One element has been to help train advisers on the self-service portals last year, which meant in the first quarter of 2024, Aviva saw a significant decrease in the number of manual quote requests.
The company also introduced distribution reports, so that advisers logging into the portal could see easily where their clients' cases were in the pipeline, and whether the hold-up was with Aviva or the ceding scheme.
"This meant freeing up the admin team to process our workload instead of fielding queries that related to the ceding scheme's administrators.
"By giving advisers this kind of information, it has helped us as a provider and given them the information they need to direct queries to the right place", she said.
Aviva also "looked at our operating model and how to distribute the work - such as whether onshore or offshore". After getting its target operational model right, Reed said the company has been recruiting into its operational teams.
"But you can't just recruit en-masse, or problems will come back to bite you. You need to train these individuals to ensure they are highly competent.
"It is very intensive, so we have been bringing in cohorts in batches, training them up and then bringing the next team in.
"Over the past 18 months we have been on a consistent, controlled recruitment drive, and looking hard at where we need to do things better - whether operations or transfers, for example."
The company has also improved its rate guarantee, which Reed said was something the advisers had been calling for.
She explained: "We have recently moved to a 40-day guarantee, up from a 10-day guarantee, because rates were constantly changing and advisers were demanding more consistency.
"After we improved our rate guarantee, this has also been bringing more advised business in.
"It's all part of our push to operational excellence. It is early days but with this strategic project under way we really want to stand out in terms of our service."
Reed added that the life and pensions provider has also been looking at its technology investment, to allow Aviva to become more capable of taking on more business, responding to the market and being agile, especially in the light of consumer duty.
