Re: Death communications

Thanks, colleagues, for the useful thoughts on this subject so far.

My take on this, :

Rob's points all valid. Regarding condolences, this is a somewhat difficult
area, in that no matter how short the expression of sympathy, there will be
some people who don't want to be consoled.

And I'm also interested in the area of probate, and organisations like
solicitors and executors, for whom condolences will often not be necessary.

Robert, your example here is very useful.

The difficult thing for us is the tracking down of examples from a range of
companies, because we can't open a sample account and then pretend the
person has died! So if anyone has examples from their own experiences or
from having carried out work of this kind I'd be very interested in hearing
from you!

Andrew


On 01/08/2008 14:23, "Robert   Linsky" <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Andrew -
> 
> We did a project that seems quite similar. One of our clients had to redesign
> a package of information that went to the beneficiary of an annuity. They were
> getting 70-80% no in good order (missing info, no signature, etc) and almost
> all of the money was leaving the company. We did some testing and redesigned
> the information to make things easier to use and understand. The result was
> the not in good order went down to less than 25% and the money staying with
> the company increased by 35%. One thing that I think helped was changing the
> title of the package from "Death Benefit Kit" to "Beneficiary's Guide to
> Controlling Inherited Assets". But I think the big pieces were making the
> information easier to understand and the form simpler to fill out.
> 
> Robert.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
> Andrew Boag
> Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 5:08 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Death communications
> 
> On behalf of a client we are looking at best practice in the ways that
> organisations [primarily financial, i.e. Banks etc.] communicate with
> customers, at various stages in the process from application forms and
> packs, to welcome letters, pass books, account change requests, statements,
> etc.
> 
> One area that is especially interesting is how best to communicate with
> customers in the context where the policy owner has recently died, and the
> company needs to communicate sympathetically, yet efficiently, to ensure
> that the policy is closed, reinvested, paid out, or whatever.
> 
> As it's rather difficult to lay hands on examples of these (so to speak), I
> wondered if members of the café might have some pointers/best practice
> suggestions, or indeed have good examples, that are worth sharing. I am sure
> there must be some quite amusing examples ... ?
> 
> Andrew Boag
> 
> -----------------------
> Boag Associates
> T  +44 (0)20 3008 6491
> F  +44 (0)20 3008 7759
> http://www.boag.co.uk
> 
> 
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Andrew Boag

-----------------------
Boag Associates
T  +44 (0)20 3008 6491
F  +44 (0)20 3008 7759
http://www.boag.co.uk


CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
-----------------------
The contents of this
e-mail are confidential
and intended for the
addressee only.
 



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