S U N C O R P
AN INSURANCE CASE STUDY
THE BRIEF
Reshape the future of home insurance quoting
Suncorp knew its home insurance quote experience wasn’t working as well as it could. They wanted a clearer view of what a better journey could look like.
THE PROBLEM
A journey leaking customers
The work revealed that customers were dropping out across the quote flow, with the biggest issues hidden inside long questions, unclear choices and unexpected pricing consequences.
THE APPROACH
Pulling the journey apart
We reviewed the form and data, spoke with customers, shadowed staff and mapped the moments where effort, ambiguity and choice created friction.
THE RESULT
Turning findings
into action
We reframed the findings into three high-impact problem areas, then shaped design concepts and recommendations the team could act on.
CUSTOMER RESEARCH
“Standard of construction question is confusing. Could there be help about what each means?”
“The cost is too much. I feel i’ve entered something incorrect.”
“To be honest I don’t know what i’m insured for.”
RESEARCH - the interesting insights
What curious things did we learn?
Form assumes the worst case
The quote gathered information to estimate the cost of rebuilding a home, but it never clearly explained it was calculating a worst-case scenario.
26 reasons to abandon
The quote asked 26 questions to create an estimate. Each one created another chance for customers to leave.
Call centre simplify questions
Phone staff knew customers struggled with long lists of options, so they often turned them into simpler yes/no questions.
RESEARCH - concerning learning
What worried us?
The quote journey was not just confusing. It was losing people, distorting estimates and creating commercial risk.
95%
2%
Only 2% of customers reached the end of the quote flow, before even choosing to buy.
24%
$1M
One ambiguous question could overestimate a home’s rebuild cost by up to 95%.
24% abandon when shown three prices alongside a lot of overwhelming information.
Each 1% lift in form completion was estimated to represent around $1M in potential revenue.
FRAMING THE PROBLEM
Turning the research into problems we could solve
We turned the 3 biggest pain points into questions to spark solutions.
1. Too many question
How might we gather what Suncorp needs without it feeling like hard work?
2. Too much ambiguity
How might we ask questions clearly enough that customers know how to answer?
3. Too much choice
How might we help customers compare quote options without overwhelming them?
Overwhelming options: At a key decision moment, customers were shown multiple prices and dense optional extras.
Exploring concept directions
Turning research into ideas for change.
The goal was not just to find problems in the quote journey, but to turn the research into ideas. Each concept explores a different way to reduce effort and make choices easier to understand.
01
Use Google maps to estimate house size
How might we gather data without it feeling like hard work?We explored how map data could estimate house size automatically, reducing the amount of information customers had to calculate or enter themselves.
02
Ask one question at a time
How might we gather data without it feeling like hard work?We broke complex steps into simpler decisions, helping customers focus on the question in front of them and feel a stronger sense of progress.
03
Let customers choose extras one at a time
How might we help customers compare quote options without overwhelming them?Instead of forcing customers into preset packages, optional extras could be switched on or off individually, making cover feel easier to understand and tailor.
04
Use images to give guidance for subjective questions
How might we ask questions clearly enough that customers know how to answer?We used visual examples to give customers something concrete to compare against, making subjective questions easier to understand and answer accurately.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The many suggestions made were grouped into three categories, depending on complexity.
JUST DO IT IDEAS
13 ideas
Simple design changes the team should just do. Such as, asking one question at a time.
DESIGN ANALYSIS
8 ideas
Concentrated design sessions and number crunching to determine how to tweak questions.
For example, is there a better question we can ask to find out the construction quality?
BUSINESS DECISIONS
5 ideas
For some ideas the product being sold needs changes and therefore needs senior leader input.
Such as, not all questions need to be captured for the model to work. Can we remove some?
POST SCRIPT
Change takes time, but it happens.
This project shows that significant change does happen. But you have to be patient when working with large organisations with complex structures. Although well received, some recommendations only made their way into the final product in 2022. 4 years later.
As someone who cares greatly about my clients and the work I do, it was very heart warming to see these ideas eventually come to life.
MORE CASE STUDIES