Table of Contents
Introduction: The Locked Box in a Raging Storm
The rain is a relentless drumbeat on the car roof.
On the side of a busy highway, Sarah sits in her driver’s seat, hands trembling slightly.
The other driver is fine, the damage seems minor, but the shock and adrenaline are a potent cocktail.
This is the moment her insurance policy transforms from an abstract financial product into a tangible, urgent need.
She pulls out her phone, navigates to her insurer’s website, and finds the login screen.
What’s the password? She tries one, then another.
“Incorrect password.” She clicks “Forgot Password,” but the email with the reset link is slow to arrive.
When it does, the multi-factor authentication (MFA) code is sent to an old phone number she no longer has.1
Frustration mounts, turning into a quiet panic.
All she needs is her policy number and a phone number to call for a tow truck, but this information is locked away inside a digital box she cannot open.
This scenario, in countless variations, plays out every day.
It represents the fundamental and dangerous disconnect at the heart of the insurance industry’s digital strategy.
Insurers have built their customer portals as administrative websites—digital filing cabinets designed for calm, routine tasks like paying a bill or downloading a document.
Yet, customers overwhelmingly turn to these portals in moments of acute stress, treating them as emergency tools.2
This mismatch between design intent and real-world use is not a minor inconvenience; it is a systemic failure that erodes trust and destroys value at the most critical touchpoint in the customer journey.
The consequences are stark: a recent survey found that an astonishing 22% of consumers—more than one in five—have avoided filing a claim altogether because the process was too frustrating or complicated.3
This report argues that a radical rethinking of the insurance portal is not just necessary, but existentially urgent.
The solution is not an incremental improvement but a complete paradigm shift.
Insurers must stop thinking of their portals as websites and start designing them as Digital Go-Bags.
A Go-Bag, used in emergency preparedness, is a pre-packed, lightweight, and utterly reliable kit containing only the essentials needed to navigate a crisis.5
It prioritizes speed, accessibility, and function over comprehensiveness.
By adopting this new paradigm—one informed by the rigorous, life-or-death principles of aviation safety and the organizational clarity of library science—insurers can transform their digital portals from a source of friction into a powerful tool for building loyalty and delivering on their core promise: to be a calm, reliable partner in the storm.
Part 1: The Great Disconnect: Why Today’s Insurance Portals Fail
The failure of the modern insurance portal is not a single issue but a cascade of deficiencies across user experience, business strategy, and technological infrastructure.
This “great disconnect” between what portals are and what customers need them to be creates a crisis of confidence for users and imposes a staggering cost on the business.
Understanding the depth and interconnectedness of these failures is the first step toward building a new and better model.
Section 1.1: A Crisis of User Confidence
For many policyholders, the digital experience is defined by a series of frustrating obstacles that begin before they can even access their information and continue long after they log in.
This journey through a digital labyrinth breeds resentment and undermines the very trust the insurance relationship is built on.
The first wall customers hit is the login screen itself.
The simple act of authentication has become a primary source of friction.
Research shows that forgetting a username or password is the single most common issue consumers face when trying to pay a bill online, cited by 23% of respondents.7
This problem is compounded by increasingly complex security measures.
While necessary, processes like multi-factor authentication often become insurmountable hurdles when a user has lost or changed their phone, a common occurrence.1
Users also face maddening scenarios like discovering they have duplicate accounts linked to different email addresses, forcing them into a bureaucratic process of merging accounts just to perform a simple task.1
For customers managing policies from multiple providers, the cognitive load of remembering different login credentials for each portal is so high that many simply give up, avoiding the portals altogether.8
Should a user successfully breach the login wall, they are often confronted with a confusing and poorly designed interior.
The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of most insurance portals are a significant barrier to task completion.
Studies reveal that users find these portals to be “badly organized” with “problems switching between pages”.8
Information is often buried under layers of menus that reflect the insurer’s internal organizational chart rather than a customer’s logical needs.9
This forces the user to understand the company’s bureaucracy to find what they are looking for.
