Transcript Allstate Life & Retirement Continuous Improvement

Allstate Life & Retirement Continuous
Improvement
Producer survey findings
July 2014
Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
Context and methodology
As part of the Continuous Improvement (CI) effort focused on delivering end-to-end improvements to
the New Business and Underwriting (NB/UW) process, Allstate Life and Retirement conducted a survey
to capture producer perspectives on pain points and opportunities with the NB/UW process
Key objectives for the producer survey
• Understand what parts of the process of selling life insurance between application submission and policy
delivery that producers see as critical to ease of doing business
• Identify opportunities for ALR to enable producers to more effectively and efficiently provide for the life
insurance needs of their clients
317 producers completed the survey (~26% response rate) and responses will be used to identify and
inform high-impact process improvements
• Survey results include 309 Financial specialists, 6 agency owners, and 2 Life licensed LSP
• Survey distributed to all 1,200 Financial specialists and select EAs from 3 targeted groups (Council for
Life Leaders, National Advisory Board, & Producer Advisory Network)
• Insights from the survey will be used to inform the CI transformation and design of the target state
solution
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Key findings
Primary opportunities for improvement voiced by producers include:
• Initial rate classification and quote not matching final Underwriting (UW) decision
– Cited by ~30% of respondents as an opportunity for improvement, with nearly half reporting final quote as greater than
initial quote 25%+ of the time
• Turnaround time from policy submission to delivery
– Reported by ~51% as reason for lost business; seen by 34% of producers as not being competitive
• Quality of service provided by Allstate vendors
– ExamOne: professionalism of tele-interviewers and turnaround time for requested information cited as key
opportunities for improvement
– EMSI: turnaround time for requested information and back-and-forth with producers for more information reported as
areas to improve
• High volume and uncoordinated nature of when/how requests for amendments are made
– High volume of requests (62%) and lack of effective batching of requests to agents (55%) reported as contributing to
negative producer experiences
• Lack of communication and education around Underwriting decisions with field
– 54% of producers cite insufficient information currently being provided on UW decision as being important
Producers report very positive experiences with many of the tools available, especially with AOL, Eclipse, and
AccessAllstate website
• Positive experiences reported with Eclipse (86%), AOL (84%), and AccessAllstate website (81%)
• For tools like UW quote email folder and Quick quote, most producers report not having experience with the tools, but those
that do use cite positive experiences with them
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Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
Next steps: Producer feedback from survey & interviews
being incorporated into redesign of NB / UW process
Opportunities
identified
Ideas being considered in redesign of NB/UW process
Streamlined
communications
with Producers
• Have Case Coordinators manage cases end-to-end & serve as primary contact to Producers
• Provide better access to UW contact info to provide support on field UW & UW decisions
• Share guidelines with field on when/who to contact for specific questions
Improved
turnaround time
• Eliminate unnecessary process steps (e.g., reduction of amendments)
• Centralize workflow management; improve workload distribution to better handle apps
submitted
• Revise vendor SLAs to help shorten time needed to receive APS's
• Improve metrics & tools to track policies to better identify bottlenecks in policy processing
• Increase processing automation to speed up turnaround time and decrease unnecessary
follow ups in the long term
More accurate rate
classification and
quoting
• Improve Producer education and support during field Underwriting process
• Move towards implementing a more comprehensive online application (e.g., table ratings
included) to facilitate more accurate quoting and integrating Allstate systems (e.g., illustrations,
e-app, etc.)
Improved design
and functionality of
AOL
• Move towards more comprehensive online application with upfront checks, reducing need for
additional follow-ups
• Move towards VUL and NY 10A submission via AOL to eliminate need for paper applications
• Enable duplication of policy holder, spouse, & household info when Producers fill out apps
For any additional questions about ALR CI Voice of Producer work,
please contact Tara Stille at [email protected]
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Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
Appendix
Several improvement opportunities identified to better
support producers in providing for client life insurance needs
Field underwriting &
presales
Application
submission
1
2 Initial rate
classification and
quote may not always
match
• Lack of fast
access to UW
when needed
• Available tools not
robust enough
• Lack of up-to-date
UW guidelines
7
3
Lab/APS
collection
Policy
processing &
UW decision
Policy issue &
delivery
Slow turnaround time for policy application
Actual turnaround time below producer expectation, cause of lost business
Design and
functionality of AOL
interface
• Lack of offline
access to AOL
• Non-intuitive
design for AOL
platform
• Hassle with
making changes to
Part I & II
4 Quality of ExamOne
service
• Tele-interviewers
not professional
Long APS turnaround
time
Additional back-andforth to collect more
info from clients
• ExamOne &EMSI
do not document
all info needed
5 High volume of
6 High volume of
amendments
amendments
Requests for
additional info not
batched to minimize
visits to client
Requests for additional
info not batched to
minimize visits to client
Insufficient
explanation of UW
decisions to enable
agents to explain to
clients
Communication with home office
Lack of clarity around where to direct questions, poor experiences with offshore help desk
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Turnaround time
1
UW guidelines reported as a factor causing producers' to
be less competitive, turnaround time ranked third
Competitiveness on policies with face amounts <$2M or annual
premiums <$5K
Does Allstate Life and Retirement currently set you up to be competitive with producers from other
insurance companies in servicing standard life insurance needs of your customers on the following
dimensions?
