In Client Book

In Client Book is a digital file organized system for the small local insurance agency to better store, manage and keep updated on their customers' information.

Context: A three months user experience project with In Insurance Agency Ltd.
Project Type: Academic
Time: Summer 2018
Role: UX Research, UX Design, UI Design
Tools: Adobe XD, After Effect, Journey Maps, Interviews, Participant Workshops, Persona
Team: Keefe Liew, Cassey Peng

Research

An insurance agency is a connection between insurance providers and insurance agents. Insurance brokers (who only work for the insurance agency) rely on agents to bring in clients to complete the sales when agents need brokers to help them submit the insurance requests to the providers.

As we interviewed the brokers at In Insurance Agency, they mentioned that the most significant pain point is the communication with the agents. They often need to contact back and forward with agents to fulfill the insurance request, which can take up an amount of time to get all the information required for the insurance submission. Also, sometimes the information can be mixed up when both brokers and agents work with multiple insurance cases.

Insights

• Insurance agents can be working with multiple agencies at once.

• The Insurance Agency relies on email, phone, and messages to communicate with its agents for clients' requests, file transfers, and insurance renewals.

• Insurance renewal requires brokers to manually pull out the customers' information through physical files and then have the agents contact the customers.

• Michael, the manager at In Insurance Agency, mentioned that the reason for the agency not to input any software but only relying on physical files and window folders is because "They are easy to use and do not require any additional training for brokers. Other applications are too complex, especially for the brokers, when what we need is to scan documents and file the information."

• It is easy to misplay, damage or lose the physical files when the insurance relies on personal behaviours to organize clients' information. As mentioned by Travis, the broker at In Insurance Agency, "They are planning to move to another office," which is needed to think on how to better transfer and backup their files.

Framing

How might we utilize these findings to develop a viable, long-term, and trust strengthening solution for the agency?

Process

To help In Insurance Agency strengthen their relationship with the agents and customers, we proposed three design solutions. We decided to move forward with In Client Book; a secure online customer database shared between the agency and agents.

Proposal

A digital file organization system personalized for In Insurance Agency to help them better manage their clients' information and files in one centralized location that allows them to collaborate with insurance agents.

Features

Automated Case Filing System

Insurance cases will automatically be filed into a folder based on their insurance type and expiring date.

Secure Platform to Edit and Share Clients’ Files

Brokers and agents can work on the same insurance case by editing and uploading the information through the platform.

Search and Sort for Cases and Clients

Brokers can search for clients' profiles and insurance cases through their name, insurance type or created date.

Expiring Cases Folder

The upcoming expiring insurance folder will be listed on the home page to remind brokers.

Reflection

In Client Book is the first project I did with a real client. We relied on most of our research through the observation because the participant group is involved with confidential data, and we could not have the chance to interview all the employees on the team due to their availability. There was a lot of jargon used in our clients' conversation, and we did not explain it clearly through to our audience at first, which leads them being confused about the connection between the insurance and agency.