Zurich Municipal expands online self-serve quote journey to improve product take up

Public and voluntary sector insurer Zurich Municipal – part of Zurich Insurance Group – has expanded its online, self-serve quote and buy journey for direct customers to eliminate its previous “one-size-fits-all” approach and instead offer more “refined” and “specific” prices to charities, associations and clubs.

Prior to the new online purchasing journey going live on 14 October 2024, Zurich Municipal had an online offering only for charities, not-for-profit organisations and town and parish councils. This provided a package of policies, based upon a standard public liability contract, starting at a £96 premium.

However, the insurer observed that the 170-question online quote route was putting off customers from actually buying the sought-after policies.

Will Paskins, head of digital trading and partnerships at Zurich Municipal, told Insurance Times: “We had tens of thousands of visitors to the website last year and not as many as we would like would come through to actually buying a proposition.

“Because we had a one-size-fits-all [approach], we were asking a lot of questions and that meant a lot of people were not finishing the journey.”

At the end of 2023, therefore, Paskins brought to the table the “opportunity” to “revamp” the online journey “so [that] customers can tell us right at the start exactly who they are and what they do. We can then be far more specific in the questions that we ask and ask far less of them”.

The newly launched online route now offers direct customers a pick and mix approach to cover, enabling them to select exactly which policies they want – such as public liability, employers’ liability, contents or buildings cover – and the limits they want, with premiums starting at £56.

The journey starts with a reduced question set, which then tailors subsequent questions to ensure customers are only providing answers that are relevant and pertinent to the organisation genre and policy type being purchased.

This enables much more “precise” pricing, Paskins said, while also freeing up underwriters’ time “to focus on bigger cases” rather than having to dip into quote journeys that can be delivered completely online.

“The pricing is a lot more refined, which for me is really pleasing,” Paskins continued.

“Because we know so much more about these customers, [such as the number of volunteers, for example,] we can make sure that we are pricing on an even more refined level than we were before.”

As part of this online trading revamp – which also provides the ability to renew policies – the customer groups that can access the online quote and buy journey has been extended to now also include trust and grant making associations, allotment associations, gardening and conservation groups and tenants and residents’ associations.

Results

Although it is not even a month since the soft launch of the reinvigorated online journey, designed for Zurich Municipal’s customers that have less than £100,000 of income, Paskins is pleased with the progress made so far.

He said: “We know that what we had already was a really good product. Now what we’re seeing is loads more people are finishing the journey, pretty much most of them.

“[Previously when] people were getting a quote, our strike rate was in the teens. We’re seeing more than double that now, [since we’ve gone live with the online journey].

“It’s quite early, but we’re really confident that what we have built, customers will like even more. They are voting with their feet. A lot of work has gone into this.

“For me, the most important thing is getting the proposition right.”

Paskins added that last month’s update was the “first wave” of changes – he has plans to be much more “data driven” moving forward and hopes to continuously expand the insurer’s online offering in line with customer demand.

‘Triparted’ relationship with brokers

Although the update to Zurich Municipal’s online journey for direct consumers falls neatly into the digital trading remit of Paskins’ role – a newly created position which he assumed in March 2023 – the father of one also spearheads the business’ partnerships activity.

“We do work with brokers on a triparted basis,” he explained. “We do have some schemes with brokers.”

This is an area of Zurich Municipal’s operations that Paskins is keen to expand – he envisions that the insurer’s current partnerships team of six staff will grow over the next few years.

He said: “We recognise that Zurich Municipal is superb at working directly with customers, but there are also areas where a certain proportion of customers really want to work with a broker, or because of market dynamics, [certain lines are more] broker led and that’s something, from a partnership perspective, we are open to exploring.”