HOMESITE INSURANCE
Case Study—
Retained 7,560 customers and generated $4.3M by transitioning renters to homeownership
During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, as lockdowns swept across the country, our call centers at Homesite Insurance (White label servicing for 33 major insurance companies, including GEICO and Progressive) experienced a 48% surge in cancellation-related calls for the renters' line of business within our insurance platform.
As part of the UX team investigating this issue, we commissioned a quantitative research study to identify potential strategies to reduce cancellations.
The findings revealed that most customers were not cancelling due to dissatisfaction with service or pricing. Instead, many were moving out of urban areas to new locations. Additionally, some customers were unaware of their options to transfer or update their policies rather than cancelling them entirely.
To provide further insight, we conducted qualitative research sessions highlighting what customers desired from their insurance experience. The findings indicated that the pandemic had shifted priorities, with many seeking improved "livability" or transitioning to homeownership.
(In this context, a "graduate" refers to a customer transitioning from a renters' insurance policy (HO-4) to a homeowners' insurance policy (HO-3) as they move from renting to owning their home, which is why we refer to it as 'graduation.')
(Roles)
UX/UI Design Lead
UX Research Assistant
(Method)
User Survey
Affinity Diagrams
Thematic Analysis
(Tools)
Miro Board
Figma
Hotjar
Tableau
“With everything else going on during my move, the last thing I need is to stress about my insurance. I need a clear, easy way to stay covered.”
The Problem
Renters and first-time homebuyers often face uncertainty when moving to a new place and transferring their insurance policy. They might not know whether to transfer, cancel, or re-quote it. The process can feel overwhelming, especially with the added stress of avoiding gaps in coverage during a move.
Online servicing is an experience where customers typically come in to perform a specific task, such as paying their insurance bill. Customers often approach this situation reluctantly—they don't want to be there. They may be dealing with financial hardship, stress from moving, or the aftermath of a nasty claims process.
Making payments for something intangible can be difficult for many customers to accept, even though it is necessary.
Most of our customers (98%) who utilize online servicing are renters. Eventually, they will move to a new location.
Before 2020, the only option for Homesite Insurance was to call a service agent (at $18 a phone call on average), which was time-consuming and costly for the customers and the company.
Affected Users
Primary Users
Renters moving into another rental (HO-4 moving to HO-4): Navigating the process of transferring rental insurance to another rental experience.
Graduates, first-time homebuyers (HO-4 moving to HO-3): Transitioning from renting to owning and needing guidance on transferring or updating policies.
Homeowners moving to other homes (HO-3 moving to HO-3)
Veteran homeowners (HO-3 moving to multiple HO-3s): Managing multiple homeowner policies or updating coverage during moves.
Secondary Users
Seasonal Migrant Workers: Seeking temporary rental insurance for short-term accommodations tied to work.
Students: Requiring limited-term rental insurance while attending school.
“I wish I could just move my insurance for my apartment on my phone, especially since English isn’t my first language—it would make things so much easier.”
Problem Statement
How might we create a user-centered insurance platform that simplifies transferring, canceling, and managing policies, offering clear guidance and personalized solutions to prevent coverage gaps and improve the moving experience?
UX Research Plan
Goals and Objectives: Understand the current state of “Moving” & “Graduation.”
Develop insight into what the future of “moving” & “graduation” should be.
Define Homesite’s “Moving” & “Graduation” product and service roadmap.
Method: Online survey
Platforms: Qualtrics (Survey), PureSpectrum (Recruitment & Incentives)
Participants: 300 Participants, age 18-65
Deliverables
Topline Report (Deck)
Full Report (Deck)
Executive Summary/Management Report (Small Deck)
Dependencies:
Stakeholder questionnaire alignment
Strategy
After analyzing customer feedback from our research and collaborating with the business team and stakeholders, we identified a clear path forward to enhance the customer experience and achieve business goals.
Key Objective:
To simplify the process for customers to seamlessly transfer and secure property insurance through API integration and the Online Servicing platform, ultimately increasing quote referrals to digital sales platforms.
Strategic Focus:
Understanding the Current State: Conducting a thorough evaluation of the existing moving process for policyholders to uncover pain points and areas for improvement.
Streamlining the Future Roadmap: Identifying opportunities to simplify workflows, making the process intuitive and user-friendly.
Key strategies include:
Simplifying the process for obtaining new quotes, transferring policies, and cancelling previous ones.
Integrating cancellations and billing into a unified moving experience.
Offering discounts for renters transitioning to homeownership.
Enhancing multi-policy support for customers with diverse insurance needs.
Streamlining form entry with pre-filled customer information.
