Progress and initial testing results to be shared at Association of British Insurers’ event.

Today (Wednesday, 29^th January) Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) will present feedback on the development of the whiplash reforms service it has been building on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

At the end of last year, MIB concluded the first of two phases of in-depth qualitative user experience (UX) testing with independent market research company, Ipsos MORI. The purpose was to gather feedback on the service look and feel, along with the user experience – ensuring every stage of the claims journey is user-centric.

The qualitative research sought the views of those who had experienced a road traffic accident in the past year which resulted in soft tissue damage, to explore their perceptions in detail. Quantitative research was also undertaken amongst 100 participants to seek feedback on the look and feel of the website design and branding.

To ensure vulnerable customers’ needs are met, MIB also engaged an independent accessibility consultant to review the end to end service to identify enhancements.

MIB has also conducted testing amongst claimant representatives and compensators to provide their feedback. Now that the registration window is open, claimant representatives and compensators who will be integrating into the service, will also soon be able to start testing their own integration development through the test service.

Dominic Clayden, CEO of MIB will be presenting on the results and progress for the service this afternoon as part of a Civil Justice Reform event being hosted by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). He said: “Over the past year, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau has been hard at work to build a new public service to help consumers make personal injury claims if they are injured in a road traffic accident. The service has been designed to facilitate a simple, secure and supportive process for injured victims to get appropriate compensation for their claim, without the need for legal support.”

“As with any Government service, it is critical that this is as accessible and inclusive as possible. With the helpful feedback captured through focus groups and customer testing, along with the ongoing stakeholder input from professional users, I am confident we are ready to deliver a service that is fit for anyone who needs it.”

“However, the listening process won’t stop at launch. We will look to do further testing, and we are also setting up a Customer Council. This will be an important forum for key consumer representatives, organisations and groups to come together to make sure the service is working for everyone.”

Prior to external testing, comprehensive system testing was undertaken. This was followed by internal user acceptance testing, performance and penetration (security) testing; which will be repeated in the final run up to launch.

Phase one of customer testing reviewed both the accessibility of online transactions with offline-assisted support through the service customer contact centre, as part of MIB’s efforts to make the service available to as many people as possible. To conduct the research, Ipsos MORI conducted qualitative research amongst a select group of unrepresented claimants.

Headline feedback from the testing included:

• Branding, layout and content reassured customers they were in the right place, however there is a need to establish trust. Preference testing revealed concerns over whether the service could be trusted, however content changes and incorporating the Ministry of Justice name and logo - thereby establishing a clear link to UK Government - significantly diminished these concerns.
• Overall there is a positive response to the service. Participants gave positive feedback on the service enabling customers to simply make a claim.
• Account set-up challenges raised. While all users found the initial account creation form intuitive and easy to complete, some challenges were raised with password set-up and verification. This is being addressed ahead of launch.
• The journey was clear to most users, with some explanation of key terms needed. Users overall found the claim process clear, informative and reassuring, however unsurprisingly explanation was needed for industry terms such as CUE PI. This is being addressed ahead of launch through the removal of jargon and clear explanation of terms.

Phase two of testing is now underway with customers and professionals and will again focus on ensuring the service is user friendly and easy to understand.

Last week, MIB announced that claimant representative and compensator organisations can now register with the service at www.officialinjuryclaim.org.uk. Any feedback from the registration process is welcome, and can be shared with MIB at customer.service@officialinjuryclaim.org.uk.