How Co-op used video research to help save £3.5 m and improve NPS by 65%
In 2018 Co-op Insurance developed a plan to improve their Home Claims experience.
As part of this strategy, they enlisted the help of VPI to provide a series of customer insight films that would help them to understand what a Home Claims Experience was REALLY like for their customers.
For some time Co-op had been asking customers to complete a survey at the start or end of a claims process, but they felt this wasn’t capturing enough insight, particularly in terms of the journey experience as a whole and the emotions that customers experienced at different stages of the process.
The Approach
VPI worked with Co-op to sensitively recruit a group of willing customers who were at the start of a home insurance claim, to undertake a video diary of their experiences for the lifespan of their claim. The claims ranged from fire damage through to escape of water claims and the sample included a mix of over 10 households across the UK. Some journeys lasted a few weeks and some lasted a couple of months, depending on the scale of the damage.
VPI produced a detailed task guide for the customers, to ensure they recorded videos at key moments across the claims journey, using their smart devices. Customers recorded short diary entries at moments such as after the first phone call through and when all of the repairs and replacements being carried out, as well as giving weekly updates on overall progress. Across the ethnographic video diary entries the customers were asked to talk about how they were feeling, the quality of contact they were receiving, satisfaction with the work being carried out, and their feelings towards Co-op overall.
VPI also provided respondents with filming tips and plenty of guidance across the journey, to ensure that the content was both engaging AND insightful. For example, we encouraged respondents to show what they were talking about to ensure we had context within the films and we also asked them to film in different ways and made sure they always filmed in landscape mode (to avoid the unwanted black borders)!
Creating Summary Edits
Each household’s ‘story’ was edited together into a succinct and revealing film that took the viewer through the customers’ journeys from start to finish. Each film brought to life the key moments and emotions experienced by each customer and was told through their own individual perspective. Once all of the journeys were complete, VPI also worked with Co-op to create a summary film that showcased key clips from across the different diaries and linked these around Co-op’s key principles of customer experience using animation, which helped tell the overarching story in an engaging and digestible way.
The customer video diaries provided fantastic insight, which brought to life some of the challenges our customers face during the claim journey. We acted on this feedback and the results have been brilliant. Not only have we saved money but we’ve also improved our NPS from 31 to 51!
Sarah Jones – Customer Experience Manager at Co-op Insurance
End Use & Impact
The final films were shared with colleagues across the business, including frontline staff, to give them a better insight into the experiences of their customers. The films were also shared with Co-op’s suppliers, to help them see the impact they have on the claim journey experience.
Strategically, the films were used to inform key changes to the Home Claims process, to improve efficiency and the experience of Co-op’s customers. Including direct customer feedback, particularly through video diaries, was a cornerstone of the process re-engineering that Co-op carried out.
The delivery of the improvement plan led to a £3.5m cost saving and NPS improvement of 20 points from 31 to 51.
Great teamwork enabled Co-op Insurance to be short-listed for 4 industry awards and ultimate winners of the Customer Service & Support Award at the 2018 Supply Chain Excellence Awards.