UW guidelines
-30%
Avg # of req. per
std. application
-31%
-16%
Turnaround time from policy
application to delivery
-27%
-12%
Product features
7%
-22%
-9%
Customer service
4%
1%
2%
14% 4%
-15%
21%
5%
-7% -15%
20%
10%
Electonic app
-4%
23%
29%
-3%
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60 % of respondents
Significantly worse than competitors
Slightly better than competitors
Slightly worse than competitors
Significantly better than competitors
Clear process opportunity to increase competitiveness & producer
experience by decreasing turnaround time for applications
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Neutral" and "Don't know /not applicable" categories not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey.
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Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
1
Turnaround time
~51% of producers cite turnaround time as reason for lost
business
~55% of producers cite turnaround time as
being slower than expected...
...with ~51% citing turnaround time as
reason for lost business
In your experience, how rapidly does Allstate issue a policy to
customers (from time of application submission to final delivery)
compared to your expectations?
Have you ever lost business to a competitor because Allstate Life and
Retirement took too long or was too unpredictable in the length of time it
took to deliver the policy?
% of respondents
100
% of respondents
80
100
0.9%
3.5%
14.2%
80
40.7%
34.4%
60
60
40
40
34.7%
51.4%
20
20
20.2%
0
0
Significantly faster than expected
Don’t know
Slightly faster than expected
No
Adequate
Yes
Slightly slower than expected
Significantly slower than expected
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey.
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Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
2
Field underwriting
~30% of respondents see rate classification and quote
matching UW decision as opportunity for improvement
How would you describe your experience with determining a rate classification and obtaining a quote?
What percentage of the time is the final quote…
-19.9%
Initial rate classification &
quote matching UW decision
34.1%
"Biggest
challenge for me
is dealing with
rate classification
and quote
differences
between initial
and final
underwriting
quote"
15.1%
-10.4%
-11.4%
Availability of robust
tools for rate classification
30.6%
16.1%
-4.7%
% of respondents
Experience with determining a rate classification and quote
Percentage of time initial quote
greater than final
100.0
0.6%
9.1%
6.9%
80.0
33.1%
43.8%
45.4%
60.0
40.0
36.0%
33.1%
Ease of use of
available tools
43.2%
20.0
23.7%
-2.8%
21.1%
-50
0
Somewhat negative
50
Somewhat positive
100
Very positive
11.0%
3.5%
0.0
Very negative
50.2%
-5.7%
5.4%
0.6%
0.0%
Same as Greater than Less than
intial quote initial quote initial quote
<5%
26-50%
6-25%
51-75%
>75%
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Neutral" and "Don't know /not applicable" categories not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey. Producer interviews, May-June 2014.
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2
Field underwriting
Producers report positive experiences with field UW tools &
share opportunities to improve tools
Most producers indicate positive experience with Eclipse, UW
quote, and quick quote
Producers' comments for
improving Eclipse
How would you describe your experience with using the following tools to prepare, submit, and track a typical life
insurance policy?
Build table ratings into Eclipse
"Allow a feature from Eclipse to give an idea
on the possible table rating that might
occur."
-2%
34%
Eclipse
52%
1%
0%
Make Eclipse more robust
"The rate class estimator is not robust
enough and often quotes one class above
where most of my customers are issued."
-3%
UW quote
email folder
18%
21%
37%
-2%
Potential
missed
opportunity:
Those that use
these 2 tools
like them, but
most don't use
-4%
18% 11%
Quick quote
42%
-2%
-20
0
20
40
60
80
Ability to use Eclipse on other
devices
" We need to be able to use Eclipse on
mobile devices iPad , iPhone, etc."
