How Shepherds Friendly put its protection products at the heart of adviser workflows

Modernising Our protection quote journey

For a long time, advisers generated our income protection quotes directly through our intermediary website. It worked well for individual cases, and it gave advisers reliable access to the information they needed. But as demand increased and more firms began managing higher volumes of protection business, we saw growing pressure on advisers to capture consistent, comparable quotes efficiently across multiple providers.

In practice, that meant advisers often had to repeat the same data entry and research process across multiple providers’ websites. Not only was this time‑consuming, but it also increased the risk of rekeying errors and created additional work when collecting and documenting all the results.

As our protection business grew, we saw that advisers needed quicker, cleaner ways to access consistent quote data - especially when handling higher volumes of cases or comparing multiple providers. The manual steps involved in repeating data entry or checking details with our team were creating unnecessary friction, both for advisers and for us. Reducing that load became increasingly important, alongside ensuring our products were visible wherever advisers carry out their core research.

Why we chose the Criterion Quotes Protection Standard

Using Criterion’s Quotes Protection Standard gave us scalability, consistency, and simplicity across every platform we integrate with. Instead of creating bespoke technical solutions for each portal, our development team can work with one quote‑and‑apply framework that applies across the industry. 

For us, this alignment and scalability that Criterion enables are essential for supporting long‑term growth.

Supporting our wider business goals

Adopting this standard wasn’t just a technical decision - it was a strategic one.

As a Friendly Society, visibility matters. We’ve been really focused on broadening our adviser reach and connecting with more distributors. By ensuring our products appear on major portals alongside other income protection providers, we make sure we’re not overlooked. Advisers see our premiums, recognise the Shepherds Friendly name, and can enquire directly if our product fits their client’s needs.

In a world without this standard - and without access to portal quoting - we’d rely heavily on manually introducing the brand, one adviser at a time. Now our products sit at the heart of adviser workflows, which significantly expands our presence and reach.

It’s also about modernising. The protection market is evolving quickly, and we want to stay ahead of industry expectations and adviser needs. Using this standard supports that ambition fully.

How we implemented the standard

We approached implementation collaboratively:

1. Technical onboarding with portals: our developers worked directly with portal development teams to share code, data structures, and requirements.
2. Building and testing environments: we set up dedicated test environments to ensure all data sent and received was correct, complete, and displayed accurately on adviser screens.
3. Ongoing governance: we maintain regular roadmap discussions with each portal to ensure we stay aligned with upcoming changes in protection product design and adviser expectations.

All development was handled internally, giving us full control and visibility over quality and functionality.

Who has benefited?

Advisers 

Advisers have seen the biggest transformation: 

• A single quote request now produces comparable results from multiple providers.
• No duplicate data entry.
• Far fewer manual corrections or rekeying errors.
• A streamlined quote‑to‑apply journey that saves hours of work.
• A suitability letter backed by consistent, evidence‑based research.

The standardised messaging behind the scenes gives advisers confidence that the data they receive is accurate and trustworthy.

Clients

Clients benefit from advisers being able to demonstrate comprehensive market research and provide advice based on accurate, comparable results.

Our Internal Team

We’ve seen a meaningful reduction in manual inbound queries. Before adopting the standard, advisers contacted us more frequently to check details or raise issues caused by rekeying or misunderstandings. Now, because the standard supports clear, consistent messaging, advisers know exactly what the portal is presenting - and can trust the outcome.

Most importantly, our products are consistently visible, accessible, and part of the adviser conversation.

Another key advantage we’ve seen from adopting this standard is the flexibility it gives our internal development team. When we enhance our products or introduce new versions of our quotes, we don’t need to rebuild platform‑specific rules each time. The messaging, data structure and logic advisers rely on are already embedded within the standard, allowing changes to be applied once and delivered consistently across the market.

This creates three powerful benefits:

• Less development overhead: our team can build and maintain one aligned set of functionality.
• Confidence and consistency: the standard handles the messaging and structure, so all advisers receive accurate, clear data.
• Faster evolution: when we update products or pricing, adapting within the standard is straightforward.

Measurable improvements since adoption

The standardised quote‑and‑apply process has:

• Reduced manual work for advisers
• Lowered the risk of rekeying errors
• Decreased inbound calls and emails
• Improved accuracy across the journey
• Enabled more reliable quoting for clients

Fewer manual interventions mean fewer opportunities for errors - and a much smoother experience for both advisers and policyholders.