A common design principle, the “three-click rule”—which posits that any key information should be reachable within three clicks—is consistently violated, leaving users wandering through a maze of links.10
This navigational chaos is exacerbated by information overload, with text-heavy pages full of industry jargon that is incomprehensible to the average policyholder.9
These technical and design failures carry a significant emotional toll.
During a calm, routine interaction, a confusing website is merely an annoyance.
But during a stressful event like a car accident, a health emergency, or a natural disaster, these same flaws become potent amplifiers of anxiety and fear.2
At the precise moment a customer needs reassurance and support, the portal delivers confusion and a sense of abandonment.
It ceases to be a tool for help and becomes another crisis to be managed.
Section 1.2: The Business Cost of Digital Friction
The frustration experienced by users is not a soft, unquantifiable metric; it translates directly into hard, measurable business costs.
The failure to provide a seamless digital experience is actively driving customers away, preventing insurers from fulfilling their core function, and bloating operational expenses.
The most immediate impact is on customer retention.
In today’s competitive market, a poor digital experience is a primary driver of churn.
A landmark survey found that 64% of consumers would consider switching insurers specifically for a more seamless digital experience.3
This willingness to switch is reinforced by broader UX research, which shows that 88% of users are less likely to return to any website after a single bad experience.10
Each frustrating login attempt, each confusing menu, and each piece of unintelligible jargon is a small push sending a valuable customer toward a competitor.
This makes a poor digital portal a high-cost churn engine, directly undermining customer loyalty and increasing the cost of new customer acquisition.
Even more alarming is the phenomenon of “silent churn,” where customers are so discouraged by the digital process that they abandon their claims entirely.
The finding that 22% of policyholders have avoided filing a claim due to a frustrating or complicated process is a damning indictment of the industry’s digital state.3
This represents a fundamental breakdown of the insurance promise.
Customers pay premiums for the peace of mind that their insurer will be there in a time of need.
When the process of seeking that help is so onerous that they choose to absorb a loss themselves, the core value proposition of the insurance product has failed.
This is not just a lost claim transaction; it is a catastrophic failure of trust that almost guarantees the loss of that customer at renewal.
Finally, the deficiencies of digital self-service channels create significant operational inefficiencies.
Every time a user fails to complete a task on the portal—whether it’s finding a policy document, making a payment, or filing a claim—they are forced to turn to a more expensive channel, most often the call center.2
This inflates call volumes, increases staffing requirements, and drives up operational costs.
The irony is that many of these portals were initially justified as a way to
reduce call center traffic.
Instead, their poor design and execution have created a costly feedback loop where the digital channel, intended to be a solution, becomes a primary driver of the very problem it was meant to solve.
Section 1.3: The Root Cause: A Flawed Blueprint
The myriad problems plaguing insurance portals are not isolated bugs or oversights.
They are symptoms of a deeper, architectural flaw in how these platforms are conceived and built.
The issues stem from a design philosophy that prioritizes the organization’s structure over the user’s needs, anchored by outdated technology and a culture that lacks digital agility.
The number one user experience issue with most insurance websites is that they are designed to be a digital mirror of the company’s internal structure.9
The navigation, terminology, and information architecture are organized around business units—claims, billing, policy services—rather than user goals.
A customer doesn’t think, “I need to interact with the policy administration department”; they think, “I need to see what my deductible Is.” Yet, the portal forces them to navigate the company’s internal silos, effectively asking the customer to do the work of a company employee.9
This organization-centric model is the original sin of insurance portal design, creating a foundation of complexity and confusion that is nearly impossible to overcome with superficial UI tweaks.
This flawed design philosophy is cemented in place by the dead weight of legacy systems.
A staggering 68% of insurance companies see their legacy systems as the biggest obstacle to digital transformation.13
These aging, inflexible core systems are often decades old, making integration with modern, user-friendly front-end technologies difficult, expensive, and risky.12
They create data silos that prevent a unified view of the customer, leading to fragmented and disjointed experiences.
