27th February 2015

A growing trend in the field of software development, and one that is particularly important for insurers and insurance brokers, is the focus on User Experience (UX), which encompasses all aspects of a user's interaction with a company, its services and products. Covering the customer's interactions with software and contact centre operators, UX is broad term that can be boiled down to two things � what emotional response to a system does the user have, and how can it be improved?

When looking at UX, the distinction between a User Experience and Customer Experience (CX) is an important one. Once a user buys into a company's product or services, they become a customer. In business terms, it's often cheaper to retain a customer than it is to lose them and replace them with a new one. Therefore, once you've converted a user into a customer, it's important to keep them happy by offering good CX.

Happiness, and emotions in general, are key to the concept of UX. Using website design as an example, UX asks the question of how visiting a website might make a person feel. Does it make them happy or does it make them angry?

For companies that are trying to sell a product online, websites that make them angry or confused are unlikely to work effectively. Even if you're selling the best products at the best prices, an unfriendly user experience could deter potential customers from parting with their money, stopping the user from converting into a customer. Equally, customers that have a bad experience are unlikely to remain customers for very long.

eCommerce provides the ideal argument for focussing on UX. Amazon.com took heed of the high conversion rate for customers that felt they'd had a positive customer journey. Amazon was noted for funding UX over advertising 100% in its first year and continues to invest heavily in optimising the experience of the user, decisions that have led to its growth as a world leader in online sales.

The distinction between UX and Customer Experience (CX) is also important. In the past, many companies have prided themselves on offering the highest levels of service to existing customers, people that have already paid for a product or service, but what about the people that never get that far?

During the dot-com era, successful online companies began to notice that people using their websites behaved in strange ways. People would add items to their virtual shopping carts and then abandon them before following through and paying for the products. This informed the idea that websites had to concentrate on how to convert users into customers. Increasing the usability of websites will therefore translate into increased sales.

User testing is one of the most efficient ways to improve UX. People don't always interact with websites or software in the way that we expect them to, and by identifying a user's key needs, developers can improve the performance of websites, improve trust in a business brand and increase return visits. In software terms, this extends further, because identifying the needs of the person using your programmes can also reduce training needs and reduce development costs. Whether the end user is a consumer or a staff member that will be using the software to sell products, good UX offers a myriad of benefits.

Within the insurance industry, direct insurers and aggregators already invest heavily in UX, because they understand that by removing the barriers that stop people from purchasing policies, their conversion rates increase.

Every insurance policy sold through an aggregator website comes with an additional fee for the broker, which makes it cheaper to retain existing customers than acquiring new ones. Good customer support is therefore essential and every point of contact for policyholders is an opportunity for brokers to retain or drive away customers.

Outside of the web, people interact with companies in numerous ways, and the value of UX applies whatever the channel. Somebody purchasing an insurance policy over the phone will base their impression of the company on the expertise of the contact centre operative guiding them through the process. A question set that makes sense, and is easy to answer, will contribute towards a good experience for the customer. Difficult-to-answer questions or a jarring transition from one question to the next can have the opposite outcome. Contact centre operatives needs access to software that allows them to guide people through the sales process in an intuitive way.

Overall, a user's last experience with a company will affect their perception of the company as a whole. Good UX increases the conversion of potential customers to paying customers, improves retention rates and offers significantly increased efficiencies for developers and contact centre staff. In short, UX matters.