MetLife & Walmart
Life Insurance Pilot Program
MetLife
Slalom
Customer Experience & UX Design Lead
Journey Mapping, Program Ecosystem, Workflows & UI
Customer Acquisition Program & Online Application Experience
The Consumer Life Insurance Journey
Challenge
Life insurance can be an emotionally loaded, financially daunting, and often not well understood, subject for most US consumers, who may not feel they are able to afford it nor see or understand the value of it, to them and their family
Solution
How can we understand the consumer life insurance journey? mapping a holistic view of US consumers’ life insurance journey, within today’s market - across all ages, lifestages, and economic and demographic segments
Virtually all consumers begin at Stage 1 “Not Looking for Life Insurance”, due to the reasons and barriers listed - many consumers will likely never progress beyond this stage.
Stage 2 is a “Moment of Truth”, typically a major life event, or advice of a trusted friend or family member, or a trusted financial professional, which prompts consideration of life insurance in earnest.
The journey captures the 5 stages of US consumers’ journey with life insurance, showing challenges, thoughts/feelings, concerns and barriers, at each stage. The first two stages are the relevant stages in which this pilot program will seek to intervene.
Synthesized from a wide spectrum of market and audience research, consumer attitude and behavior studies, industry data, MetLife business intelligence, and customer sales, call centers, and service / support org insights and data.
Consumer Journey
Pilot Program Target Audience Profile
Challenge
The goal of the pilot program is to reach a new segment of consumers that are almost completely disconnected from life insurance today, and outside the current funnel of prospective customers / acquisition, i.e consumers in Stage 1 and early Stage 2 of the life insurance journey, typically younger and less affluent, and at much earlier life stages, than today’s typical prospect. how do we do this?
Solution
Understanding the audience for the pilot program - who our new audience is, where they are in life and financially, and what are the primary barriers - both emotionally and financially, and both perception-based and practically - to getting life insurance today
This builds on the considerations outlined in the larger consumer journey, and refines our focus based on more specific research findings and audience insights, for this specific target audience.
Audience Insights
Pilot Program Stages & Customer Journey Overview
Challenge
How will the customer experience the program? in the advertising media, in the Walmart store, in the product aisle and at the display, when contacting the call center or going online to activate, and in communications and customer relationship beyond?
Solution
Mapping the program and customer journey - integrating program tactics across all stages - from advertising and marketing tactics and campaign creative, to in store displays and messaging, and product packaging and inserts, to call center and/or online application website experiences, as well as welcome and onboarding experience and materials, and ongoing customer support and retention - to map the customer experience journey for the full program, end to end, and captured at a range of ‘altitudes’ from its top-line stages, to step-by-step walk-thru of the full end-to-end experience, as the prospective customer themself will go through it
Program Stages & Customer Journey
Customer Journey: Thinking & Feeling
Challenge
Understanding what our prospective customer is thinking and feeling, and what are the primary barriers - both emotionally and financially, perception-based and practically - to buying and activating a life insurance at Walmart, today
Solution
Meeting our prospects where they’re at - mapping customer thinking and feeling, at each step of their journey, and our pilot program experience (conversion funnel), based on research
This builds on top-line considerations outlined in full consumer journey, and barriers outlined in target audience profile, to further refine our understanding - based on detailed findings and audience insights from affective and attitudinal research, for this specific target.
Customer Journey & Insights
Customer Journey: In-Store Purchase Path
Challenge
Pilot program will offer a totally new set of life insurance products, quite unlike any on offer from the company today, so sales and marketing materials, product packaging and informational content, and in-store communications for the product and program will need to account for and address an all-new set of customer challenges, in order to drive effective sales and policy activation, and make the pilot a success
Solution
Conversion considerations at each step to acquisition - for each stage in the journey, applying research data to map out projected customer expectations, attitudes, needs, intent, questions, behavior, and barriers to completion / risks of drop-off, on the conversion path to product in-store sales and the call-center or online policy activation
Customer Journey & Audience Conversion Insights
Customer Journey: Call Center Policy Activation
Challenge
Pilot program will offer a totally new set of life insurance products, quite unlike any on offer from the company today, so call center representatives will required all-new training on the new products, qualifying and activation flows, and expectations on customer need, intent, questions, behavior, and barriers to completion. the application and qualifying / approval for the pilot program products will also be a long, detailed process, demanding a large amount of required personal information and data collection from the caller (plus legal and regulatory rules), in order to get a policy, so call center reps will need to be trained on the end to end process, all data points, and the new UI
Solution
Call center experience map for training and scripts - customer journey map illustrating the step-by-step flow for calling, qualifying, and activating the policy, with call center support. maps were used to develop and write call center scripts, and for call center representative training on the new products and the new pilot program (as well as the the activation UI)
Customer Journey
Customer Journey: Online Policy Activation
Challenge
Life insurance application and qualifying / approval is a long, detailed process, demanding a large amount of required personal information and data collection from the user (plus legal and regulatory rules), in order to get a policy
Solution
Customer policy activation workflow and data capture - Capturing the precise step-by-step flow, including all conditional branches and error cases, and cataloguing all data to be collected, at each step, in order to complete the flow and qualify for a policy. used for alignment across all project workstreams - marketing, business units, and insurance policy, as well as review by legal, regulatory, and compliance teams for final approval
Transactional Site User Flow, Data Fields, Application Stages
Online Application & Policy Activation Web Site UI
Challenge
After they buy the box at Walmart store, the customer still needs to apply and qualify (be approved), then pay for, an actual life insurance policy - how can we walk them through this process without losing them along the way? (completing a large amount of required information, and meeting all legal and regulatory requirements)
Solution
Customer policy activation and purchase website - an online life insurance application, qualification / approval, and purchase experience that is fast and easy enough to keep users from dropping off til they complete the flow and pay for the policy, while still meeting all legal and regulatory requirements, and necessary business and insurance policy qualifying fields. UI to also be used by call center reps to enroll callers
Wireframes & Requirements Specifications