Helping people recover quicker from a natural disaster

Accessible, trusted and valued digital content that supports homeowners across Aotearoa to prepare for and recover more quickly from a natural disaster.

Aotearoa is a beautiful place, but one where we live with earthquakes, tsunami, and other natural hazards. I’ve felt very under prepared when an earthquake has struck previously. That’s where EQC Toka Tū Ake can help. They provide natural disaster insurance for home owners and give advice on how to make your home safer. (You can stop reading the case study for a bit and take a look if you like, it’s useful stuff.)

What do you do when your audience doesn’t know you exist?

The info EQC Toka Tū Ake has on their website could be life-changing. But, very few people across Aotearoa know about natural hazard insurance, or how to make sure they have enough insurance. Like lots of agencies, EQC Toka Tū Ake had gone through significant business and technology changes. (One day I might have a project that doesn’t involve a whole lotta business change, but I can’t see it happening any time soon.)

Toka Tū Ake EQC wanted to:

  • develop a digital channels strategy to guide their priorities for the next 18 months and understand where to put their limited effort in terms of their digital channels

  • understand how customers use (or don’t!) the Toka Tū Ake website

  • create a new information architecture to guide a full content re-write of the website.

Know what you’re insured for, quickly

What we delivered:

  • a digital channels strategy to guide priorities and effort, helping EQC Toka Tū Ake use their time and resources efficiently and effectively.

  • doubling the success rate for finding insurance and claims information - the two priority user journeys - through a new information architecture (to go live on the website mid-2024).

  • a plan for a full content re-write, focusing on creating content that works for external audiences, whilst bringing internal stakeholders along for the ride (to go live on the website mid-2024).

Approach

Understanding people’s needs before, during and after a natural disaster

We could see from Google Analytics and previous customer research that people’s needs change during and after a natural disaster. This can be a hugely stressful time for people. We wanted to make sure content on EQC digital channels supported people to find the information they need to help them get back on their feet quickly.

We had less knowledge about what people might want before a natural disaster - or even if they wanted anything at all! We carried out interviews with homeowners, home buyers and councils to find out:

  • what people know about natural disaster insurance and natural hazard risk

  • where people get their information from currently

  • how people group and organise information related to natural hazards.

An IA making it easier for people to find crucial insurance information

Based on customer research, Google Analytics, and stakeholder insights into upcoming business changes, we created and tested a new information architecture. Our new information architecture doubled the success rate for people finding insurance and claims information, the two priority user journeys.

Think beyond the website to ensure website success

There’s a time to know when a website won’t solve everything (will it ever?). Although the IA is significantly easier to use, people have to know the content exists in the first place to want to read it. To support IA success we provided recommendations on using other channels to increase people’s awareness of how to prepare for natural disasters, and how to direct people to the website.

Rewriting content from a customer perspective

We put together a content design plan to rewrite content over a 9 month period, working efficiently around the team’s other mahi, competing stakeholder priorities and significant business change. Content operations is a beautiful thing when it works well, and I’m looking forward to seeing their words on the website later this year.

A digital channels strategy to maximise impact

To make the most of a small but mighty team we created an actionable digital strategy through understanding the current state, envisioning the future state, taking into account business capabilities and capacity, and understanding our opportunities.

The outcome was a digital strategy enabling work to be prioritised to align to customer and business needs, supported by artefacts to operationalise the strategy.

Making a more resilient Aotearoa

I’m looking forward to seeing the IA and content implemented in the second half of 2024, and pleased to have played a part in helping people recover more easily from a natural disaster.

My role
Digital Channels Manager

Client
EQC Toka Tū Ake