For example, the claims system may not talk to the CRM, meaning a customer service agent has no visibility into a user’s recent online activity.12
Attempting to innovate on top of this brittle foundation is like trying to build a modern skyscraper on the foundations of a 19th-century warehouse.
This technological paralysis is compounded by a cultural and operational lack of digital agility.
Many carriers, despite making significant investments in technology, struggle to support their digital initiatives effectively, with 93% reporting such difficulties.13
There is often a talent shortage, with teams that are expert in insurance but not equipped to manage complex IT projects.14
This leads to a cycle of outsourcing to vendors who may not have deep industry expertise, resulting in subpar implementations that fail to address the core problems.
The result is a self-perpetuating cycle of digital neglect.
A poorly designed portal leads to low user engagement.
Executives, misinterpreting this lack of engagement as a lack of customer interest, then de-prioritize further investment in the digital channel.
This causes the portal’s technology and design to fall even further behind user expectations, which in turn drives engagement down further.
This downward spiral can only be broken by a fundamental shift in perspective—recognizing that the low engagement is not a reflection of user desire, but a direct result of a failed user experience.
The demand is there—research from McKinsey shows 62% of policyholders actively prefer digital self-service options.7
The industry’s execution is what is failing.
Part 2: The Epiphany: Your Portal Isn’t a Website, It’s a Go-Bag
To break the vicious cycle of digital failure, insurers need more than a new feature list; they need a new mental model.
The path forward requires a profound epiphany: the customer portal is not a corporate brochure or a digital filing cabinet.
In the moments that matter most to the customer, it is a piece of critical emergency equipment.
The most powerful and accurate metaphor for what a portal should be is the “Go-Bag.” This shift in thinking, from a passive information repository to an active crisis toolkit, provides the strategic clarity needed to redesign the entire digital experience from the ground up.
Section 2.1: From Corporate Brochure to Crisis Toolkit
In the world of emergency preparedness, a “Go-Bag” (also called a “Bug-Out Bag”) is a backpack or duffle bag packed with the essential items a person would need to survive for 72 hours if forced to evacuate their home suddenly.5
Its contents are meticulously chosen based on principles of necessity, reliability, and portability.
It contains items like water, non-perishable food, a first-aid kit, a flashlight, a radio, and copies of essential documents like passports and insurance cards.6
A Go-Bag is not a comprehensive archive of one’s life; it is a ruthlessly curated toolkit designed for function under duress.
This is the perfect paradigm for an insurance portal.
When a policyholder logs in during a crisis, they are, in a digital sense, “evacuating” their normal state of calm and entering a state of emergency.
They do not need to browse marketing content, read the company’s history, or explore complex policy riders.
They need their digital essentials, presented with absolute clarity and accessible with minimal effort.
They need their Policy ID number, the emergency claims hotline, and a simple way to initiate a claim.
The portal must become their Digital Go-Bag, pre-packed with the critical tools and information needed to navigate the immediate crisis.
This model stands in stark contrast to the prevailing “corporate website” paradigm.
Today’s portals are often treated as vast “content libraries,” where the insurer’s goal is to make all information available somewhere, leaving the user with the responsibility of navigating its “Byzantine pathways” to find what they need.9
The Digital Go-Bag model flips this responsibility.
It assumes the user is stressed and task-focused, and its primary design goal is to triage information, pushing the most critical items to the forefront while keeping non-essential content organized but out of the Way. It is a fundamental shift from “information storage” to “mission-critical task completion.”
Section 2.2: The Pilot’s Perspective: Lessons from 30,000 Feet
To understand how to design a system that is reliable under pressure, the insurance industry can look to a field that has mastered this challenge: aviation.
Like insurance, aviation is a high-stakes domain where human error, especially under stress, can have catastrophic results.
For decades, aviation has perfected systems and philosophies designed specifically to mitigate this risk, and its core principles offer a powerful blueprint for the Digital Go-Bag.18
The cornerstone of aviation safety is the humble checklist.
The widespread use of checklists began after the 1935 crash of the prototype for the B-17 Flying Fortress.
