http://www.smartinsights.com/marketplace-analysis/consumer-buying-behaviour/digital-sales-effectiveness-survey-for-the-uk-insurance-sector/

Here are six key findings from the UK Home Insurance Survey1. Generation Y want different things from their home insurance provider onlineAs part of our analysis we segmented the sample into three different age groups: 18 – 35, 36 – 55 and 56+ year olds.Fig 1: Age differences driving preferences

In general those in the 18 to 35 age group are more demanding and are more likely to want:

tools that assist them in understanding which home insurance cover that is right for them.

the ability to view and manage their account online.general information about home insurance

customer ratings and reviews.

2. Home insurance providers need to work harder to acquire first time customersThis group 'Generation Y' is the future and the acquisition territory for most insurance providers. They are more demanding and expect more which gives a good indication of

where the industry needs to be playing in order to attract these younger customers.It’s probably safe to assume that the majority of customers in the 18-35 age group are buying their first house and looking to take out home insurance for the first time. The

insurers that are seen to be working harder for them are more likely to succeed in acquiring their entry-level business.

3. Older customers still want easy to understand informationYou might imagine that consumers over the age of 36 have bought home insurance many times and are more familiar with the language and insurance options. While that may indeed be the case, age and experience doesn’t necessarily translate into a lower propensity to want information that is easy to understand, in fact it is quite the opposite.

Older consumers want easy to understand information and the ability to save a quote when they are researching options. To optimise online conversion for this segment, insurance providers need to implement UX best practice to provide simple attractive design which is utterly utilitarian in nature

4. The home insurance industry as a whole is making it difficult for customers to buy from them onlineThe industry as a whole is particularly weak at helping customers to evaluate the different home insurance policies and choose which option best suit their needs.The poorer performers across the online customer journey are Tesco Bank and AXA, with Admiral coming out weakest in four of the six stages of the online customer journey.Fig 1 DSE benchmark scores

5. What’s driving Admiral’s score down?Drilling down into the sub sections (Fig 2) you can see that there is a lot of work for Admiral (and indeed the industry as a whole) to do. Admiral needs to improve their value proposition (scoring just 17%), their differentiation message and explaining why a customer should choose Admiral over other providers.'Returning prospects' scores 0% for Admiral, which clearly means that is not something Admiral currently incorporates on their site. Admiral also has quite a bit of work to do in the area of building trust.Fig 2 'Meeting expectations and building trust' sub section of the initial engagement stage

6. What Admiral can learn from Direct Line

When we asked consumers to rate the home pages of the insurance providers, Direct Line’s homepage ranked much higher than Admiral’s because it displayed all the information they would expect to find when looking for home insurance. Plus consumers found that Direct Line’s homepage had a visual design that was appealing.In contrast to this, consumers thought that the visual appeal of Admiral’s website was somewhat lacking as it looks a little 'child-like with its cartoonish characters' and quite a number of consumers found that the website was only geared towards car insurance.

Direct Line’s website uses both a lexical and icon based menu which increases the possibility of the consumer understanding the message which is being communicated. The website has clear signposting with a funnel process, which means that consumers intuitively know where they will be taken when they click a particular button.

The multiple use of the 'get a quote' call to action on the Direct Line homepage with clever placement of use of colour also increases success. As does the simple and clean design of the page which allow customers to understand very quickly what it going on and where to find what they need in order to move on.If you would like to listen to my colleague Gerard Farrell, our Senior Client Advisor, walk you through both homepages listen to our recorded webinar from the 22:35 minute mark.

https://econsultancy.com/blog/66324-admiral-com-s-excellent-customer-focused-redesign-review/

Admiral has been doing commendable work in digital recently. Its TV ads are some of the few that manage to successfully

join TV advertising up with online, it’s Twitter account is a laudable example of social customer service and last week Admiral

launched phase one of a responsive overhaul to Admiral.com.A redesign that notably puts it ahead of other insurance companies in terms of

accessibility and user friendliness.

So while high on the success of avoiding using the word admiral as an adjective in the opening four paragraphs of this article, let’s take a look at the new site and see where

other insurance companies could learn a few lessons.

• The guidance seems clear then:• Keep form size to a minimum• Keep number of pages to a number• Use progress indicators• Avoid unnecessary questions • Avoid repeat entry issues• Make address entry as easy as possible• Let's see how the new Admiral site copes with the above

criteria.

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Slightly stuffy in design, The off white does not helps also the use of such a heavy blue makes

it look drab.

The Russian Dolls taken from the Ad gives a safe feeling….sorta ( could be better )

A weird mixture between flat design and gloss gives the site an uniform feel.

No one cares about this except Admiral ( needs to be taken off the home page )

This needs to be featured better on the home screen. Its so far down the screen

above the bloody about!!!!

Brand & Marketing

Claims ManagementProduct & Pricing Post Sales ServiceSales & Distribution

Clean get a quote

Terminology is confusing as you can retrieve a quote for

the first time.

Nice breakdown but a little heavy on the text

Icons are a little too busy!

These icons should be along the top not at the

side

Why the change in cons. Its a mish-mash!

Text why you so small?

By this stage the customer does not know what they are looking at! There is no

flow

The customer needs it to be like a maths question.

A+B+C = D

This have been broken for 3 days!

Why didn’t they use Wistia for video!

Love this but too far down

Needs to be the 2 or 3rd item

Love that this button is here. Fits ion the sales

cycle!

Brand & Marketing

Claims ManagementProduct & Pricing Post Sales ServiceSales & Distribution