Since one of the goals of the project was to reduce the volume of calls in the call center, we knew that we needed to create an online experience that made it faster and easier to submit a claim than simply picking up the phone and calling the call center.
So, in addition to other research, we spent significant time visiting the call center listening to calls and asking the reps about their point-of-view.
These experiences provided important insights into how the claim submission app would need to work. For example, since most people have never submitted a claim before, we determined that the experience needed to guide the customer through the process. And since customers often needed to provide sometimes substantial documentation that they may not have at hand, our design needed to enable them to indicate that they were "done for now," and pick up the process again where they left off. We designed the app to be responsive so that customers could use it on their tablet, phone, or laptop, and even start the process on one device and finish it on another.
Meanwhile, our technical team was busy determining how to build the solution and integrate it with our client's existing claim system. We weren't just simulating the integration with our client's claim system, we were building an operational application that needed to actually enable a customer to submit a claim and check its status. Because Virtusa Digital had built the client's claims processing system in use in over 58 countries, we were able to understand the integration points and complexities. Customers would be able to submit claims on virtually any device, using e-signature capabilities to expedite the process. We developed a messaging center enabling customers to securely communicate with their claims handler and stay informed about progress.