The aircraft, more complex than any before it, crashed on takeoff not because of a mechanical failure, but because the highly experienced pilot forgot to disengage the gust locks—a simple but critical step.18
The lesson was clear: even the most skilled expert can make fatal errors under pressure or due to cognitive load.
Checklists are not for training novices; they are a tool to ensure that experts perform critical procedures correctly and consistently, every single time.
This is a direct parallel to a stressed policyholder trying to file a claim; they may be intelligent and capable, but the stressful context makes them highly susceptible to error.
Crucially, aviation does not use a single, monolithic checklist.
It employs a system of distinct procedures for different phases of flight and different situations: Normal, Abnormal, and Emergency.18
- Normal Checklists are for routine operations like pre-flight, takeoff, and landing.
- Abnormal Checklists are for situations that are not immediately life-threatening but require methodical diagnosis and correction, such as a minor system malfunction.
- Emergency Checklists are for critical, high-stress scenarios like an engine fire, providing clear, immediate action steps.
This structured, context-sensitive approach provides the perfect architectural model for the Digital Go-Bag.
The portal’s interface should not be static; it should adapt its layout and presented information based on the user’s context, presenting a “Normal,” “Abnormal,” or “Emergency” view to match the user’s immediate needs.
Section 2.3: The New Paradigm Defined
The shift from the current model to the Digital Go-Bag paradigm is a transformation of purpose, philosophy, and measurement.
It redefines what success looks like for a customer portal, moving away from vanity metrics toward a relentless focus on user success in moments of need.
The following table summarizes the fundamental differences between the two paradigms.
| Attribute | Old Paradigm: The Corporate Website | New Paradigm: The Digital Go-Bag |
| Core Metaphor | A digital filing cabinet or library. | A pre-packed emergency kit. |
| Primary Goal | Information storage and administration. | Mission-critical task completion under stress. |
| Design Philosophy | Organization-centric, comprehensive. | User-centric, minimalist, action-oriented. |
| Key Metric | Page views, content volume. | Task success rate, time-to-completion. |
| User State | Assumes a calm, browsing user. | Assumes a stressed, task-focused user. |
| Information Access | User must search and navigate silos. | Critical info is triaged and presented upfront. |
| Technology View | A cost center; a necessary evil. | A strategic asset; a core part of the product. |
| Measure of Success | All company information is available. | The user successfully completes their critical task. |
Adopting this new paradigm is the strategic pivot required to solve the deep-seated issues outlined in Part 1.
It provides a clear, compelling vision that can align technology, product, and business teams around a single, customer-centric mission.
Part 3: The Four Pillars of the Digital Go-Bag
Translating the Digital Go-Bag concept from a compelling metaphor into an executable strategy requires a structured framework.
This framework rests on four interconnected pillars, each drawing inspiration from the domains of aviation, emergency preparedness, and library science.
Together, they form a comprehensive blueprint for building a digital experience that is accessible, intuitive, reliable, and trustworthy.
Pillar I: The “IMSAFE” Pre-Flight Check for Flawless Access
Before a pilot can fly a plane, they perform a pre-flight check.
This includes a personal fitness-to-fly assessment to ensure they are not impaired.
The login and authentication process for an insurance portal should be reconceived in the same way—not as a hostile security gate designed to keep people out, but as a supportive “pre-flight check” designed to ensure every user, regardless of their situation, can get in successfully.
The FAA’s “IMSAFE” checklist, a mnemonic used by pilots to self-assess their fitness, provides a powerful model for this.20
By adapting it to the digital context, insurers can systematically identify and eliminate the most common access barriers.
