Vulnerable customer wellbeing guidance

Customer wellbeing guidance

While we may refer to customers as being in vulnerable circumstances, many do not want to be labelled as ‘vulnerable’. That’s why we’ve designed our customer wellbeing guidance to help us prioritise and consider our customers’ wellbeing, just as we do for our employees.

Specifically, our customer wellbeing guidance has been designed to enable us to feel able to identify and support our customers when they face challenging times.

When we interact with customers, our staff are trained to identify any additional support requirements, whether temporary or permanent. With the customer’s consent we record those communication or accessibility needs for future contact and interaction.

Product reviews

We proactively monitor our services to identify customer groups who may require additional support. We assess these groups regularly to ensure they are not experiencing significantly different outcomes.

During product reviews, we consider various customer groups to identify any discrepancies in outcomes. We also review individual cases, such as complaints, to determine if vulnerabilities have impacted the outcome.

Feedback is captured and sent to our continuous improvement team to evaluate potential changes to our processes, options, or services.

We aim to ensure we:

  • Make our products clear and easy to understand.
  • Offer flexible communications to make sure they are inclusive of all customers.
  • Work with vendors and suppliers who uphold our standards in supporting customers with all vulnerabilities.
  • Provide appropriate employee training and support to increase awareness of customer vulnerability.

Examples of how we support your customers

We also want your customers to feel comfortable and safe in being open and honest with us, particularly at vulnerable moments in their lives.

Guide to medical examinations

We recognise that there may be aspects of the application journey where your customer needs some additional information or support, particularly in the event of their needing to attend a medical examination.

That’s why we’ve created a customer guide to medical examinations. Designed with your customer’s wellbeing in mind, this provides:

  • A step-by-step guide covering what to expect
  • How best to prepare for the examination
  • Options for customers who require adjustments for accessibility, cultural or religious reasons

And because we understand some customers may have health anxieties such as a phobia of needles or blood, we’ve included some helpful guidance to put them at ease, ensuring their appointment is as smooth and supportive as possible.

Wellbeing support service

When your customers need specialist support beyond our expertise, we’ll connect them with the right help. With Zurich life insurance, your customers receive support from day one.

Zurich Support Services is included with all Life Cover, Critical Illness, and Income Protection policies, offering 24/7 assistance for everything from everyday worries to major life events - providing emotional support, practical advice, and peace of mind whenever it’s needed.

Identifying and supporting customers in vulnerable circumstances

Life can throw all sorts of challenges at us, and we understand no one is immune to it. Unexpected events can affect any one of us, often in different ways, and there will be times in most of our lives where we’ll find ourselves in need of a bit of extra help and support. At Zurich, our aim is to put our customers’ wellbeing at the heart of our approach and offer support and guidance where we possibly can.

There are many reasons why a customer could be considered vulnerable – their health, financial situation, recent life events, or finding it difficult to deal with financial services. It’s important to spot when someone’s vulnerable as soon as possible, to be fair and helpful to everyone.

For more information, you can see our guide on supporting customers in vulnerable circumstances:

Our approach

At Zurich we don’t believe it’s possible to identify vulnerable customers through a checklist or specific criteria.

Instead, it’s important to understand that the world is always changing, and the demands and pressures can affect anyone at some point in their lives, leading them to need support with their wellbeing in four key areas.

Financial wellbeing

Financial Wellbeing is all about feeling secure and having enough money to cover your needs. It’s also about managing your daily finances and having the freedom to make choices that let you enjoy life. It means having the skills and knowledge to make smart decisions with your money.

Signs to look out for:

  • not being able to make payments on time
  • requests to reduce their premiums
  • cancelling their policy as a result of stretched finances

Mental wellbeing

Mental Wellbeing is about your thoughts and feelings and how you cope with the ups and downs of everyday life. It’s not the same thing as mental health, although the two can influence each other.

Signs to look out for:

  • low mood; a flat, slow way of speaking
  • poor concentration
  • talking very fast, jumping between topics or ideas
  • worrying, feeling overwhelmed by things, or finding it hard to make decisions
  • difficultly controlling emotions; being tearful or upset or signs of aggression, irritability, or short temper

Physical wellbeing

Physical Wellbeing is the ability to maintain a healthy quality of life that allows us to get the most out of our daily activities without undue fatigue or physical stress. Physical characteristics may also mean accessing our products, services and communications in different ways, including different means of talking with us. We should always ask our customers their needs and preferences, be able to discuss the options available and be prepared to follow up in writing where it would benefit our customer.

Alternative communications include, but are not exclusive to:

  • digital channels
  • SignLive for customers who want to get in touch using British sign language and have registered for their services
  • Relay a type/textphone service for customers who are deaf or hard of hearing
  • written communications in large print or braille
  • translator services

Social wellbeing

Social Wellbeing (the social dimension of health) refers to our ability to make and maintain meaningful, positive relationships and regular contact with other people in our world – family, friends, neighbours, and co-workers.

Whilst signs may be similar to that of poor mental health consider the risk factors defined earlier that may mean they’re more susceptible to social isolation and loneliness.

Signs to look out for:

  • extreme moods of ups and downs
  • poor concentration or finding it hard to make decisions
  • expressing feelings of being overwhelmed by things
  • tearful or emotional
  • not wanting to end a conversation

Choose how your customers would like to tell us about any vulnerabilities

We recognise that disclosing a vulnerability or asking for additional support can sometimes be difficult, so we provide a range of options to help customers do that, easily and discretely, in a way that best works for them.

That includes notifying us digitally via our helping hand form, over the phone with our customer service team, via live chat, email or post.