Engage Customer Case Study: Canada Life

This exciting result was enhanced by the outcome of the ORC International annual survey of Group Risk Advisers, where we retained the position of top overall provider for the third year.

In part, these results are due to the comprehensive efforts we make to work closely with our supporting advisers, to understand the needs of our corporate clients and continually develop our customer service offering.

We also regularly invest in industry and consumer research to ensure we fully understand our customers, their concerns and priorities, in order to tailor our service.

We refuse to rest on our laurels: the recently available results of the Swiss Re Group Watch survey 2015 showed that we had replicated our successes of 20143.

This just gives us more reason to continue the work we have started and help to develop the Group Risk market.

Through our ongoing involvement with both GRiD (Group Risk Development) and the ABI (Association of British Insurers), Canada Life Group Insurance remains at the forefront of industry developments and will maintain a proactive attitude to providing advisers with the necessary support to grow our market.

Strong reputation and industry leader

Our desire to remain the preeminent Group Insurer is why we work closely with ORC International.

We see this extensive adviser survey as an important measure of our performance, so we fully analyse the results to ensure we learn from the ratings achieved and additional comments provided.

As well as being the leading overall provider, we gained the number one spot for service for the sixth year running.

This is something of which we are particularly proud, as service excellence is something we continually strive to achieve.

The survey also found us as number one for medical underwriting for the first time, highlighting our commitment to improving the experience of individual scheme members whose benefit requires the provision of medical evidence.

Particularly importantly, 93 per cent of our adviser partners rated us as a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ Group Protection provider, compared to a market average of 68 per cent, demonstrating that our intermediary channel has appreciated our efforts to support them and their clients.

However, such accolades have merely increased our determination not to let them down and to ensure our focus on our customers remains paramount in all we do.

Ensuring we offer our customers the service they want and deserve is hugely important, so we continually monitor and refine our service delivery throughout our operational areas - from quotations and assuming risk through to administration, medical underwriting and claims.

We have a full-time resource committed to Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), using the Tatham methodology to approach this work.

Just one example of our use of CPI can be seen in our work on Group Income Protection claims.

Cancer claims represent in excess of 20 per cent of all the claims we receive and our investigations showed that there is often a very clear clinical diagnosis. We decided that we needed to get to this diagnosis quickly, so we completely reviewed our claim form to provide us with much more upfront information and allow the individual claimant to provide their own copies of medical evidence they have been given.

By fast tracking this information, we were able to considerably reduce the length of time between the receipt of the claim form and the time of our decision.

From 32 days it has now been reduced to just 3 days.

To maximise the gains made, this learning is now being taken forward on other claims where there is a clear clinical diagnosis available.

Of course, there will always be claims where the nature of the illness is of a more subjective nature and further medical evidence has to be gathered.

We remain committed to working closely with the employer and claimant in these cases, to ensure they are supported throughout the assessment period.

CPI work on our medical underwriting process has also seen excellent results. Since refining the process and simplifying the way we manage the collection of the medical information required, the cycle time from receiving the initial health declaration to making a decision, has reduced by 6 per cent.

In addition, the volume of medical evidence we collect to make the final decision has reduced by 23 per cent, which can only make life easier for everyone involved.

Where appropriate, we will use tele-interviewing to discuss our requirements direct with the individual being underwritten and complete the required medical application on their behalf.

Again, with the aim of improving the customer journey, we brought these interviews in-house to ensure that each call was handled efficiently and the right amount of preparation took place.

This additional focus has allowed us to halve the length of the call, from an average time of 45 minutes down to about 20-25 minutes.

We believe it is important that all our Group Insurance products offer more than the vital financial benefits. On Group Life (GL), there are bereavement and probate helplines.

These can provide support for employees included in our schemes if they suffer bereavement but are also, of course, available to their families if they should die.

Our Group Critical Illness (GCI) cover gives scheme members access to Best Doctors TM second medical opinion service that can offer clarity of diagnosis and treatment if they or their family have health issues.

Group Income Protection (GIP) offers all the employer’s staff not only the services of Best Doctors TM but also 24/7 access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), often seen as a key element in supporting the well-being of employees.

However, we still felt there was another service to be explored and, in October 2014, we launched the inclusion of Medical Care Direct (MCD) on our GIP & GCI products.

This offers all employees and their immediate family access to an innovative Treatment Sourcing Service, which sources fixed rate packages of private care for anything from treatment to diagnostic tests or major surgery.

If an individual decides that they want to explore the possibility of privately funded treatment, MCD will deal with all the negotiations and paperwork, taking all the hassle out of the procedure.

All our services are free to the employees using them and allow the employers who have schemes with us to offer very full benefit packages to their staff. In addition, the employers themselves have BusinessCare, an online and telephone based legal support service – helping to stop minor problems from becoming major issues.

Forefront of technological developments

CLASS is our much valued online platform, providing fast and efficient support for advisers managing smaller corporate clients – less than 100 lives.

Whether handling a quotation for a new scheme, ongoing administration or everyday reporting needs, we want it to offer the most efficient service possible, enabling advisers to operate profitably in the SME (small-medium enterprises) market.

We invested heavily in 2014 to make the all-important “look and feel” of CLASS give advisers an even better customer experience and it seems to be doing the trick.

Over 7 per cent of all Group Risk schemes are now managed by CLASS.

And the investment hasn’t stopped there.

This year, pensions’ automatic enrolment reaches employers with less than 50 staff.

We want advisers to be able to encourage them to consider the provision of Group Life benefits too, enhancing the benefit package they provide.

To us, the time seemed right to introduce the Canada Life master trust.

This allows employers to enter our trust instead of setting up their own; something needed to provide Group Life benefits.

For smaller employers, this takes the hassle out of registering and administrating a trust. In addition, it takes the worry away from them if there is a claim, as professional trustees establish the beneficiaries and ensure benefit payments are correctly handled.

This option is now available when advisers place small, new to market schemes through CLASS.

Being ranked as number one Group Risk provider is obviously a fantastic result for us. However, as market leader, we are determined to maintain our focus on continuous improvement.

Our biggest challenge for this year is clear – making the most of new to market Group Risk opportunities for employers, as they reach their automatic enrolment staging dates.

However, although we are seeking to expand the market, customer service will always be our priority and the importance of the feedback we receive will continue to drive our pursuit of the perfect customer experience.