Leading UK motor and home insurer handles millions of customer interactions annually. 1st Central utilised Zingtree’s AI automation platform to simplify customer service processes and lower risk exposure.

Challenge

1st Central was already operating at top-tier performance in the UK insurance market, but the leadership team identified an opportunity to achieve even greater advancement.

Faced with rising customer expectations, tightening compliance standards, and increasingly complex workflows, the organization prioritized an opportunity to ensure that every customer interaction consistently meets their high standards of excellence.

For example, they recognized that their existing tools - static PDFs and traditional scripts - could no longer keep pace with the speed and precision they were aiming for.

New colleagues required additional assistance to become proficient rapidly, and it was felt that processes could be better streamlined to drive greater consistency. The team took a proactive approach to enhance process controls, lessen cognitive demands on agents, and facilitate consistent, compliant, and high-quality performance during every interaction.

Solution

To resolve these challenges, 1st Central selected Zingtree after a rigorous vendor evaluation process. Zingtree stood out for its:

• Best-in-class workflow engine with a clean, intuitive interface‍
• Flexible, fast API that enabled integration across internal systems‍
• Ease of use for both back-office builders and frontline agents

With Zingtree’s platform, 1st Central streamlined policy changes, claims triage, and other previously unwieldy processes into clear, easy-to-follow workflows that would improve overall consistency across both internal and BPO operational teams.

These workflows surfaced contextually relevant knowledge and guidance, extracted from real-time customer inputs as well as curated knowledge resources, aligned to legal regulations & standards.  

In real-time, workflows were activated to guide agents step-by-step, critical for regulated conversations involving policy details, customer disclosures, and risk verifications.

“We built our business case on first contact resolution. Because if you get the first call right, the customer doesn’t need to call back. That’s a better experience for them, and operationally, it means fewer repeat contacts and less burden on our team. Once we implemented Zingtree, we saw consistent FCR improvements across every journey - aligned to what we’d projected in the original business case.” — Andrew Smith , Customer Director at 1st Central.

Implementation

1st Central’s rollout was both fast and focused: from contract signature to go-live in just 4.5 weeks.

The initial phase targeted high-volume retail journeys—renewals, general service, and policy changes - delivering immediate gains in quality and agent confidence. Early adoption success with internal teams paved the way for a quick expansion with offshore teams. 

Within 60 days, Zingtree was fully deployed across retail operations, empowering frontline agents and back-office teams alike with scalable, compliant workflows that improved accuracy, speed, and service quality. 

Results

Since rolling out Zingtree, 1st Central has seen measurable, transformative gains.  1st Central handles millions of customer requests annually. Within only 6 weeks of go-live, the team saw significant improvements across all relevant key performance indicators: 

• 10% increase in First Contact Resolution (FCR)
• 30% higher QA scores across all use cases
• 3X reduction in agent errors
• Faster agent onboarding

FCR became the core KPI Zingtree supported, reducing follow-up contacts and operational burden. 1st Central continues to outperform other UK-based insurance organizations in FCR. Furthermore, post-implementation audits show marked improvements in script adherence and regulatory coverage.

The future

Building on success, 1st Central plans to expand Zingtree into real-time agent assist and AI-driven workflow optimization, ensuring compliance and efficiency as they tackle more complex workflows in claims and fraud operations.

“We are considering how best to utilize the flexibility of the Zingtree API and put various technologies together so that the live context of the call can actually direct the flow of the conversation for the agent. Particularly if we’re detecting that maybe they’ve missed something, or if a customer is persistently objecting, then providing enhanced scripting could significantly help through that moment.” — Andrew Smith, Customer Director at 1st Central. 

About 1st Central 

1st Central is a UK-based motor and home insurance provider serving around 1.5 million customers. With an expansive, distributed support operation—including UK-based agents and mature BPO partnerships in South Africa – the company handles millions of customer contacts annually. 

Since its founding in 2008, 1st Central has distinguished itself through its commitment to technological advancement, continuously leveraging data analytics, AI, and digital capabilities to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency. This technology-driven approach has enabled the company to deliver effortless customer experiences and great value, resulting in an ‘Excellent’ Trustpilot rating in a highly regulated market.

About Zingtree

Zingtree is the AI automation platform that gives support teams control over how AI automates complex resolutions—connecting the dots between data, logic, and compliance.