The Digital “IMSAFE” model re-frames the access challenge around the user’s potential state of impairment:
| Letter | Aviation Meaning | Digital Go-Bag Application (The User’s State) | Key Features to Implement |
| I | Illness | Identity Forgotten: User has forgotten their username/password.7 | Implement passwordless login options like “magic links” sent to email or biometrics (Face/Touch ID). Offer a simple “Guest Pay” or “Guest Claim Status” feature that requires minimal authentication (e.g., policy number and ZIP code). |
| M | Medication | Method Lost: User has lost or changed their multi-factor authentication (MFA) device.1 | Provide multiple, redundant MFA channels (email, text, phone call, authenticator app). Design a simple, self-service MFA reset flow that doesn’t require a call to customer support. |
| S | Stress | Situation Critical: User is in a high-stress emergency and needs immediate help, not a login screen. | Include an “Emergency” or “I Need Help Now” button directly on the login page that bypasses authentication and provides immediate access to critical phone numbers (claims, roadside assistance).21 |
| A | Alcohol | Authority Delegated: User needs a trusted third party (e.g., a tow truck driver, a family member at the hospital) to access limited, specific information. | Develop a feature for secure, temporary, permission-based access. A user could generate a time-limited code that grants a third party view-only access to a specific policy card, for example. |
| F | Fatigue | Friction Overload: User is tired of managing dozens of passwords for different portals.8 | Integrate with trusted Single Sign-On (SSO) providers (e.g., Apple, Google, Login.gov). For users with multiple policies, explore account aggregation features to provide a single point of entry. |
| E | Emotion/Eating | Environment Unstable: User is in a disaster zone with a poor or non-existent internet connection. | Create a low-bandwidth “lite” or “emergency” version of the portal. This text-only version should load quickly on weak signals and provide only the most essential information and functions. |
By systematically addressing each point on this checklist, insurers can move from a reactive stance on login problems to a proactive strategy that anticipates user needs and engineers a resilient, foolproof access experience.
Pillar II: The Triage Dashboard for Mission-Critical Actions
Once the user is through the door, the portal must immediately provide value.
The screen that follows login cannot be a cluttered homepage; it must be a clean, dynamic Triage Dashboard that functions like an aviation checklist, adapting its content to the user’s current situation.
This context-aware interface ensures that the most relevant actions and information are always front and center, minimizing cognitive load and speeding up time-to-task.
This dashboard should operate in three distinct modes, mirroring the Normal, Abnormal, and Emergency procedures of flight crews.18
Normal Mode: This is the default state for routine, non-urgent interactions.
The dashboard is uncluttered, focusing on the top 3-4 tasks that users perform most frequently.
Based on survey data, these are typically “Streamlined billing and payments,” “Immediate policy document access,” and “Straightforward claim filing and tracking”.11
The design is clean, with clear, large buttons and minimal text, guiding the user effortlessly to their goal.
Abnormal Mode: This mode is triggered by a specific, time-sensitive but non-critical event.
For example, if a user’s auto-payment fails or their policy is approaching its renewal date, the dashboard dynamically changes.
A prominent, clearly worded banner appears at the top: “Action Required: Your payment for policy #12345 was declined.
Please update your payment method to maintain coverage.” This proactive communication 2 addresses the issue directly, preventing it from escalating into a more serious problem like a policy lapse.
Emergency Mode: This is the portal’s most critical function—its true Go-Bag state.
This mode can be triggered in two ways: manually, by the user clicking an “I’m in an Emergency” button, or automatically, if the system detects a crisis (e.g., the user’s location, derived from their IP address or phone GPS, is within a FEMA-declared disaster zone).
When Emergency Mode is activated, the interface is stripped of all non-essential elements.
The dashboard transforms to display only the most critical information and actions, mirroring the resources provided by disaster assistance agencies 21:
- A large, unmistakable “File a New Claim” button.
- The user’s Policy Number(s) and a brief summary of key coverages, displayed in a large, legible font.
- A 24/7 Emergency Claims Hotline number, rendered as a click-to-call link on mobile devices.
- A direct link to a map-based tool to “Find a Local Repair Shop” or “Find an In-Network Medical Provider.”
This triaged approach ensures that the portal serves the right information at the right time, transforming it from a static repository into an intelligent, responsive partner in the customer’s journey.
