International research and consulting firm The Customer Respect Group recently released results from its second quarter 2006 Online Customer Respect Study of Insurance Firms, which measures the customer's experience when interacting with his insurance company online. The insurance industry scored the lowest with web site visitors.

The report's significance comes from the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America's findings that 85 percent of people go online to research before purchasing insurance. The CRG report analyzed 52 health care, life and health, and property-casualty insurer web sites. Three critical concerns were identified by customers when shopping online: site usability, communication, and trust. According to CRG, the insurance industry scored lowest among the 12 industries studied by CRG in the past year in respecting web site visitors overall and in every sub-index. The overall average customer rating for insurance firms was 5.1 (out of a possible 10) against the overall average for all companies of 5.7. Property-casualty companies scored an average of 5.3.

Insurance companies need to respond better to online inquiries, the report indicated. Twenty-seven percent of e-mail inquiries were completely ignored, more than twice the percentage of the general list surveyed in the past year. Out of those who did respond, only 11 percent of companies consistently sent helpful replies within one day. Eleven percent did not allow any online contact from online customers. CRG's findings from another study show that 48 percent of online users equate e-mail responsiveness with overall levels of customer service. The industry scored just 3.9 out of 10 for responsiveness. Web site design was another problem researchers found in the study; too many sites and inconsistencies in navigation confuse visitors and prevent them from finding information. Insurers scored 6.1 against an average of 6.5 for site usability. The overall "trust" score was reduced by poor scores in "transparency"-- the degree to which policies and practices are made clear to online customers -- with a score of 4.9 against an average of 5.7.