This introductory-level course will help you revise your approach to the design and development of sales and distribution processes, whilst keeping the customer at the heart of everything. It introduces the use of Design Thinking as a framework for obtaining and collating customer feedback, through problem and user definition, to identifying new ideas and testing them out.

Everyone involved in the process of insurance is a customer or a user. In this course we'll give you a simple customer-focused framework, along with some tools, to review and develop your sales and distribution process and some good principles to follow.

The course will help you to promote understanding and adoption of simplified customer-centric product design, transparency guidance and distribution of insurance products.

Who is the  course for?  

The course is ideal for anyone in the insurance profession seeking to gain an awareness of how they can contribute to designing and improving the development of sales and distribution processes.

While initially responding to needs identified by Lloyd's, this learning has relevance to all insurance providers and distributors. This is not an in-depth product design course, although if this is something you are interested in, please let us know.

Learning outcomes  

By the end of this module, you will have a better understanding of how to apply a product simplification approach to all stages of the sales and distribution process. To achieve this you will be able to:

• apply a design thinking framework to developing or improving your sales and distribution processes, to ensure:
  • they are appropriate for all stakeholders in the process;
  • your sales and distribution processes are easy to navigate, and policy documents are easy to access;
  • you develop practices, processes and policies to implement and maintain customer-friendly products and terms.
• produce all sales and distribution processes and documentation with simpler wording, language and description of policy terms and cover to:
  • improve policyholder understanding of the cover they have in place; and
  • reduce the gap between the coverage insurance intermediaries and providers believe they have sold and the coverage policyholders believe they have bought.
• create an environment that encourages stakeholders to pass on feedback and lessons learned to improve existing products and develop new ones;
• employ the ethical principles of a simplified approach, and demonstrate how to fulfill your ethical duty to ensure policyholders understand what they are buying.

Study  

• 1 study hour
• 6-month enrolment on the course - starts within 48 hours of purchase.
• The course is delivered via an online module on RevisionMate.

Course delivery  

Instructions on accessing your course on RevisionMate will be sent to your registered email address. This is typically within two working days of your order being placed, but may be longer, particularly if payment is made by bank transfer or the unit is available as a pre-order.

Assessment  

The informal assessment will allow you to check your understanding of the course content. There is no formal assessment.

Completion Certificate  

On successful completion of this course, you will be able to download a completion certificate.

CPD accreditation  

The Product Simplification: Sales and Distribution course meets the Chartered Insurance Institute and membership requirements for 1 hour of CPD.

Business enquiries  

For business enquiries about this course, please email  business.enquiries@cii.co.uk

Further information

Following negative press surrounding the insurance sector's response to the Coronavirus pandemic, and the FCA's Business Interruption test case judgement, Lloyd's, London Market, and the CII have worked together to create this course around how products are designed, to drive a cultural change around designing products around customer outcomes.

Alongside these activities, CII created the Chartered Transparency Forum and agreed to work with Lloyd's to develop learning to support the shift in culture and processes. This course also supports the CII's Public Trust agenda.

Please note, we offer two Product Simplification courses for you to choose from: Product Simplification: Product Design and Product Simplification: Sales and Distribution. These courses contain similar content but apply learning to different practical scenarios. The Product Design module is likely to be most relevant to those involved on the insurance manufacturing side and the Sales and Distribution module for those involved in distribution, advice and intermediation. We recommend that you select one course only to study.