Home Digital Transformation | Hastings Direct | Service DesignUsing customer insight to shape an industry-leading digital Home Claims experience that puts customers in control and unlocks operational potential.
The Challenge
The existing Home Claims journey could leave customers feeling uncertain, uninformed and disconnected, particularly during assessment and settlement. The challenge was to understand where the experience was falling short and identify how digital and operational improvements could deliver better customer and business outcomes.
Objective
Create an industry-leading digital claims experience that empowers customers to stay in control while unlocking operational potential.
My Role
As a Service Designer, I led customer research and translated findings into actionable insights, customer experience strategy and future-state design. I worked with cross-functional stakeholders to shape concepts, test opportunities with customers and connect the desired experience to the processes and capabilities needed to deliver it.
Approach
1. Understand the customer experience
I spoke with 40 + customers across four home insurance perils, different age groups and satisfaction levels to understand their end-to-end claims experiences. Research revealed that the biggest pain points often occurred during assessment and settlement, where supplier involvement, long waits and poor communication could erode trust.
2. Translate insight into experience principles
I synthesised the findings into four core customer needs: Make it easier for me, Trust me, Inform me and Reassure me. These became strategic pillars to guide design decisions and prioritise opportunities across the claims journey.
3. Shape the future-state experience
The research challenged the assumption that some claim types were inherently better suited to digitisation. Instead, it revealed where digital could address dissatisfaction by improving communication, setting expectations and giving customers greater visibility and control. I mapped opportunities across notification, assessment and settlement to shape the future-state journey.
4. Develop and test digital concepts
Working with cross-functional teams, I explored and tested MVP and future-state concepts for digital notification. Customer feedback helped identify how digital interactions could provide reassurance, simplify information capture and keep customers informed, while recognising the value of human support.
5. Connect the experience to delivery
I consolidated the future-state journey and developed an MVP service blueprint, connecting customer needs and proposed improvements with the operational processes and capabilities needed to deliver them.
Outcome & Impact
Shifted the focus from digitisation to customer needs
Research challenged initial assumptions about which claims were best suited to digitisation, establishing a customer-led direction for the Home Claims transformation and highlighting opportunities to improve communication, transparency and customer control.
Shaped the MVP and future-state experience
Customer research and testing informed the evolving MVP digital notification experience and longer-term vision. The future-state journey and service blueprint connected customer needs with the operational changes required to deliver a better claims experience.
Built stakeholder alignment through actionable insight
The research gave teams a clearer understanding of customer pain points and opportunities for improvement. The Head of Home Claims Transformation recognised the quality, clarity and actionable insights of the work, highlighting its value beyond the digital transformation team.
