Accuro Health Insurance has won the People’s Choice award for Best Plain English Communication, with the international panel of judges commenting that its website was “very strong” and “a great example of plain English used to communicate clearly.”
Accuro’s brand manager Fiona Mackenzie says Accuro has also updated its policy wordings, all of which are now written in plain English. The judges said they expect the changes to “have a positive impact on sales to new customers,” as well as on engaging and retaining current customers.
At a time when the insurance industry is looking to become more accessible, Mackenzie says that communicating in plain English is vital for any insurer which makes their customers a priority.
“In 2018 we started working on a complete brand refresh, and so we really wanted to dig into the business and see what needed to change,” Mackenzie told Insurance Business.
“Part of that involved looking at our values, and the four values we felt were important to us were simplicity, proactivity, flexibility and understanding. That formed the foundation of the brand refresh, and so when we were creating our website, plain English was a very big part of it.
“Health insurance is very complicated, so the easier that we can make that process the better.”
Accuro’s policies were released on August 01, and have received the WriteMark for clear communication. They were primarily worked on by Accuro staff, but Mackenzie says that when it comes to writing in layman’s terms, it is also important to get help from an industry outsider.
“If you’re doing it yourself, a lot of the jargon becomes everyday language for you, so it was important for us to get a fresh eye,” she explained.
“Ultimately we’re here to provide a service, and no-one is happy when a customer isn’t clear about what is and isn’t covered.”
“We’re a non-profit, and our job is to serve our members above all else,” she concluded. “So making it easier for us to do that was a very natural decision. I would encourage any organisation that places importance on customer experience to make this a priority.”
