Swiss Life

Swiss Life is the number one provider of pension and financial solutions in Switzerland. More than 1.3 million people place their trust in Swiss Life and make self-determined provisions for their ever-longer lives.

In 2017, Swiss Life successfully launched an investment product that enables insured individuals to benefit from the expertise of Swiss Life asset managers. However, a performance review at the end of 2018 revealed that the customer experience at the various contact points was not yet optimal. The empowerment of the pension advisors could be improved and a rethink of the predefined, automated processes for the agile investment business was necessary.

Hotz Brand Consultants was commissioned by Swiss Life to optimise these points in a pilot project, and to ensure a brand-specific experience for the strategically important investment product.

The objectives:

• Optimise the customer experience towards a preference-driving brand experience.

• Target development of communication tools to empower pension advisors.

• Ideate the future customer journey.

Involving almost 50 subject matter experts from all relevant business disciplines, a dedicated project team analysed the end-to-end customer process for the Swiss Life investment product. The customer experience was illuminated using narrative and purpose-oriented action principles to ensure the design of a distinctive and differentiating customer experience.

Workshops were held to analyse customer needs, advisor interactions, existing documentation and communication tools, and success factors. Based on the workshop results, Hotz Brand Consultants further prototyped and tested the touchpoints along the end-to-end customer process and tested them with advisors and clients in mock situations. The results were shown at an opening with the management and the consultants. Medium and long-term optimisations of the customer experience were proposed and discussed.

The pilot project was successfully completed, not least thanks to the continuous and close involvement of product managers and the ongoing concrete and measurable application of what was conceptually defined.

Through prototyping and testing potential customer pathways, visibility of results was achieved in the shortest possible time despite the involvement of almost 50 stakeholders. A purpose-oriented way of thinking and working was established, including consistent impact measurement.

Intensive and efficient examination by management teams of the purpose, principles, and problems as well as the resulting adjustments to the customer journey and touchpoints meant that the brand experience could be optimised to best connect Swiss Life customers with the new investment product.

Swiss Life was able to actualise targeted improvement of the customer experience thanks to the direct implementation of advisor documents and new customer communications, an example of which was the conception and realisation of Swiss Life's most successful customer newsletter.