100
% of respondents
Very negative
Very positive
Somewhat negative
Do not currently use / not applicable
Somewhat positive
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Neutral" category not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey.
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2
Field underwriting
Producers share several ways ALR home office can help
them to deliver more accurate quotes
Areas for improvement with delivery of accurate quotes
Inconvenience of finding and accessing Underwriters for specific
applications
Producer comments
"Faster phone access to a live underwriter. 5-10 minute
return of an email. -When I'm with a client, I should be able
to get an underwriting quote on the fly - faster than
current."
"Direct communication via phone or email with an
underwriter to help determine correct class base on the
information the client is providing"
Tools and training for rate classification not robust enough
"More robust quoting tools to give a better snapshot of
where the customer has the best shot of qualifying."
"Train on how we are underwriting the policies as a
company."
Frequent changes to Underwriting guidelines and limited
consistency in their interpretation
• Lack of up-to-date UW guidelines
"Have all the underwriters and service reps all follow the
same guidelines. It seems that certain underwriters are
more strict than others."
"More information in the underwriting guide
concerning table ratings for various issues and general
information regarding reasons for ratings and most
common conditions causing those ratings."
"Publish accurate guidelines and don't change them every
6 months."
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer
Survey.
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Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
3
AOL and application submission
Producers see AOL as differentiator and see clear
opportunities to make it even better
~53% of respondents cite AOL
as better than competitors
AOL: Does ALR set you up to be competitive
with producers from other insurance companies in
servicing standard life insurance needs of your
customers with the electronic app?
~84% of respondents cite
positive experience with AOL
AOL: How would you describe your experience
with using the following tools to prepare, submit,
and track a typical life insurance policy?
% of respondents
% of respondents
60.0
100.0
20.0
"Challenges result from routing and account
number are backwards on the entry screen;
Account number should be first, Routing number
should be second. Would make data entry more
intuitive."
51.1%
40.0
Enable greater ease of changing Part I & II
23.3%
20.0
0.0
-2.8%
"If you start part II, you have to restart if you need to
make a change to part I"
33.1%
-4.1%
-20.0
"Make AOL available offline. Sometimes while in
clients home, either they don't have wireless, or I
cannot tether to my phone because of weak cellular
signal."
"App on Line is still not a user friendly tool. With
experience, it has been easier, but not intuitive."
29.0%
60.0
Offline access to AOL
Make AOL user interface more intuitive
80.0
40.0
Producer comments on opportunities to
improve AOL
0.0
-2.8%
-3.5%
Enable client information cloning
"If I am doing a term and UL, should be able to just
change policy type, not have to re-input all the
relevant information."
-20.0
Significantly better than competitors
Very positive
Slightly better than competitors
Somewhat positive
Slightly worse than competitors
Somewhat negative
Significantly worse than competitors
Very negative
Improve e-signature user interface
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Neutral" and "Don't know
/not applicable" categories not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey. Producer interviews,
May-June 2014.
Page 11
"Feedback from clients is that it is confusing to
complete e-signatures; The initial screen presents 2
options (1) download pages, (2) view and e-sign.
Needs to be more obvious that clients should
automatically click on "View and e-sign" option."
Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
4
Vendor experience
ExamOne: Professionalism of tele-interviewers, parameds,
& back-and-forth for requirements are areas for improvement
Producer comments on
ExamOne service
Experience working with ExamOne vendor
How would you describe your experience working with ExamOne to collect labs on the policyholder on the following
dimensions?
Professionalism of interviewer
for tele-interview
-10%
Freq. of back & forth with applicant
for more info
-18%
-7%
25%
-21%
13%
25%
17%
Customer service & policy
applicant satisfaction
-9% -11%
37%
20%
Competency & reputation
-8% -10%
36%
22%
Turnaround time for requested info
-5% -12%
Professionalism of paramed
-5% -13%
-6%
Paramed preparedness for appointment
Established & trusted
relationships
38%
-10%
-40
-20
25%
30%
-8% -7%
26%
26%
0
"We need to find someone more
professional than [ExamOne] in AZ; I do
part II; otherwise it is 30-40 minute
antagonistic phone call; when these
people go into my clients homes, they
reek of body odor or alcohol."
22%
35%
"I have had clients complain of the
professionalism of examiners and I
have had examiners show up w/o the
needed equipment to perform the exam.
One didn't have a scale."