Providing customer education and guidance throughout the process.
Make form entry easier by pre-filling customer's information.
Interviewing the Stakeholder
As I wrapped up the research stage, I prioritized interviewing my most important stakeholder—my product owner. In addition to our regular stand-ups, we frequently held one-on-one meetings to address concerns, discuss discoveries, resolve bottlenecks, and clarify any questions I had.
One key realization during these conversations was the importance of understanding the backend processes—the behind-the-scenes operations driving the user interface that customers engage with.
To bridge this gap, we dedicated time for me to learn the technical aspects of how everything works, enabling me to design more informed and aligned user experiences.
Together, we created a detailed process flowchart to visually map out the customer journey, illustrating every step of their engagement with our quote router from start to finish. This effort provided clarity and helped identify opportunities for improvement.
The product owner and I mapped out user flows, detailing the distinct customer experiences for scenarios like buying a home or transitioning to a rental. This comprehensive approach ensured a clear understanding of each customer journey's unique needs and processes.
Design Thinking
We created wireframes tailored to address the needs of movers, focusing initially on Moving and Customer Retention. Over time, we expanded the scope to include support for Multi-Policy management.
Define Phase
The Product Owner, key analysts, and I collaborated in Miro, using sticky notes to map high-level flows and assess the platform's capabilities and limitations. To ensure a customer-centric approach, I:
Analyzed the responses collected from the survey responses.
Engaged stakeholders to understand business goals.
Observed sales agent calls to gain insights into customer interactions and workflows.
I facilitated team meetings involving the PO, business stakeholders, developers, and QA to ensure alignment. I also help to support epics and user stories while noting cross-dependencies to maintain clarity and streamline collaboration.
Ideation Phase/Brainstorming
Below is a screenshot of our Miro Board session. During this collaborative discussion, we focused on examining our page taxonomy to define the purpose and functionality of each page. Key considerations included:
Geolocation Pages: Identifying pages that provide location-specific insurance products to customers.
Quote Router Integration: Determining where customers are routed to in the sales platform for quotes.
Channel Engagement Pages: Highlighting pages that offer different engagement options, such as chat, phone calls, or other communication channels.
We identified feasible, iterative solutions to improve the moving experience:
Introduce a dedicated ‘Moving’ section for easy navigation.
For customer ease of use, we pre-populated form fields when applicable for faster inputs.
Integrated SmartyStreets (an app that offers address verification and Geocoding services) for street address auto-suggestions.
Directed customers to a quote router for policy updates.
Enhanced the omnichannel experience with live chat, chatbots, callback scheduling, and phone support.
Focus on customer education and engagement.
Unified cancellation and billing processes into the moving workflow.
Supported multiple policies under one account.
Prototype Phase
High-Fidelity Mockups
A Renter’s Moving Experience.
The new narrative we’re telling the new mover is straightforward and supportive:
"Hey, you’re moving? We’re here to help make it easy!"
Our new flow gives customers clear choices about what they can protect during their move. By using the term "protect" instead of "cover" or "insure," we communicate action and convey a sense of seriousness. Unlike "cover," which feels ambiguous, or "insure," which is industry jargon, "protect" resonates with customers by emphasizing the importance of safeguarding what matters most to them.
We’ve simplified the process by allowing customers to complete their thoughts naturally, reducing cognitive load with prompts like:"I want to start my policy on…" and "My new address is…"
For example, Pedro selects Rental, enters the policy start date, and provides his new address.
To further streamline the experience, we integrated SmartyStreets, a single address validation tool. It auto-suggests addresses, aligns with the postal service, and makes entering accurate address information quicker and easier for the customer—enhancements made to tie in directly with discoveries made in the ideation phase.
We’re presenting Pedro with the narrative:
"Here’s the best deal we found for you—your quote offer!"
The overview highlights what the new policy covers, giving Pedro a clear understanding of what’s included. To build trust and confidence, we prominently display applicable discounts and savings, reinforcing the value of the offer.
We display what’s included in the quote, with careful attention given to clarity, and simplicity. There’s no industry jargon and we have tailored the reading level, tone, and microcopy to resonate with our audience.
If Pedro likes the offer, he can seamlessly proceed to the payment flow. If not, he has the option to decline or save the offer. To ensure support, the process concludes with a "Call Us" option, providing an additional layer of assistance.
Our research revealed that customers value incentives, particularly loyalty discounts, as a reward for their continued support. This is especially important for customers transitioning from a rental experience to homeownership. Incorporating loyalty discounts is a key feature under consideration to further enhance customer satisfaction and retention.
