Finland insurance:
E-invoice registration research
The goal was to increase e-invoice activations in Finland before customers make their first payment. Wanted to understand why customers in Finland prefer to pay with paper invoices over e-invoices.
Despite prompts in users’ online banks, only 28% of insurance customers activated e-invoices, far from the 70% goal. Paper invoicing was driving operational costs.
Company
Sambla Group
Service
Iife and payment protection insruance
Duration
1 month
Year
2025
Role
UX Researcher
"All pictures are from the live website today, and all data, numbers, and personal details shown in the case study are fictional and for demonstration purposes only due to confidentiality."
"Sending paper invoices is quite costly, and we don’t need these expenses when e-invoicing is a much more affordable option."
Interviews
Set up an interview with insurance customer support to get more insight into how e-invoice activation works. I gathered insights from their perspective based on their interactions with customers through phone and email.
🏦How to activate e-invocie
Log in to online banking.
Click "E-Invoice".
Search "Omalaina" or "Sambla Group".
Select and send a request.
Steps may vary slightly by bank.
😣Challenges in Customer Communication
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Insurance emails often go unnoticed due to spam filtering.
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Improving communication is difficult when emails are ignored.
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SMS notifications aren’t common in Finland, but could be a future solution.
Benchmarking
What are we tracking: How other services in Finland present and guide customers to activate e-invoice in their Netbank.
Types of Companies Evaluated: Insurance providers, banks, telecom companies, and utility providers.
🛣️ Best in Guidance & Support:
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Nordea, Appix, Pankki (automation, tutorials, multi-channel support)
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Strongest Incentives: Valoo (penalty fees for paper invoices), Appix (eco-friendly messaging)
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Least Support & Engagement: Sahkon-kilpailutus, Walley, Morrow Bank
🔎 Unexpected findings
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Manual activation after the first invoice adds friction.
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No mention of the automatic e-invoice activation message in the bank.
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Limited proactive reminders for e-invoice activation, and also activating notifications.
Survey
Want to understand why users tend not to sign up for their E-invoice after signing insurance.
👁️🗨️ Target user group
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Sambla's current insurance customers
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Signed insurance at least 3 days ago
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Both non-activated and activated e-invoice customers
📝 Details
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Typeform survey
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Language: Finnish
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Answers
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3min survey
Prototype & Moderated interviews
Interview people in Finland about recurring payments and invoices, then let them go through the sign flow and read the e-mails we send customers.
👁️ 🗨️ Target user group
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Resident in Finland
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Has heard about e-invoice and has an active insurance today (does not need to be an active e-invoice).
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Ages: 18-60
🗣️ Interviews
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Feedback Frog Client
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30-40 min interviews
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6 Interviews
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Language: English
"E-invoices would be better if I got a message in my bank when they arrive. Otherwise, I don’t notice them."
💵
Manual payments feel safer
45% preferred paper/email for control.
“I want to approve my payments manually.”
⭕
Penalties are normalized
21% would switch if paper invoicing costs extra.
“If the paper invoice starts costing more, I might switch.”
🔎
E-invoice prompts are missed
54% didn’t see the prompt in their bank.
“I didn’t even know it was suggested until I checked weeks later.”
Next steps
I planned a workshop with stakeholders, developers, designers, and data. Outcomes were that, based on my research, we wrote tickets and gave the tickets an ICE scoring together.
After the tickets were added to the board, the hackathon group was created. Although I didn’t attend the hackathon, my research informed the direction of a cross-functional workshop across product, marketing, and support.
My insights directly informed a cross-functional hackathon, which led to a 12% drop in paper invoice usage (47% → 34%) within one month, reducing costs and improving user experience.
Result & Buisness impact
User research revealed exactly why customers weren’t activating digital invoices. Solving those pain points created customer value (clearer steps, fewer hassles) while driving business value (lower paper costs, higher digital adoption).
🎯 Results (after 1 month):
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Paper invoice usage decreased, reducing operational costs and environmental impact.
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Multiple UX improvements were implemented based directly on user research insights, including:
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New, clearer site layout and updated information architecture
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Introduction of a penalty fee for paper invoices
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Multi-channel reminders (email, SMS, push)
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Visual, bank-specific activation guides
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Stronger email CTAs and clearer success-state confirmations
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Refreshed eco-friendly messaging to reinforce the value of switching
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Visit E-invoice page ->