28%
20
40
60
"I have had numerous issues with
ExamOne. I find them unprofessional
and [they] put my business at risk
because of this. They changed/canceled
set appointments on my clients, stood
one up on one occasion, and one nurse
had the audacity to show up at a clients
house sick and got my client sick."
% of respondents
Very negative
Somewhat negative
Somewhat positive
Very positive
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Neutral" and "Don't know /not applicable"
categories not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey. Producer interviews, May-June 2014.
Page 12
"Parameds leaving without completing
the required items and having to return
a second time."
Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
4
Vendor experience
EMSI: APS turnaround time & frequency of back-and-forth
for requirements seen as improvement opportunities
Producer comments
about EMSI
Experience working with EMSI vendor
How would you describe your experience working with EMSI to collect the Attending Physician Statement of the
policy applicant?
-19%
Turnaround time for requested info
Freq. of back & forth with applicant
for more info
-24%
-15%
20%
-21%
18%
" APS requests definitely slow down
the process and it seems like they
are being ordered more frequently
now than before."
8%
9%
"Medical records are not secured in a
timely manner."
Customer service & policy
applicant satisfaction
-11%
-16%
24%
Vendor competency & reputation
-10%
-15%
24%
Established & trusted
relationships with vendor
-9%
-15%
23%
-60
-40
-20
0
10%
"APS vendors make calls and that is
all. Never go above and beyond to
solve delays. I get involved and
usually get issues solved in 1 call what
takes them months."
13%
"EMSI needs better follow up on
APS's."
11%
20
40
% of respondents
Very negative
Somewhat negative
Somewhat positive
Very positive
" We typically use Wilshire Porter
Medic (an alternate vendor), which
seems to get the APS more directly;
EMSI not as fast with turnaround"
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Neutral" and "Don't know /not applicable" categories not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey. Producer interviews, May-June 2014.
Page 13
Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
5
Policy processing and delivery
>50% of producers view high volume and lack of batching
of requirements as challenges with policy processing
Pre-UW decision experience with policy
processing
80
Producer comments regarding volume
and batching of additional information
Thinking about when a life insurance policy is under review before an Underwriting
decision is made, how much do you agree with each of the following statements?
% of respondents
65.6%
58.7%
60
30.6%
23.7%
40
20
"We have so many duplicate requests, late requests,
and lost requirements it is maddening! The worst
process I've experienced in 17 years in the industry!"
43.5%
39.7%
9.8%
35.0%
35.0%
Too many
add’l
signatures/info
requested by
home office
Requests
for info not
grouped to
minimize
client visits
33.8%
" Additional forms and signatures are posted on an
individual basis requiring us to contact insured many
times after application. Makes us look unprofessional."
36.9%
11.0%
7.9%
28.7%
29.0%
" Going back for additional information is never a positive
experience for the client. They become skeptical and a
reason to shop around or change their minds in
purchasing in the first place.."
0
Responses to
Little
Responses to
concern not transparency concerns/issues
received in
on status of not accurate
timely manner
life ins.
applications
"Ask for ALL of the requirements at once such as
amendment, eft form to be signed, illustrations, etc."
I have never had to revisit a client more than once in
my career prior to Allstate. It is a more often than not
scenario here."
Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey.
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Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
5
Policy processing and delivery
Producers report positive experience with AccessAllstate &
suggest some ways to make it even better
~53% of respondents cite positive
experiences with AccessAllstate (AA)
AccessAllstate: How would you describe your experience
with using the following tools to prepare, submit, and track a
typical life insurance policy?
% of respondents
100.0
80.0
1.3%
60.0
42.3%
Potential missed
opportunity: Positive
experiences cited, but
most don't use
46.1%
40.0
20.0
9.5%
38.8%
Agent comments on suggested improvements to AccessAllstate
Make AA design
more intuitive
"AA system is not user friendly. There are too many
abbreviations and it doesn't make sense. Not easy to
figuring out what the abbreviations are. Critical
information is often buried in notes (e.g., drop dates) and
the follow up service piece needs to be rebuilt."
Make AccessAllstate
more current
"It would help if AccessAllstate would be current. Most of
the time there is a lag time of a couple of days before
AccessAllstate is updated"
Access to
Underwriter info
through AA
"AA doesn't list the full name of the underwriter. Put
a link under the name, perhaps a direct link with a
hyperlink to email address."