To address customer grooming, we recognize that many of our users—first-time renters and homeowners—often find industry terminology confusing. To support them, we’ve developed a dynamic FAQ that evolves based on customer needs. These resources are seamlessly integrated into the moving experience on the servicing side at Homesite, empowering customers with the knowledge they need.
These enhancements tie in directly with discoveries made in the ideation phase.
Focus on customer education and engagement.
Unified cancellation and billing processes into the moving workflow.
Dev-Handoff
At Fidelity Investments, I served as a Style Guide Officer, where I helped maintain and update a robust style guide. Before tools like Figma, we used applications like Fireworks and early Photoshop to annotate design specs, including fonts, sizes, spacing, and color codes. This experience honed my ability to create clear, developer-friendly documentation.
At Homesite Insurance, during our transition from Sketch and InVision to Figma, many developers were unfamiliar with Figma’s inspection tool, and our design library was still under development. To bridge this gap, I frequently provided annotated specs to ensure clarity and alignment between design and development. This hands-on approach streamlined the process and supported efficient collaboration, showcasing my adaptability to evolving tools and workflows.
Challenges
Refining microcopy was a critical challenge in designing the moving flow. We chose "protect" over terms like "cover" or "insure" to emphasize action and the importance of safeguarding valuable assets, aligning with user thought processes and reducing cognitive load.
To simplify choices, we separated property types such as houses and condos, despite sharing the same insurance flow (HO-3), to avoid confusion. Rentals (HO-4) were presented as a distinct category, creating a clear, three-option interface that facilitated easier decision-making.
Additionally, we optimized call-to-action phrasing through A/B testing, choosing "Start My Quote" over "Begin My Quote," based on insights from sales testing. This ensured the language resonated with users, enhancing their overall experience.
Discoveries and Opportunities
We’re exploring inspiration from the gaming industry and popular applications to engage customers further, promoting features like loyalty discounts and encouraging behaviors such as signing up for autopay.
Building on insights from a gamification course, we aim to incorporate interactive elements and incentives to make the homeownership journey more engaging. While gamification is often applied to frequent purchases, we’re brainstorming innovative ways to adapt these strategies to educate and reward users as they navigate and thrive in homeownership.
Solutions Implemented: Delivering an Enhanced Moving Experience
Digital Enhancements and API Integration
Simplified key processes, including obtaining new quotes, canceling existing policies, and managing multiple overlapping policies.
Enabled quick, indicative quote retrieval on the property servicing platform, seamlessly connecting customers to the digital insurance gateway.
Customer Retention and Education
Introduced a dedicated "Moving Center" within the property servicing platform for intuitive navigation and streamlined user experiences.
Integrated cancellation and billing workflows into the moving process for a seamless customer journey.
Supported multiple policy management with a single user ID for improved efficiency.
Developed FAQs and educational materials to guide customers through the moving and insurance process.
Discounts and Incentives
Launched new discounts, including a 5% graduation discount for renters transitioning to homeownership.
Introduced early shopper incentives to drive retention and engagement.
Created bundled packages and established partnerships with real estate networks to expand distribution channels.
Omnichannel Engagement
Enhanced customer interactions through voice, chat, and queue callback options, reducing friction across communication channels.
Sales and Billing Journey Enhancements
Streamlined enrollment in online servicing for digital sales platforms post-conversion.
Prefilled customer information in quote experiences, minimizing input effort and improving user satisfaction.
Simplified billing by automatically transferring unearned premium credits to new policies during the sales process, reducing upfront costs.
Impact Results
The implemented solutions streamlined the moving and insurance experience, enhancing digital accessibility and fostering customer loyalty.
Operational Success: Reduced cancellation calls by 6%, generating $1.6M in additional premium revenue.
Customer Retention: Retained 7,560 customers and generated $4.3M in premium revenue by improving the renter-to-homeowner transition.
Customer-Centric Innovation: Established a “graduators” narrative to support renters transitioning to homeownership, offering a smooth and personalized experience.
Enhanced Engagement: Expanded multi-channel communication and integrated education to improve policyholder understanding and satisfaction.
Timeline
Phase 1: Completed in Q1 2020.
Phase 2: Finalized by the end of Q2 2020.
Scale and Impact
The new moving experience benefits all customers, introducing a clear and intuitive "moving to a new place" narrative. This initiative significantly supports policyholders, particularly first-time renters and homeowners, by addressing their unique needs and creating a smoother, more personalized insurance journey.
Conclusion
By leveraging digital tools, seamless workflows, and targeted incentives, the project successfully reduced call volume, retained customers, and fostered long-term loyalty. These solutions created a customer-focused moving experience while delivering measurable business outcomes.