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UX-leader Machiel Oskam van Online Department legt uit waarom klanten afhaken tijdens een online verzekeringsaanvraag: verzekeraars vragen gegevens die klanten niet bij de hand hebben. Aan de hand van Maia laat hij zien hoe het beter kan, met maximaal drie stappen tot een prijs.
A conversation with Machiel Oskam from Online Department about UX and the digital application process.
Machiel Oskam is a UX leader at Online Department, an agency that designs digital application flows for insurers. The agency works for clients such as ANWB Verzekeren and Nationale-Nederlanden, and helped build the insurance platform Maia.
There is an insurance label that has grown significantly in recent years. Little brand awareness. No legacy. The brand is called Maia. The company started with insurance for entrepreneurs and freelancers and later developed camper insurance.
Why is Maia growing? Not because the premiums are lower. But because you can take out insurance there without having to prove yourself three times over.
The UX of Maia's application flow was designed by the team at Online Department. "What my colleagues did there is exactly what many insurers don't dare to do," says Machiel. "They started from scratch."
How Maia built an application flow without customers having to prove themselves three times over
Maia had one advantage that most insurers don't have: a blank canvas. No existing processes to take into account. No systems dictating what had to be asked.
The design principle: ask as few questions as possible. Don't ask for anything you can look up yourself. Don't ask for anything that is only relevant later. And ensure that the customer knows what an insurance policy costs and how they can take it out in as few steps as possible.
"People want to know where they stand first," says Machiel. "If you ask them to fill in data for ten minutes before they see a price, they're gone. That's not irrational, that's logical."
A maximum of three steps until the price and contract are visible. That is the standard Machiel maintains for consumer products like camper or travel insurance.
Not three screens, but three steps. After that, the customer knows what it costs and what they are getting. Additional information can be filled in afterwards. But the barrier to entry must be low.
What is happening in practice now is the exact opposite.
The insurer asks for a chassis number. The customer doesn't have it handy. They quit. Or they look it up, get distracted, and don't come back. The insurer asks for a Chamber of Commerce number for a business policy. The customer has no idea.
"People simply don't have those documents on hand," says Machiel. "And yet, you offer no alternative."
The remarkable thing is: for many of those questions, there is already a solutionthat is simply not being utilized.
The license plate database is available. You can enter a license plate and automatically retrieve all vehicle details. No chassis number required. Yet, at most insurers, the customer still has to type the chassis number in manually.
There is a policy-finder database for existing policies. Customers could have their own data filled in automatically. But that connection is not being made.
"The technical connections are there," says Machiel. "The question is why they aren't being used."
The answer he gets most often: priority. Other things are more urgent. Improving application flows has been on the roadmap for many insurers for years, without any serious work being done on it.
Insurers systematically underestimate how self-reliant consumers are. That is the observation Machiel makes time and again.
Customers are already comparing outside of your website. They start at Google, at Independer, at ChatGPT. They come to you with a judgment already formed. If your application process is sluggish, they go back to the comparison site and choose the next option.
"When prices are equal, user-friendliness wins," says Machiel. "That is the new reality."
And this shift reinforces that. Older demographics are slower to adopt digital processes. But even they are more self-reliant than the average insurer expects. Those who invest now in an application flow that works for everyone are simultaneously building customer relationships that will last for years.
Machiel has one concrete recommendation for every insurer that recognizes this: put the customer on the board's agenda, not just the UX department's.
"The customer always chooses the path of least resistance. If that path runs through you, you've won. If that path runs through a competitor, you've lost them."
This requires A/B testing as the standard, not the exception. It requires room to experiment. It requires a willingness to continuously improve application flows based on what customers actually do—not once every three years, but on an ongoing basis.
Maia showed that it’s possible. Simply by making the sign-up process easier than everyone else's.
Want more insights into the state of digital insurance in the Netherlands? Download the Novulo Digital Insurance Benchmark 2026.
Below you will find the most frequently asked questions about UX and digital application flows for insurers. Can't find your question? Get in touch. We’d be happy to answer it.
That depends on the product type. For consumer products like travel or car insurance, a short flow is achievable: minimal data, quick pricing. For commercial products like disability or liability insurance, you need more information, such as revenue, number of employees, or UBO details. But even then, the rule remains: only ask for what you truly need at that moment. Postpone the rest until after the initial price indication, or retrieve it from existing sources.
More than most insurers realize. License plates can be retrieved directly from the RDW database. Chamber of Commerce data is available via the KVK API. Existing policy details can be automatically imported if the customer is already with you. All these integrations exist and are technically available. The reason they are rarely used: they aren't high enough on the priority list.
It’s not the number of steps or the form design. It’s the moment you ask for something the customer doesn't have on hand. That is where most people drop off. The best-converting application flows are designed around those moments of friction: what does the customer not have? How can you retrieve it yourself? And if you can't retrieve it, can you ask for it later?
Because the bottlenecks are rarely in the design. They lie in decisions made above the UX department: which data we require, which integrations we choose not to build, and which legacy systems we refuse to update. A UX team can improve forms, but they cannot reverse the decision to require a chassis number anyway. That requires leadership that treats customer experience as a priority, not just a talking point.
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