Our client, a well-known challenger brand in the US insurance market, needed to better understand customer behaviors across digital and agent-led touchpoints. We combined online diaries and a quantitative survey to map the insurance shopping journey, delivering insights that drove targeted UX and sales enhancements to better compete with industry giants.
- Outcome 1: Improved conversion opportunities through informed enhancements to digital UX and agent scripting
- Outcome 2: Identified opportunities to enhance differentiation and trust in an increasingly undifferentiated category
- Outcome 3: Delivered statistically robust insights from 1,500+ insurance shoppers
The challenge
The US insurance market is highly competitive, dominated by major players like Geico and State Farm, with massive marketing budgets. Challenger brands often struggle to grow market share, particularly when consumer engagement is rare and largely price driven. In a market increasingly shifting online, balancing digital convenience with the trust-building role of agents has become crucial. Our client recognized that a deep understanding of the real customer journey, across both digital and human channels, was essential to refine their customer engagement strategies and remain competitive.
Our client needed to map the complex and infrequent insurance purchase journey to understand where and how consumers interacted with digital tools and live agents. The primary challenge was uncovering emotional drivers and decision-making patterns, particularly for customers purchasing bundled policies, to optimize both their digital experience and agent touchpoints. Competing against bigger brands required a nuanced approach that recognized not just what customers did, but why they did it.
The approach
We used a mixed-methods research approach. Through online diaries, we captured real-time emotions and behaviors of insurance shoppers over their journey, supplemented by direct UX feedback on the client’s website. Simultaneously, we ran a large-scale survey of 1,500 insurance shoppers to gain statistically valid insights, focusing on both bundlers and single-policy buyers. This comprehensive view allowed us to surface actionable insights about customer needs, pain points and trust triggers.
The value delivered
We identified key friction points and emotional needs that, when addressed, could drive higher conversions. As a result, the client was better positioned to strengthen customer trust, differentiate from larger competitors and capture greater market share in a highly competitive landscape.