She/her
Case Study: Adding Renters + Homeowners
What do you do when you're introducing new products, and you need people to understand how they work, why they should care, and how to get them?
You call on the Web UX team 💪🏻
Content Design | Landing pages | UX | Content Strategy
What's the problem?
Root was started as a car insurance company, but we later decided to start offering a renters and a homeowners product. We needed a way to explain the products in a clear, human way, and to help people figure out how and if they could get homeowners or renters insurance with Root. And we had about 5 weeks before it had to go live.
The Web UX team was tasked with:
-
Developing the content strategy for how we talk about and explain homeowners and renters to ensure customers could understand our products
-
Creating a simple user experience that would set expectations and guide a customer from the product landing pages into the correct product experience
-
Make recommendations for creating a new UX on the website to account for Root offering multiple products, increasing transparency for customers while reducing complexity for the business (oh, while making it clear we won't offer these products in all states)
My considerations: Simplify, Clarify, Educate, Guide
The Team + Stakeholders
Web Team
UX Copy Lead (me!)
UX Design Lead
Web Designer
Copy Director
Art Director
VP of Creative
Marketing
VP of Marketing
Director of Product Marketing
Engineering
MarTech Engineering Manager
Front-end Engineer
Here's what we did.
Solution 1: Messaging Renters and Homeowners and setting expectations for the customer experience
I created the content strategy and copy for how we message these two new products, with one main goal in mind—how do we clearly explain these products so that anyone could understand them? I leaned into our voice and tone principles of messaging that is conversational, human, and simple. I established how we speak about the product value props, simplified coverage explanations, and developed how we clearly and simply communicate the steps to expect when getting a homeowners or renters policy.
• All of the messaging had to consider the value props of personalization, savings, and ease, as well as SEO and strict legal requirements
• I worked with our product teams to research and understand the coverages available, as well as the product experience
• I worked with the web designer to create a content layout that adhered to our content management system components while supporting the information hierarchy of the page
Solution 2: Creating a user flow that set expectations for next steps
Because the new Homeowners product was not available in all states, nor available in every state that we offered car insurance in, I introduced a ZIP code field to our website that would allow us to personalize the experience based on location.
I also introduced modals to inform the customer of next steps based on their state, as well as their current status as a Root policyholder. For homeowners, we had the added complexity of a different experience/next steps based on whether or not someone already had Root car insurance—homeowners insurance was only available to Root car insurance customers.
Solution 3: Pitch a new user experience for the website to account for having multiple products
The website was created around car insurance. So, as an MVP solution to launching our renters and homeowners products, we created landing pages for each with their own dedicated CTAs into their respective flows. However, we didn't change the website's global CTA, "Get a quote." It still took a user into the car insurance flow, with no indication that it was only for car insurance or how to get any of our other products. AKA, a bad customer experience.
1. Competitive analysis
The UX lead and I conducted a competitive analysis of other insurance company websites that offered multiproduct and bundling experiences—our goal was to better understand the landscape and what expectations a customer may come to Root with.
2. Website audit
We then did an audit of our current customer journey, considering what users see in ads, on the website, and how they enter the different product experiences. Based on our audit, we documented opportunities for improvement and used those as the basis for our new experience.
3. New web flow
Based on our research and audit, as well as conversations with engineering about scope and how we could test ideas, the UX lead and I recommended:
We also worked with engineering to scope out geolocation research, with additional design explorations that focused on how we could surface a more location-based, personalized experience from the moment they landed on the website.
Recommendation #1
A new homepage that clearly communicated that we offer multiple products—both with the content as well as the top navigation.
Recommendation #2
A new global CTA "Get a quote" that took you into a new product flow. The new product flow would start with a ZIP code field to personalize the customer experience (personalization) and surface the products available to them (improve discoverability). This was also a solution that was scalable as we added more products in the future. Copy also included error messaging for the ZIP code field.
*For this test, surfacing the ZIP code on the homepage was out of scope, but it is on our list of future considerations.
Recommendation #3
A screen that clearly communicates to the customer what products are available to them, highlighting the bundling options first to align with key business objectives. This leads to our goal of transparency and accounts for a common customer complaint that they had provided personal data, only to find out we weren't available in their state or did not offer the product options they wanted.
Recommendation #4
We introduced contextual loader screens that explained to the customer what was coming next and to set expectations for how the process would go
So, what happened?
The landing pages went live, and the stakeholders were all aligned with our UX recommendations. Using HotJar, we found that users were scrolling through the renters and homeowners landing pages, and that over 60% of all clicks were on the bottom CTAs. This indicated that the information provided on the page was enough to motivate and inspire users to continue. Tracking customer service tickets, we also found that customers appeared to have a good understanding of the products and coverages that we offer.
But, as will happen, the multiproduct experience was deprioritized soon after this work was complete (resulting in only minor internal screaming on my part).
I still like to share it for a few reasons:
• This was a challenging project, and I was proud of the thoughtful solutions we created in scope and in a very short amount of time
• We established a content strategy for how we message new products that will be applicable and scalable to future products
• We came away with a solid understanding of what it takes for engineering to undertake geolocation work in the future
• We set the stage for how to approach a multiproduct experience that can be resurfaced when the company reprioritizes these additional products
• We can refer to the audit and the opportunities we identified and slowly work toward improving the UX through other projects
I think it's a wonderful learning opportunity that every project has value for both the business and for personal growth, and one I like to share with my direct reports when they get frustrated or disillusioned with the fast pace and quick pivots often found in the startup culture.