Auto Claims Journey

Protective Life is rethinking the VSC claims experience to replace confusion with clarity and rebuild trust before it breaks.

Claims moments are supposed to offer reassurance. But for many Vehicle Service Contract (VSC) customers, the claims process feels opaque, transactional, and emotionally fraught. Protective Life engaged us to explore where that experience breaks down—and how a human-centered approach could rebuild trust.

We conducted in-depth interviews with recent claimants and mapped the emotional arc of their journeys—from breakdown to claim resolution. Across conversations, we saw consistent signals: unclear coverage, communication gaps, role confusion between insurer and repair shop, and lack of real-time visibility. These gaps don’t just cause frustration—they drive claimants to seek legal help or disengage altogether.

Through sacrificial concept testing, we explored opportunities to provide claimants with clarity, transparency, and agency at each step of the process. We delivered a full experience map, prioritized pain points, and concept prototypes—ranging from pre-claim education and claims tracking tools to concierge-style support interventions.

The result was more than a playbook for pain point fixes—it was a reframing of the VSC claims experience as a relational service, not just a payment mechanism. This work is now shaping Protective Life’s next wave of experience innovation in vehicle protection.