Pillar III: The “Library” for Deep, Organized Information
A key principle of the Go-Bag is to keep the immediately accessible kit light and focused.
This does not mean other important items are discarded; they are simply stored separately for when they are needed.
The Digital Go-Bag follows the same logic.
While the Triage Dashboard provides immediate access to critical actions, the vast repository of policy documents, billing statements, and communication history needs a home.
This home should not be a cluttered, chronological “file dump,” but a meticulously organized “Library” built on the proven principles of library science.
The first step is to move beyond a simple list of PDFs and embrace the concept of Descriptive Cataloging.23
In a library, a book isn’t just a physical object; it’s an entry in a catalog with rich metadata—author, title, subject, publication date.
Similarly, every document in the portal’s library should be tagged with structured metadata: policy number it relates to, document type (e.g., “Policy Declaration,” “Billing Statement,” “Endorsement”), effective date, and relevant subject tags (“Auto,” “Home,” “Liability”).
With this rich metadata in place, the library can be organized using principles from modern library classification.
Instead of forcing users to understand the insurer’s arcane document naming conventions, the system can create intuitive, user-centric shelving, much like the “Neighborhoods” concept used in modern public libraries to group books by topic like “Health & Wellness” or “Local History”.24
The portal’s library would have clear sections: “My Auto Policy Documents,” “My Home Policy Documents,” “All Billing Statements,” and “My Claims History.” Within each section, documents would be sorted logically, with the most current versions clearly marked.
This structure is akin to the Library of Congress Classification system, which ensures that related materials are shelved together, enabling “serendipitous browsing” where a user finds exactly what they need.25
This robust organization enables the library’s most powerful feature: a truly effective search function.
A well-cataloged system allows for faceted searching, where users can filter results by multiple criteria, just as they would in a modern university’s Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC).26
A user could, for example, search for “that letter about the roof from last year” and the system could allow them to filter by Document Type (“Correspondence”), Policy (“Home”), and Date Range (“2023”).
This transforms the library from a passive archive into an active, intelligent information retrieval tool, allowing the Triage Dashboard to remain clean and focused, confident that any deeper information a user might need is just a simple, logical search away.
Pillar IV: The “Safety Management System” for a Culture of Trust
The first three pillars provide the “what” and “how” of building a Digital Go-Bag.
This fourth pillar provides the “who” and “why”—the organizational and cultural framework required to implement these changes and ensure they endure.
A one-time project is doomed to become the next legacy system.
Lasting success requires a permanent, company-wide commitment to digital excellence as a core safety function.
The FAA’s four-component Safety Management System (SMS), a formal framework used to manage safety risk in aviation, offers the perfect blueprint for this cultural transformation.28
Component 1: Safety Policy: This is the foundation.
Senior management must establish and endorse a formal policy that declares a frictionless, reliable, and user-centric digital experience to be a core business objective, on par with financial solvency and regulatory compliance.
This policy establishes management’s commitment, defines clear objectives for the digital experience, and creates the organizational structure and accountability needed to meet those goals.
It moves the portal from a departmental IT project to a C-suite-level strategic imperative.
Component 2: Safety Risk Management (SRM): This is the proactive component.
In the context of the Digital Go-Bag, a “risk” is any point of friction, confusion, or failure in the user journey.
SRM is the formal process of systematically identifying these risks (through usability testing, journey mapping, and analysis of user feedback), analyzing their potential impact (e.g., call center volume, claim abandonment, churn), and implementing controls to mitigate them.
This process ensures that problems are found and fixed before they affect customers at scale.
Component 3: Safety Assurance (SA): This is the monitoring and evaluation component.
Safety Assurance systematically provides confidence that the portal is meeting its safety and performance requirements.
This involves the continuous acquisition of data (e.g., login success rates, task completion times, error rates) and the analysis of that data to assess the system’s health.
SA answers the question, “Are our risk controls working?” It provides the feedback loop that validates the effectiveness of the SRM process and identifies new, emerging hazards.
Component 4: Safety Promotion: This is the cultural component.
