Coverpocket: Personalizing Onboarding

I recently talked with Maxime Rieman, responsible for the CoverPocket app, and discussed user onboarding experiences with her.

CoverPocket recently updated their onboarding experience based on deep analysis of product data.  The changes in the app lead to significant increase in engagement, retention, and conversion.  Maxime and the team at CoverPocket are fans of using behavioral analytics and intelligence to personalize experiences for app users.

CoverPocket

CoverPocket is an iOS app, that makes dealing with insurance and the associated headaches, a thing of the past. By creating the functionality which allows users to handle the most common agent and policy interactions within the app, it’s effective in eliminating paperwork and giving policyholders insurance information at their fingertips.

The app elegantly puts the user experience first and foremost. It helps policy owners understand, buy, compare and manage personal insurance in a single place – the phone in their pocket. The product’s elegance is in part driven by the clean overall design, field-tested through onboarding process and step-by-step flow to get users up and running with ease. The app promotes soft interactions towards understanding and management of policies, instead of the traditional association purchasers have with insurance.

CoverPocket also gives users access to their agents and brokers. The app continuously compares the policyholder’s needs with the market to ensure they’re getting the best value for their money. This is unique because the majority of insurance apps are carrier-specific, so the user can’t optimize for price.

Every App Experience Matters

Looking at user behavioral attributes, CoverPocket discovered that users who took the effort to create policies immediately after signing up became loyal users.  However, getting users to create policies was a hurdle.

Before CoverPocket started to engage users during the onboarding process, they saw that a very large number of users did not use an app a second time. This was concerning to them as an app publisher and developer.

Onboarding Tour

CoverPocket implemented a pleasurable first-glance experience to ensures users understand the app’s offering, so they come back to use it a second and third time.

One way the app made the onboarding process smooth is by showing app users that have just downloaded the app the core functionality and feature set, via a simple tour, which is offered before asking users to create an account.

CoverWallet had significant iteration around the user onboarding experience. When a user gets into the app, before signing in, there are 6 screens that outline everything that the app offers. The signup process is just a tap away from every tour page, so users are not forced to go through the tour.

Clear onboarding tour that allows users to signup directly from every tour page.

Signup

The signup process in CoverPocket is simple and the app requires a name, email, password and optionally a phone number. A phone number is needed for communicating with users when they request a quote and can be provided later.

Concise Signup that leads into adding a policy.

Adding Policies

Creating a portfolio with three policies takes less than 5 minutes for a user to set-up.  During the first few weeks, users will use the app frequently, setting up their existing insurance policies at their leisure, and getting familiar with CoverPocket.

To add a policy, a user just needs to choose their type of coverage and insurer. Then the app offers multiple ways to enter policy information. The user can take a picture of their existing policy from their phone, attach a screenshot within the app, forward CoverPocket an email from their agent, or fill out the information in the app directly.

Once the policy is setup, policy owners use the app when they are looking up new quotes, filing claims, asking for reimbursements for existing claims and responding to notifications from CoverPocket.

Adding a policy is a breeze using custom keyboard layouts.

Discover. Improve. Iterate.

Maxime Rieman, Director of Product at CoverPocket, in an interview said, “When we started, we saw that the users were not engaging with our previous onboarding process. We ended up identifying that users did not even know that the onboarding tour was there.  We had to work on positioning and making the experience more intuitive for users.  This really improved both the engagement and retention.”

“We want the user experience to be amazing for users.  CoverPocket partners with agents, so when a user is referred by their agent, their policy information is pre-populated in the app.”

Future Improvements

When asked about what drives future features and functionality, she added, “We are very data driven and always looking at where users are not converting.  We found that many users enter a single line of coverage, though many people have multiple lines or may need them.”

“The next important upcoming enhancement from a product point of view is redesigning the Explore section. Based on the customer’s policies and asking 2 or 3 simple questions (like ‘do you own a house?’) we are going to come up with a set of insurance gap identifiers that recommend what each user should be covered for in a personalized way.”

Engaging & Retaining Users – What Worked for CoverPocket

As with most apps, one method is through regular updates, to let users know the app is and will continue to be supported. The company releases a version consisting of bug fixes, enhancements and improvements every 2 weeks and tries to time releases with new phone model releases or an iOS software updates. Both yield increases in installs and continued usage. Updating too often is not always a good idea, but most research supports a balance between good reviews and recurring updates.

CoverPocket engages and reengages with policyholders by letting them know when they’re eligible for a better premium or their policy is expiring soon. Looking at auto insurance as an example, most customers change their insurer about once every five years, even though premiums are often increased by insurers. CoverPocket helps users save money and make their insurance search easier, so their change be less of a hassle.

Right from the beginning, in our onboarding tour, CoverPocket starts to build trust by both showing and telling. Privacy and security are taken seriously, as users are trusting the app with their insurance data.  Generally, it’s good to tell users how they are protected, with an authoritative and clean design, and only ask for personal data that the app absolutely needs.

Conclusion

CoverPocket believes in providing delightful and engaging experiences to its users, so they think of the app every time for their insurance coverage needs. Users are re-engaged with personalized push notifications and in-app messages, so they keep coming back to the app. The app has seen success by personalizing every interaction and experience, with a goal of converting users.