The challenge:

A big insurance company was aiming to finish its move online. The last type of insurance still without its own end-to-end online process was life insurance – the trickiest one of all. 

The approach:

In Slovakia, people generally don’t trust life insurance. Already fraught with uncertainties, it’s a daunting task to build it as a digital product. 

To get to the bottom of things, we took a thorough approach:

Mapping barriers: 

We brainstormed extensively with the internal team and interviewed clients and salespeople. We identified three big myths that were stopping people from buying life insurance.

1. “It’s just death insurance. It doesn’t concern me.”

Clients didn’t really know what life insurance covered. They mostly linked it with death – not the most pleasant concept to think about. 

As a result, clients without a mortgage or family didn’t find it relevant, as their death wouldn’t cause a financial burden to anyone. So why should they buy it? 

2. “You don’t get much value for your money.”

Life insurance is certainly not the cheapest option, as it covers multiple situations that could lower your quality of life. As long as someone thinks it’s just about death, it’s hard to justify the high price.

3. “It’s just a way for the insurance company to get money from me.”
   

Many clients saw it as nothing but a cash cow – a way for the insurance company to make money off them without any real benefit.

Because of these three beliefs, clients rarely showed interest in life insurance without prompting. Most of the time, financial advisors had to convince them to buy it.

Advisors could explain its value clearly, but unfortunately, many clients in Slovakia think that the advisors’ only interest is in making a profit. They worry that they might push for higher coverage just to earn more money.

Transferring personal experience to the online process

Our goal was threefold: 

1. To explain the insurance very clearly (just as a financial advisor would do). 
2. To provide clients with enough guidance to be able to pick the right coverage. 
3. To make clients feel in charge of the setup process, so they don’t feel like we are selling them something they don’t need. 

The solution

We focused on conveying relevance, simplicity, and personalization. Taking the best of online and offline, we created a product that is persuasive yet maintains the client’s feeling of control.

Behavioral target groups

As the very first step, we looked at clients’ previous behavior. In this way, we were able to identify those who were most likely to be interested in life insurance. Then, we dug into their needs, motivations and concerns in order to craft customized packages for them.

We personalized the entire online process so that at every step clients saw arguments for why they should have life insurance in their specific case.

Blending the best of offline and online

In the offline world, financial advisors make sure they know their clients well. They do this to build trust and ensure that they provide the most suitable insurance. 

This makes clients feel like the advisors care about their needs. As a result, they are more open to their offer. 

So, before we presented clients with an offer, we asked them for some basic info – like their age, income, etc. Based on that, they saw a quick evaluation of whether life insurance was a good choice for them.

For example, clients with mortgages learned that the insurance could cover the loan if they were unable to work, while parents saw that it could help them provide for their loved ones. 

Guidance with a sense of control

Next, clients provided more details and received tailor-made packages based on their responses.

Each client got the same recommendations they would have got from a financial advisor, explaining:

• what each coverage is for
• how it contributes to the final price and,
• when it would be useful. 

To feel fully in control of the experience, they could also adjust or remove coverage as needed. This also kept the offer relevant and not too pushy, as it was based on their personal responses.

Results

A few months after launching the product, the results were excellent. The number of new insurance contracts exceeded expectations for 2024 by 300%. 

What’s more, in many cases clients selected even higher coverage than in branch offices.