Customer Champion of the Year

This category is designed to recognise projects that have resulted in measurable improvements to the end-customer experience, in any business line.

Entrants may have introduced new technology into processes to put the customer at the heart of what they do, given customers fast, accurate ways to report claims, or invested in customer education to support their decision-making. Entrants were expected to demonstrate their outstanding commitment to the end-customer.

Aviva

What key achievement did your entry highlight?

Our Voice of Customer programme uses industry-leading technology to capture multi-channel customer feedback. It uses speech, text and sentiment analysis software to identify and understand what is most important to customers (positive and negative) and where Aviva should focus its Agile delivery teams to improve the customer experience. The ability to analyse hundreds of thousands of pieces of customer feedback and drive CX improvement as a result, is incredibly powerful.

Can you share data or testimonials to back up your bid to win?

We have seen a year on year improvement in Customer Satisfaction scores across our motor, home and pension customers. This reflects the significant programme of work that is in place to continually improve our customer experience and is driven by our customer insight.

What sets your firm apart from the other shortlisted contenders?

Our vision is to create a beautifully simple and rewarding experience for our customers, therefore having a rich, accurate and timely understanding of our customer experience is vital to allow us to know where we are doing well and most importantly what we need to improve. The Voice of Customer programme that we have built means that this year we will analyse almost half a million pieces of customer feedback to power this insight.

How will you celebrate if you are the victor?

Share the fantastic news with the full team and the wider business, using the award as a further way of highlighting the amazing work that is being delivered.

Co-op Insurance

What key achievement did your entry highlight?

We addressed an aspect of the market considered to be broken by offering an affordable travel product that covers any age and any medical condition including terminal illness. We have been able to create an affordable travel product that covers any age, any medical, any destination, as well as cover before, during and after your trip. Also, we were able to include some innovative features like access to an online doctor and cashless medical expenses.

Can you share data or testimonials to back up your bid to win?

"Having severe allergies, it was difficult to get insurance covering my conditions at an affordable price, meaning having to travel without cover. Co-op's policy, was easy to buy online, and was very reasonably priced. Now I'm able to take my holidays knowing that if the worst happens I am covered."

"Even though other people I was travelling with had the same claim turned down by their insurers, Co-op helped me submit my claim and kept me up to date throughout the process. It was so easy, and apart from the excess, I was paid out in full without any fuss."

What sets your firm apart from the other shortlisted contenders?

Our proposition was truly 'designed by members for members'. Working closely with our customers and members we were able to build a travel insurance proposition taking on board their thoughts and feedback that resulted in a product that is a game changer in the industry and tackled aspects of a broken market.

How will you celebrate if you are the victor?

First of all, we will probably have a few drinks. But in all seriousness, winning this award would mean all the hard work the team put in to make this fantastic proposition a reality has been worth it. We can now look to use this methodology on our new and existing products to deliver even better propositions for our members and customers.

Oak Underwriting

What key achievement did your entry highlight?

Designing and delivering a low cost, high impact, interactive claims-handling work tool to brokers in offices or at forums (with easy reference handout). It ensures that all details handed over at the point of claim go into a streamlined, personal client journey. It removed many questions, giving a 'softened', less 'process' service but delivering that service without fuss, whatever the incident.

Can you share data or testimonials to back up your bid to win?

"Thank you from all of us, it was, without a doubt, the best and most useful presentation/training session that we have had here and bearing in mind I have just hit my 27th year in the company, that is really saying something!, A Plan. "I have had the pleasure of working with Oak over the last three years and it's evident that they always put the customer first, as well as ensuring they invest in their staff with training and development," Aston Lark.

What sets your firm apart from the other shortlisted contenders?

This claims team was set up in September 2015 with one aim - to 'wow' our end clients, understand their needs and deliver our set of claims promises:

Be knowledgeable: acting quickly and professionally by having a deep understanding of our products
Be fair: doing the right thing in settlement of claims
Pay promptly: getting things back to normal for your clients quickly on settlement
Caring: treating your client's claims journey with empathy and understanding
Communicating: keeping you informed whichever way suits you best
Understanding: being aware of your needs by listening to you and your clients
Exceed on delivery: continue to always learn from and improve our service

Our strap line is simple - We take your claim personally - that says it all

How will you celebrate if you are the victor?

Our vision was always to win awards and be recognised for our service to our clients. We will have a few drinks of course but after we will re-group and see what else we can do to stay there, influence the industry and deliver more value to our brand. This was our dream from day one, meeting as a new Team, and will continue.

GOLD: Policy Expert

What key achievement did your entry highlight?

Our entry highlights how we have hard-wired customer feedback processes into business operations from day one. Our in-depth understanding of customer needs helps us create a customer experience that is free from friction, for example, eliminating excessive jargon from our policies. Using customer feedback, Policy Expert has developed a proposition based on clear and transparent policies, fair pricing and attentive customer service. Weekly monitoring of customer sentiment has directly informed actions to increase the size of its customer-facing service team, enhance product renewal communications and introduce new products and features informed directly by user feedback.

Can you share data or testimonials to back up your bid to win?

"We commend Policy Expert for the exceptional work they do in the continual evolution of their user journey. They pay close attention to the customer throughout the entire process from price comparison website right through to point of purchase and beyond, to drive best-in-class conversion on our panel." Mark Greening, director of partner development at GoCompare.

What sets your firm apart from the other shortlisted contenders?

We are the most successful new entrant to the home insurance market in the last decade and the number one brand by sales volume across all price comparison websites. Unlike other shortlisted contenders, we are not limited by monolithic mainframes and third-party dependencies. Our 'customer-first' mindset means we encourage, and reward customer loyalty and our renewal rates far exceed industry averages. Since 2013, we have been independently recognised as the UK's number one rated home insurer on Review Centre and were awarded 'Best Home Insurance Provider' for 2018 at the Insurance Choice Awards.

How will you celebrate if you are the victor?

It is important to us to share company news internally, therefore our first action will be to communicate the fantastic news to our team. Showcasing the win, detailing the entry requirements, our entry and competitors to ensure all of the team feel part of the great achievement. Secondly, exploring the other competitors and understanding why we had the edge – this may support our development going forward. Thirdly and finally, we would head to our local pub to celebrate by raising a glass, or two.

VitalityHealth

What key achievement did your entry highlight?

Our entry showcased how we have successfully transformed our culture to put our customers at the heart of everything we do. By a culmination of strategic and carefully planned initiatives and aligning our brand image with our style and tone in our customer interactions, we have created customer advocacy and lifetime value for our members.

What sets your firm apart from the other shortlisted contenders?

We are unlike traditional insurance companies and embody an innovative, vibrant and positively different approach to insurance. We encourage our members to interact with us on a daily basis and understand how important our members are. Everything we do is aligned with our core purpose of making our customers healthier and to enhance and protect their lives.

How will you celebrate if you are the victor?

It would be such an honour to win such a prestigious award in the first year of entering. We couldn’t have done this without our teams, particularly in our customer facing areas. So first of all we will be sharing the fantastic news, thanking them and celebrating our success. We would then be eager to share our fantastic achievement with all of our customers, as they are at the heart of Vitality and without their trust and advocacy, this again would not be able to have come to life.