Aviva Customer Story

The background: making an annual ideas tournament even more successful

The Customer Cup is an annual tournament spanning 18 markets around the world. All Aviva employees are invited to participate in developing ideas. Before partnering with Wazoku, it was run using various admin heavy methods. This meant it took four dedicated staff to manage, and idea contributions were dominated by the UK. Aviva knew it needed to run The Customer Cup more efficiently and better engage other markets. So, it looked for a web-based solution that could automate much of the processes involved in running a successful innovation programme.

Aviva also looked at ways to drive staff engagement to improve customer experience and developed an Aviva Customer Cup call to action: Don’t let a good idea go to waste – Throw it out There.

The solution: increasing engagement and success with an innovation platform

Aviva decided to transfer The Customer Cup to the Wazoku idea management platform. Because of the software’s flexibility, it was easily adapted to the complex processes behind the tournament. As Richard Wilkinson, Innovation Manager at Aviva explains: “The Wazoku idea management platform is a product that can be taken from the shelf, adapted to the company’s look and feel and it’s virtually ready to go from day one. The integration programme was easy and it’s also been a good learning experience.”

Previously, employees managing the programme had to filter through emails to find ideas which had been submitted, and manually review, group and shortlist them appropriately before sending them to the relevant department within the business. With the Wazoku platform and consultation from our Customer Success team, the entire process is automated according to Aviva’s management structure and information requirements.

Unlike the previous Customer Cup platform, the Wazoku platform is built specifically to allow participants to see, contribute to and vote on ideas submitted by their colleagues. As Richard Wilkinson explains: “Now they’re able to inspire each other and join forces with people who have similar ideas, rather than each team working in the dark. This collaborative element was something untried before in The Customer Cup, but it has proved popular amongst employees, helped raise awareness and improve ideas.”

The implementation of the Wazoku idea management platform has also allowed non-English speaking employees to join and collaborate in the tournament in their native language. This was of utmost importance in creating a sense of real community between colleagues from around the world, increasing engagement from non-English speaking regions and the overall number of ideas submitted.

A strong launch campaign was put together by the Aviva team with multi-channel marketing campaigns to drive engagement, including a dedicated website, roadshows and posters to engage with colleagues at all levels. This was done with the assistance of Wazoku’s Customer Success team, who provided training and materials on best practices.

Outcomes

Since implementing the Wazoku platform, Aviva has seen overall levels of engagement rise. The total number of participants registered on the site was close to 4,000 – double the number of previous years. International engagement also improved significantly. The number of ideas submitted has also increased dramatically. 680 ideas were submitted for the first Customer Cup Challenge run on the platform – a 40% increase on the previous tournament.

By running The Customer Cup through a formal innovation platform, Aviva has been able to dramatically reduce the resources needed to run it. It is now managed by one person. Aviva completed a hugely successful first tournament run via the Wazoku platform, and generated measurable benefits and return on investment for the business.