'AA Life recently launched itself into the already crowded New Zealand Life Insurance market.
'One of our key differentiators is that we promise to make Life Insurance “straight up, and straight forward”. Research told us that New Zealanders looking for Life Insurance are tired of confusing product information, complex buying processes, long application forms, advertising clichés, and industry jargon.
'In establishing AA Life, we set about re-inventing the way that Life Insurance is sold — so that at all times the customer was in control. A key part of this meant writing our policies in plain English with no complex industry jargon. Our goal is to make sure that our customers always fully understand what they are buying.
'There is probably no industry where jargon and industry speak is more prevalent than with Life Insurance. Finding the balance between (1) using plain English wording, (2) being legally correct at all times, and (3) reducing the overall word count, was a very challenging task — one that we could not have done without the help of WriteMark.
'The team at WriteMark were fantastic at understanding what we wanted to achieve, and helping us find a way to turn our policy documents into clear, concise documents that our customers can understand. The ability to say that our policy documents are WriteMark approved gives us a clear point of difference in the marketplace. It is tangible proof of what our brand stands for.'
Fran Robinson, Customer Management
AA Life
'Francis Consulting is proud to be the first chartered accountancy practice to be awarded the WriteMark. As a firm that undertakes a great deal of business advisory work, it is critical that our documents convey a clear and concise message. The WriteMark lets our clients know that we communicate in plain English — and that can only be a good thing for them and us.'
Richard Francis, Director
Francis Consulting
'Inland Revenue Child Support is very pleased to have met the WriteMark standard for a number of our publications.
'We are always looking at ways to make it easier for our customers to meet their child support responsibilities. Having clearly written information about our services, policies and processes helps us to support and educate our customers. We are now looking to bring our other publications up to a plain English standard. Our aim is to ensure all our written material provides complete and accurate information in a clear, straightforward way, free of jargon.'
David Udy, National Manager
Inland Revenue Child Support
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'Plunket communicates important information to many different New Zealanders.
'Working to achieve a WriteMark has provided us with an opportunity to update materials and make sure they are in plain English. This is beneficial to everyone involved. It makes our information, and our organisation, more accessible to all.
'We value our relationship with Write Group and the expertise they provide in support of Plunket.'
Deborah Morris-Travers, Marketing and Advocacy Advisor
Royal NZ Plunket Society Inc. top
'Since we provide an important service to the New Zealand public we need to make sure that our information is very clear and understandable to all. We try to use plain language in all of our public communications and getting the WriteMark on our latest brochure is evidence of our commitment. The idea of measuring up to a published quality standard appeals — it's one thing to say we use plain English, but quite another to be able to prove it. We're now looking at ways to meet this quality standard in as many of our communications as possible.'
Sid Narraway, Case Manager
Insurance & Savings Ombudsman
