Hartford Site Leads Small-Biz Prospects To IndependentAgents

The Hartford Financial Services Group has launched a new Website for small-business owners to help them with their insuranceproducts and lead them to an independent agent.

The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer said it has unveiled sb.thehartford.com to helpentrepreneurs educate themselves about insurance before theybuy.

The interactive Small Business Insurance Center, said thecompany, explains the different types of insurance coverage forsmall businesses, translates dense insurance jargon into plainEnglish, and provides tools to help analyze specific coverageneeds, minimize risk and develop a disaster recovery plan.

“Small-business owners have told us they want to research aproduct or service before meeting with an independent agent, sothey can ask the right questions,” said Jim Ruel, senior vicepresident of small business insurance for The Hartford. “Our Website provides the tools and information they need to make educateddecisions regarding their insurance and risk management needs.”

The Hartford said it worked closely with small-business ownersand insurance agents throughout the development of the Web site totailor the content and navigation to best meet the needs of thesmall-business insurance shopper.

“Recent studies have found that many small businesses ownersunder-insure their business because theyre unaware of the variousexposures facing their companies,” said Mr. Ruel. “We hope businessowners will take advantage of the tools and resources on this Website to better understand what they can do to protect theirbusinesses.”

Key features of The Hartfords small business Web siteinclude:

Coverage Analyzer: By asking a series of questions involvingreal-world scenarios, the coverage analyzer provides a customizedchecklist of insurance coverage business owners should considerbased on the type of business.

Test Your Risk IQ: By taking a brief quiz, visitors can testtheir knowledge of common risks. A customized report provides botha score and an explanation of the correct answers to each question,as well as links to additional information on relevant topics.

Disaster Recovery Planning to help smaller firms, who tend notto be prepared for disaster, jumpstart the process of preparing adisaster recovery plan. This section provides an interactive riskassessment tool, planning worksheet, disaster planning tips, andother resources from The Hartfords loss control experts.

Insurance Jargon Translator: For anyone who has ever struggledto figure out what various insurance terms actually mean, thisfeature provides legal definitions and plain Englishtranslations.

This feature, explained Christine Castonguay, Internet marketingconsultant for the Hartford, was developed through two years ofextensive research that found there was a lot of insuranceinformation on the Web, but that it was written in terms not easilyunderstood by the layman.

The jargon translator allows the user to scroll through the listor go directly to letters in the alphabet to find out what aninsurance term means. The list, Ms. Castonguay said, is updatedregularly.

Protection Match Reports: Small-business owners can review alist of coverages by key category or receive a customized report ofcoverages based on their specific needs. There is also a checklistof factors for clients to consider when shopping for insurance.

Find an Agent: Once business owners are ready to talk to anagent about specific coverage needs, they can access a list ofindependent insurance agents in their area via an agentlocator.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, September 23,2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in theserial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this articleas an independent work may be held by the author.