It involves creating a shared understanding across the entire organization that the digital portal is a critical piece of safety equipment for the customer.
This is achieved through continuous training for all employees—from developers to underwriters to call center staff—on the Digital Go-Bag philosophy.
It includes disseminating “lessons learned” from digital failures and successes and fostering a positive safety culture where employees are empowered to report potential user experience issues without fear of blame.
These four pillars are not independent silos; they are a deeply interconnected system.
A flawless access process (Pillar I) is useless if the dashboard it leads to is confusing (Pillar II).
A clean dashboard is only possible because it can rely on a well-organized library to hold the details (Pillar III).
And none of these technical pillars can be built or sustained without the overarching strategic commitment and continuous improvement cycle provided by the Safety Management System (Pillar IV).
This holistic framework is what ensures the Digital Go-Bag remains packed, relevant, and ready for the customer’s moment of need, today and in the future.
Conclusion: It’s Time to Pack Your Digital Go-Bag
The insurance industry stands at a digital crossroads.
The evidence is overwhelming: the current paradigm for customer portals is fundamentally broken.
Designed as administrative afterthoughts, they fail spectacularly when customers need them most—in moments of stress and crisis.
This failure is not a mere inconvenience; it is a strategic liability that actively drives customer churn, suppresses valid claims, and erodes the very foundation of trust upon which the industry is built.
Continuing down this path is not just bad business; it is an abdication of the insurer’s core promise to its policyholders.
The solution requires a courageous leap to a new mental model: the Digital Go-Bag.
This paradigm shift—from a cluttered corporate website to a streamlined, mission-critical crisis toolkit—realigns the digital experience with the customer’s reality.
By drawing on the proven, life-or-death principles of aviation safety, the organizational clarity of library science, and the focused intent of emergency preparedness, insurers can build portals that are not only functional but also deeply reassuring.
The four pillars—a flawless “IMSAFE” Access process, a context-aware Triage Dashboard, a meticulously organized Information Library, and a culture of excellence driven by a Safety Management System—provide a clear, actionable blueprint for this transformation.
Adopting this paradigm is not simply a technology upgrade.
It is a fundamental strategic decision about the future of the insurer’s relationship with its customers.
It is a commitment to move from being a passive, reactive record-keeper to being an active, reliable partner in the customer’s moments of greatest need.
For executives ready to lead this change, the path forward can begin with a few deliberate steps:
- Adopt the Language: Begin using the “Digital Go-Bag” metaphor and its associated concepts internally. Language shapes thought, and shifting the vocabulary is the first step toward shifting the organizational mindset.
- Establish the “Safety Policy”: Secure a formal, C-suite mandate that codifies digital user experience as a top-tier strategic priority (Pillar IV). This policy provides the authority and resources necessary for true transformation.
- Conduct a “Safety Risk Management” Audit: Use the four pillars as a rubric to perform a top-to-bottom audit of your current portal. Identify the highest-risk friction points in the user journey, starting with the “IMSAFE” access checklist.
- Launch a Pilot Project: Focus on redesigning the most critical “Emergency Mode” user journey—typically the first notice of loss for an auto claim. A successful pilot will demonstrate tangible value, build internal momentum, and provide invaluable lessons for a full-scale rollout.
In the digital age, trust is the ultimate currency.
It is not built through advertising slogans or friendly agent interactions alone.
It is won or lost in the cold, hard reality of the user experience, especially when the stakes are high.
Building a true Digital Go-Bag is the most powerful and authentic way for an insurer to prove to its customers, with actions rather than words, that it will be there when it matters most.
