Press releases
Legal & General help serve over 1 million more customers online during COVID-19 lockdown
Since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown about six months ago, Legal & General has helped over a million more customers with their online services, recent usage data shows. Access to digital self-service channels has increased rapidly, with 72 percent more customers logging on and 4.6 million visits to legalandgeneral.com as the business evolves its digital services.
21 Sep 2020
- 72% increase in customer use of the digital channel
- 6 million visits to LegalandGeneral.com – a 40% year-over-year increase
- 24,000 COVID-19 specific enquiries
Additionally, there has been a 40 percent increase in visits to Legal & General’s consumer-facing website. Direct Life Cover sales through digital channels have improved by 43 percent, and the average number of customer enquiries that the group has answered online has increased 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.
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 instead of sending payment instruction forms by post
- Customers can sign documents digitally with DocuSign
- The bereavement notification process has been made completely digital
- 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
- New life insurance applications have been expedited with the introduction of virtual medical exams
- com’s interactive chatbot has been updated to provide more personal service to UK and US customers
- 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.
Robert Jamieson, Chief Digital and Technology Officer: "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.COVID-19 has forced many businesses to make changes in a few months that would otherwise have taken years. 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."
Further information
Lawrence Luketa
Senior Change Communications Manager
Group Digital
T: 07739183896
Notes to editors
Established in 1836, Legal & General is one of the UK's leading financial services groups and a major global investor, with £1.2 trillion in total assets under management1 of which 40% is international. We have a unique and highly synergistic business model, which continues to drive strong returns. Legal & General provides powerful asset origination and management capabilities directly to clients, which also underpin our leading retirement and protection solutions. We are a leading international player in Pension Risk Transfer, in UK and US life insurance, and in UK workplace pensions and retirement income. Our purpose is to improve the lives of our customers and create value for our shareholders. Through inclusive capitalism, we are investing in long-term assets, such as real estate and infrastructure, that can help build a better society for the future.
1Data as at 31 December 2023.