We’re pleased to announce that we have added three new paramedical providers to our panel.

This expansion gives you even greater choice in providers, while speeding up the process, and improving the end-to-end experience of your clients who require further health screening tests for us to assess their application. Plus, once you let us know your preferred provider from our panel, we’ll take care of the rest.   

We spoke to our GM of Operations, Bridget Ramunno, about this significant change.

What has brought about this change?

Bridget Ramunno: The application process is a really critical time for Advisers to secure clients for life, so we’re always looking for ways we can improve that experience.

One area we identified for improvement was the process of organising health screening tests which are sometimes required at application. By adding additional providers with complimentary capabilities, we are able to speed up the application process, reduce the advisers’ effort to get applications inforce, as well as improving the health screening experience for their clients.

Who do we have on board?

BR: In addition to Unified Health Care Group (UHG), Integrity welcomes Health Predictions, Prestige Paramedical, and EQ Pathology to provide both medical retrieval and health screening services.

Why is this good news for Advisers?

BR: We have partnered with some of the best providers in the country to give our Advisers even more choice.

The process is designed to take the heavy lifting off Advisers. So we’ll do everything from securely transferring all the relevant information to the providers, and then ensuring Advisers are kept in the loop at every stage. This transparency allows them to keep their clients informed, stay on the front-foot, and in turn, create a better application experience.

Early results show that on average health screening requests are completed end-to-end in just 4.5 days and medical report retrieval services average around 6 days. But we’re anticipating reducing this even further.

What do Advisers need to do to set this up?

BR: Just get in touch with your BDM or our Customer Care team and let us know which provider you wish to use. Then, if tests are required and you want us to organise, we’ll take care of the rest.

One of the most challenging aspects of getting clients on risk is the application process. It’s often made challenging by some of the hoops insurers will make you jump through, or by a lack of engagement from the client, or just because it’s a complicated case. We wanted to find a way to make this process as easy as possible for both Adviser and client alike.

How did we approach the challenge?

Like most things at Integrity, we started with asking the Advisers we work with, how they wanted us to solve the problem. A number of key aspects emerged in this work.

1. Speed – get it done, and get it done as quickly as possible. It’s hard to keep clients engaged in the process so the quicker the better. It’s also ‘2020’ and this stuff shouldn’t take weeks.
2. Communication – keep me informed and always in the loop. The client is putting their trust in the Adviser and the way to maintain that trust is to ensure the Adviser is always informed and up to date. Communication should be proactive, Advisers shouldn’t have to chase it up.

Our solution? Application Concierge.

Over the last couple of months we have been ramping up support staff numbers and improving processes to be able to deliver, what we believe, is an application process that delivers on what Advisers have told us they want and what clients expect to get.

Our new Application Concierge process is speeding things up! 93% of new applications received are decisioned within 24 hours with more than 15% completed instantly! 83% underwriting decisioning within 2 days from receipt of further evidence (61% within 24 hours). As at Sept 2020.

Application Concierge is enabling better communication. With increased numbers in our application support team they’re on stand-by should any application require manual input or there is any need to proactively reach out to Advisers, plus every application has a dedicated underwriter to ensure consistency and one port of call.

How can I get it?

It’s now in place for all new applications. So whether you’re signing up someone new, or moving a client to Integrity – you’ll have the comfort of knowing we’ve got your back. 

As the saying goes ‘Life Insurance is sold, not bought’. And it can be hard work, not only to get the client educated enough appreciate the need for it, but then to keep them engaged throughout what can be a lengthy application process. So how do we overcome this? We might just have the answer… As the saying goes ‘Life Insurance is sold, not bought’. And it can be hard work, not only to get the client educated enough appreciate the need for it, but then to keep them engaged throughout what can be a lengthy application process. So how do we overcome this? We might just have the answer.

Natalie Sargeant, Head of Customer Experience, talks about some of the ways consumer behaviour is (finally) driving change in the Life Insurance industry. 

Why did it take so long for the notion of ‘customer centricity’ to reach the Life Insurance industry? 

Natalie: Life insurance is an old industry. It’s not for lack of people being customer centric and understanding customer needs, it’s more often an inability to be able to execute the desired change because of legacy systems that hold the industry back. Being able to understand the needs of customers when they have suffered an injury, illness, or death in the family, is really the starting point for designing a life insurance product and all of the processes around the claims experience. That is really what we are selling to the customer.Additionally, if we’re selling insurance products via an Adviser, we also have to intimately understand their client advice process and how the processes we design supports them. In other words, we are designing both an experience we will deliver, and an experience an Adviser will deliver. 

The whole industry is set up to compare ‘product specifics’ and not necessarily the ‘experience’ that comes with those products. How do we get more Advisers to see how the experience is the product? 

Natalie: Comparing products and pricing is a very important part of the process that Advisers go through in developing a recommendation for their clients. Risk researcher tools provide a good starting point for Advisers, but there is often more to it. In particular, what happens at claims time isn’t easily factored into the consideration process, because it’s not easily comparable until an Adviser has been through it with an insurer. An example of this would be, a client experiences illness or injury and are receiving an Income Insurance benefit. 

At a critical time in their recovery, how many hoops does the insurer make them jump through? With the number of requirements they need to provide, or forms they need to complete?

2. Can the Insurer pay them on the same day their wage would normally go in, or do they have to adjust all their automatic payments?

3. If there is an issue, is it escalated to an overseas call centre?

4. Do the staff make decisions based on sets of rules, or are they empowered to make values-based decisions?

All of this – distinguishes one product from another. You are not just buying what’s in the PDS. The experience and the process the insurer puts around the products is just as important as what’s in the box.    

Can you talk about some of the features we have built that help Advisers make a great first impression during application and quote  that match with modern consumer expectations around experience? 

Natalie: We’ve been very clear about who we are designing our product and experience for during quote and application. As Advisers are recommending our products to their clients, we need to fit in seamlessly with their advice process.

In our quoting tool, Advisers are able to easily compare stepped versus level premiums over the life of the policy as well as side by side comparisons for year 1 premiums. Our shopping cart in the quote tool provides complete transparency on the breakdown of the covers, optional extras, and if they do a pre-assessment, any loadings and exclusions are added straight into the basket . We have seen both these features used by Advisers in the presence of their customers to help create trust and help explain away some of the complexity. 

If Advisers need to do a pre-assessment they are able to use our digital tool, which has the outcomes built straight into the quote , or they can be in touch directly with our underwriters, who have very quick turnaround times. All of the documents Advisers need for compliance are available in the activity log.  Applying for cover  is a flexible digital form that can be completed in any order, which allows Adviser’s the ability to adapt this to the way they like to work in both preparing advice and meeting with their client. This really allows them to focus on the relationship and not painful paperwork.