Insureon

Vice President, Customer Experience & Interactive Design

2019-2022 | Chicago, IL

Insureon is a digital insurance agency that provides coverage to small business owners. Their website, and the advanced application engine behind it, allows small business owners to shop for policies and receive quotes from many carriers with a single, quick form. I joined the company in 2019 to lead the UX team and optimize the small business owner’s customer journey for our digital agency.


The Opportunity

Increasing policy sales

A historic disconnect between the agency and technology sides of the business had lead to a disjointed customer experience. Metrics showed a sharp drop off as customers transitioned from our inbound website to clunky application screens. Our team increased qualified leads by improving application entry and drew users deeper into the funnel, converting leads to actionable opportunities with a more uniform, supportive and rewarding experience.

 
 

The Work

Discovering what matters to buyers

We began our work with primary research, conducting surveys and interviews to capture the mindset of a small business owner. We were able to identify common themes in the buying process and document the context in which shopping took place (typically on mobile devices and often outside of normal business hours).

 

EXPERIMENTING to drive CONVERSION funnel metrics

Our research lead us to develop a new tagging framework for our site metrics that better captured the stages of the buying process, tracking where customers dropped out of the funnel, investigating the questions that they struggled with and evaluating which support elements (like chat or in-line help) were most effective. Then, we developed new designs for our homepage, application and quote-display experiences and conducted a series of tests to power our roadmap through a hypothesis-driven backlog.

We tested three new homepage layouts for tone, content and information prioritization.

Data from the rating questions given after respondents had seen the homepage

 

improving CTAS and application start rate

Our metrics showed a high abandonment rate at the start of the application, when users were asked to identify their profession. Our usability studies confirmed that business owners struggled to find a profession that accurately described their work and suggested that conveying familiarity with their trade was the #1 way we could build their trust. Our redesign of the profession selector included a smarter (related) search and a more supportive interface.

 
 
 

facilitating application completion

Applying for insurance can quickly get complex. Business owners often abandoned applications or contacted customer support when they didn’t understand a question, driving up agent overhead and losing policy sales opportunities. Our redesigned application focused on “coaching” customers though the quoting process with help in the right moment, progressive question disclosure, progress indicators, humanized language and a new mobile-friendly layout.

 
 
 

offering a BETTER retail experience

Once an application is submitted, business owners can shop through personalized quotes that match their insurance needs. The page needed to feel simple and familiar to shoppers, while displaying unfamiliar terms and options. Our redesign leveraged retail interaction patterns, offered clarity around the buying process and provided in-line support for new buyers.

 
 

The Impact

Reimagining the customer journey allowed us to take shoppers further in the buying process, reduce burdensome agent involvement and address pain points that were leading to lost opportunities.

In 2022, Insureon was acquired by leading global insurance brokerage Hub International Limited and insurtech innovator Bold Penguin. The deal enabled the agency and technology to grow, continuing a mission of creating positive change in the small commercial marketplace through e-commerce and innovation.