or service should be clear and concise, and your firm should also provide support and resources for customers who are less familiar with insurance and how it works.

Website and App Design

The design of insurance websites and apps must also be taken into consideration. Think about:

• Customisation (Bright/dark mode, text size, layout)
• Alternative content (Text, video, audio, transcript)
• Offering choice (Adding a ‘read more’ button instead of infinite scrolling, videos or audio not automatically playing, zoom-in options)

For example, a firm’s website contains text information about car insurance. It also has a speech to text option, a video, an infographic and a downloadable PDF. The user is also able to adjust the text size and view the site in bright or dark mode. This gives everyone the opportunity to interact with the content however they wish.