Since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown six months ago, recent usage data shows Legal & General has helped over a million more customers with their online services. Access to digital self-service channels has increased rapidly, with 72% more customers logging on and 4.6 million visits to their website.
There has also been a 40% increase in visits to Legal & General’s consumer-facing website, with the average number of enquiries answered online also increasing from 10,500 in 2019 to 83,000 by the end of H1 2020. Almost 24,000 of these submissions were COVID-19-specific questions.
Robert Jamieson, chief digital and technology officer at L&G said “Much digital change has been driven out of necessity this year. It’s a reminder of how critically important it is for businesses to have robust operational processes that can flex significantly according to circumstances. Arguably, the pandemic has irreversibly changed the way that we as consumers conduct our daily lives, and managing our finances is no exception. Robust digital services and data-driven ways of working have never been more critical in being able to meet this need, scaling and responding quickly whilst retaining an unwavering customer focus”
Between March and September, Legal & General saw an 82 percent increase over the same period last year in customers carrying out actions online such as completing quote applications, accessing documents, nominating beneficiaries, switching funds and updating their profiles.
As stock markets have fluctuated, investments and savings customers have returned to their accounts upwards of three times per month to check holding values, far more frequently than in previous months.
Like many other companies, Legal & General had to quickly move their workforce to homeworking, but the company also incorporated a number of new digital processes and procedures to enable customers to continue using their products and services, including:
- Customers can now make pension benefit claims over the phone as well as sending payment instruction forms by post
- Customers can sign documents digitally with DocuSign
- Bereavement notifications can be submitted via our website.
- The introduction of Digital Trust has allowed customers to put their policy in trust without a wet signature
- Customers can now send marriage, birth and death certificates digitally –
- All payments are now being accepted electronically
The past six months have prompted Legal & General to accelerate its strategic digital roadmap. The company is working to ensure that all customers can access their policy information and support tools at the touch of a button so they can make the informed decisions they need to secure their financial wellbeing, whenever and wherever they choose.
“COVID-19 has forced many businesses to make changes in a few months that would otherwise have taken years,” Jamieson continues. “Given the radical transition we’ve been through, and knowing we are not through this yet, I’m proud of how we have demonstrated our agility as our team and continued to give our customers a great service during this time,”
