When we talk about automation, the conversation often jumps straight to speed, efficiency and scale. All important things, however, the real challenge is more human: how do we preserve the warmth and empathy that policyholders engage with while building systems that don’t always need a person in the loop?
It’s something we think about constantly at preferred. Policyholders consistently tell us that one of the reasons they rate us so highly, and why our NPS scores remain so strong, is the human ‘expert’ touch they receive when they need it. Automation, for us, isn’t about replacing that. It’s about making sure our people are available at exactly the right moment and that the technology quietly handles everything else. This is where digital inclusion plays such a big role.
We serve a diverse range of policyholders across the UK, and many sit at the older end of the spectrum. Some are confident navigating digital forms and chat interfaces, while others rely on clear language, larger fonts or assistive technology. When a boiler has failed or water is leaking through the ceiling, the last thing a policyholder needs is to wrestle with a confusing online journey.
Obviously, we meet the technical standards: WCAG 2.2, ARIA roles, semantic HTML, proper colour contrast and so on, all the things any serious digital service should be doing. But true accessibility goes much deeper than compliance. It’s about service design from the ground up, thinking about how information flows, how we communicate and how we give customers control and confidence at every step of a stressful process. It means building systems that are forgiving, predictable and usable by real humans, not just idealised users on perfect devices.
When we design with inclusion in mind, everything improves. Navigation becomes cleaner, content becomes clearer and journeys become simpler. The knock-on effect is that everyone, including the most digitally confident, benefits from a smoother experience.
Inclusive design pushes us to think harder about how technology serves people, not just processes. It’s a design philosophy that fits perfectly with our wider approach to automation: build smart, human-centred systems that let our teams focus on empathy, judgement and genuine problem-solving, because the real goal isn’t to take people out of the loop, it’s to make sure they’re on hand when it matters most.
Automation and accessibility are not opposites. Done right, they’re two sides of the same coin, both designed to make life easier for real people in genuine moments of need. At preferred, that’s what we’re building, a claims experience that’s fast, inclusive and unmistakably human.