Works cited
- Support For Common Login.gov And ID.me Issues | Veterans Affairs, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.va.gov/resources/support-for-common-logingov-and-idme-issues/
- The Importance of User Experience for Insurance Companies – HeadSpin, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.headspin.io/blog/user-experience-in-insurance-companies
- 1 in 5 Consumers Avoid Filing Claims Due to Frustrating Digital Processes, According to Insurity’s Latest Survey | Morningstar, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20250527554188/1-in-5-consumers-avoid-filing-claims-due-to-frustrating-digital-processes-according-to-insuritys-latest-survey
- 1 in 5 Consumers Avoid Filing Claims Due to Frustrating Digital Processes, According to Insurity’s Latest Survey | Financial Post, accessed August 13, 2025, https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/1-in-5-consumers-avoid-filing-claims-due-to-frustrating-digital-processes-according-to-insuritys-latest-survey
- Go Bag – Westchester County Emergency Services, accessed August 13, 2025, https://emergencyservices.westchestergov.com/indian-point/having-a-go-bag
- How to create a basic emergency go bag – The Mendocino Voice, accessed August 13, 2025, https://mendovoice.com/2024/05/how-to-create-a-basic-emergency-go-bag/
- Why Are Digital Payments Still Clunky? – Insurance Thought Leadership, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.insurancethoughtleadership.com/customer-experience/why-are-digital-payments-still-clunky
- Why patient portals are inconvenient: An evidence-based perspective – Paubox, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.paubox.com/blog/why-patient-portals-are-inconvenient-an-evidence-based-perspective
- Insurance and InsurTech Website UX Problems (& How to Fix Them) – Intechnic, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.intechnic.com/blog/common-insurance-insurtech-website-ux-problems-how-to-fix-them/
- Insurance user experience: key principles and best practices – Cadabra Studio, accessed August 13, 2025, https://cadabra.studio/blog/insurance-user-experience/
- Frustrating Digital Claims Processes Keep 20% of Consumers from Filing, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.claimspages.com/news/frustrating-digital-claims-processes-keep-20-percent-of-consumers-from-filing-20250624/
- 7 Insurance Industry Challenges & How To Overcome Them, accessed August 13, 2025, https://centriconsulting.com/news/blog/insurance-industry-challenges/
- 4 Challenges in Moving to Digital Insurance – Liferay DXP, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.liferay.com/blog/customer-experience/4-challenges-in-moving-to-digital-insurance
- Insurance software implementation challenges – Infosys BPM, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.infosysbpm.com/blogs/mccamish/insurance-software-implmentations-challenges.html
- 8 Key Challenges In The Implementing New Insurance Software – Decerto, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.decerto.com/post/8-key-challenges-in-the-implementing-new-insurance-software
- Build a Personal Go Bag – Sonoma County Emergency and Preparedness Information, accessed August 13, 2025, https://socoemergency.org/get-ready/build-a-kit/personal-go-bags/
- How to Pack a Go Bag | Harvard GSS, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.globalsupport.harvard.edu/travel/advice/go-bag-checklist
- Beyond the Routine: Understanding Aviation Checklists | Airhead – ATPL Question Bank, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.airheadatpl.com/blog/beyond-the-routine-understanding-aviation-checklists
- Checklists – Purpose and Use | SKYbrary Aviation Safety, accessed August 13, 2025, https://skybrary.aero/articles/checklists-purpose-and-use
- IMSAFE Checklist: Ensuring Pilot Fitness and Safety – Wayman Flight School, accessed August 13, 2025, https://wayman.edu/imsafe-checklist/
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) | disasterassistance.gov, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.disasterassistance.gov/help/faqs
- FAQs: Accessing Health Care During a Disaster – CalPERS, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.calpers.ca.gov/members/health-benefits/plans-and-rates/disaster-health-faq
- Cataloging – LIBRARIANSHIP STUDIES & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2015/05/cataloging.html
- Organized books, organized mind? – Princeton Public Library, accessed August 13, 2025, https://princetonlibrary.org/organized-books-organized-mind/
- The Library of Congress Classification System (LC), accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit03/libraries03_04.phtml
- TinyCat, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.librarycat.org/
- A Guide to Understanding and Using Library Catalog Systems – Biblionix, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.biblionix.com/a-guide-to-understanding-and-using-library-catalog-systems/
- FAA SMS Components – Safety Management System | Federal Aviation Administration, accessed August 13, 2025, https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/sms/explained/components