Expand response
fields in AA
"I tend to use email a lot; AA allows us to respond to
questions that UW has, but offers limited space on
what we can type in. This causes agents to need to
abbreviate, which can be confusing."
Make AA email alerts
more specific
" I get a lot of No Reply email notifications from
AccessAllstate stating, "Alert: Pending policy needing
action" in the subject. Currently, I get these alerts and
they are useless for me until I go search for who the
email was for. Would be helpful if subject included
customer name and what alert was for. "
19.2%
0.0
-3.5%
-3.2%
-5.0%
-0.9%
-20.0
AccessAllstate site
AccessAllstate
mobile
Do not currently use / not applicable
Very positive
Somewhat positive
Somewhat negative
Very negative
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N= 317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Neutral" and "Don't know /not applicable" categories not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey. Producer interviews, May-June 2014.
Page 15
Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential
6
Policy processing and delivery
Post UW-decision, volume & batching of amendments cited
as concerns, producers also want more info on UW decision
Post-UW decision experience with policy processing, issue, and delivery
Thinking about when an underwriting decision is made and the policy is issued and delivered, how much do you agree with each
of the following statements?
80
61.8%
Opportunity for ALR to provide
additional support: Agents express need
for more info on UW decision to explain to
clients
"When something comes back different than
applied, the reasons for change are not always
clear enough;. Would like more explanation of
how they arrived at this decision"
60
% of respondents
54.6%
53.6%
25.6%
51.4%
12.6%
19.2%
17.0%
40
20
36.3%
41.0%
35.3%
34.4%
Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
0
Too many add’l
signatures/info requested
by home office
Requests for additional
info not grouped effectively
Not enough info provided
on Underwriting decision
Changes to rating /
quote were unexpected
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses may not add to 100% - "Somewhat disagree," "Strongly disagree," "Neutral," "Don't know /not applicable" categories not
shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey. Producer interviews, May-June 2014.
Page 16
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7
Communication
~25% of producers want more clarity on where to direct
questions & cite inconsistency in responses as concern
Experience with communicating with
Allstate Life and Retirement home office
Agent comments on
communication with ALR
How would you describe your experience communicating with Allstate Life and Retirement home
office? For the "Other" category, if you do not have any additional aspects of communicating with home
office that you would like to provide feedback on, please select the "Don't know / not applicable" option.
1
Lack of clarity on who to contact
" It was very difficult to figure out who to
call for what."
Clarity of where to
direct questions/concerns
-8.5% -16.1%
30.3%
18.3%
" Always speaking to different people."
-9.8%
Number of touch points
with home office
18.0%
29.3%
18.0%
" Too many people handling one item
causes confusion."
-9.1%
Frequency of
communications
2
-4.1%
No. of methods of
communicating with
home office (e.g.,
40.1%
Lack of consistency of answers
creates further confusion
" Many times the answer is different,
unclear or they do not know. You can call
back and get a different answer."
-4.4%
25.6%
-3.5%
-40
Very negative
30.3%
-4.4%
-20
Somewhat negative
0
20
40
Somewhat positive
60
80
" Never talk to same person and often get
different answers to same question."
Very positive
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317. Survey responses omay not add to 100% - "Neutral" and "Don't know /not applicable" categories not shown.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey. Producer interviews, May-June 2014.
Page 17
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7
Communication
Many agents also report communicating and working with
offshore help desk as needing review and improvement
Foreign help
desk seen as
source of
frustration
Offshore staff
considered
uninformed and
unprofessional
"The foreign help desk is aggravating."
" Overseas awful...always ask [to be
transferred] back on mainland"
" Off shore communication is very poor."
" I have no trust in the quality of information
given by offshore representatives. They
have given me wrong information at times
and if they don't know the answer to a
question they hang up."
" The Philippines call center people are
very positive and nice and speak perfect
English but can not go off script. They can
only answer the simplest of questions. "
"The Philippines office is very courteous
and can handle easy questions but when it
gets a little complicated I don't have
confidence and I ask to be switched to a
mainland office"
" I have to verify and correct changes too
often. I am sent to overseas customer
service too often. They are extremely
undependable and not knowledgeable
about our processes and guidelines. I
always have to ask them to send me to onshore support."
Agents express strong preference for onshore support,
especially for more complex inquiries
Note: Reflects data as of June 11, 2014, N=317.
Source: 2014 Continuous Improvement in Life New Business and Underwriting: Producer Survey.
Page 18
Property of Allstate Insurance Company – Proprietary & Confidential