In refining their brand image, insurers often undergo a debatebetween the virtues of being "high touch" vs. "high tech." Thetruth is an effective brand needs to encompass bothcharacteristics. "That dichotomy is the biggest fallacy to hit theindustry in the last couple of years," claims Matthew Josefowicz,managing director of Celent's Insurance Group. "Some carriers hadthe view if you were high touch, technology was less importantbecause you were relying on high-value people to deliverservice."

However, if those people don't have the systems and informationto support good service, "they're not delivering value," Josefowiczadds. "You need to support those people with the analytics,workflow systems, access to data, and other tools to do their jobsmost effectively."

"Technology should be an enabler of whatever brand experience[insurers] want to provide," indicates Harley Manning, vicepresident and research director of customer experience at ForresterResearch. "Get your intended brand attributes on a single sheet ofpaper, then go try to achieve user goals on your Web site, IVRsystem, kiosk, or any customer-facing system, and see whether thosesystems support the attributes or, at least, avoid contradictingthem. You'll quickly realize where your technology helps or hurtsyou."

CHANNEL CONSISTENCY

When insurers consider the connection between technology andbranding, they often think first of the Web. Since it's both visualand interactive, it's the most natural extension of traditionalbrand-building media.

"Your Web site isn't an interesting sideline; it's part andparcel of customers' expectations, regardless of what businessyou're in. If I buy a top-of-the-line car, when I go to the carcompany's Web site, I expect a top-of-the-line site. Likewise,because we target high-worth customers, they expect a high-valueexperience on the Chubb site," says Steve Yacik, vice president ande-business manager for Chubb personal insurance.

The Web has two key roles when it comes to building a brand:communicating the brand promise and delivering value in support ofthat promise. "Companies must infuse their brand image into onlinecommunications and make sure they support customer goals throughWeb content and function. You can neither bore people into likingyour brand nor frustrate and annoy them into liking your brand,"Manning says.

Consider that a carrier wants to be perceived as innovative andresponsive. "If the [Web site] functionality is vintage 1997, withlots of form fields and server fetches, that will not strike[customers] as innovative, which contradicts one of your brandattributes–so congratulations, you just hurt your brand," statesManning.

However, the Web isn't the end of the technology/brandconnection, even for direct writers. The brand experience should bethe same among all the various customer-support systems andchannels of service a company offers. It also should be consistentfor the three key constituencies an insurer serves: customers,agents and distributors, and employees.

THE CUSTOMER: CONVENIENCE AND CONFIDENCE

"Insurance is nothing more than a business of promises. Anythinginsurers can do to fulfill that promise will enhance that brand,"asserts David West, research area director who leads TowerGroup'sinsurance practice.

How insurers leverage technology to fulfill those promisesvaries. For instance, a P&C carrier might focus on onlineself-service, ease of delivery of information to the customer, orfield claims technology. "In P&C, confidence is heavilyaffected by your ability to pay claims. You have to resolve themquickly, efficiently, and equitably by using technology to buildstraight-through processing to service the customer moreeffectively than others," West says.

That can boost the brand in ways no amount of advertising canbuy. "When customers go to the cocktail party the weekend afterthey had the claim, they tell good stories about the claim," addsWest.

In life insurance, the focus differs. "[Life insurers'] brandpromise is around rich analyses, careful planning, and in-depthpersonal relationships. Making appropriate offers is the firststep. It shows customers you know what their needs are. With theuse of data warehouses and predictive modeling, insurers can betterunderstand what motivates customers. It's a very different kind oftechnology investment, but it still supports the brand," Westsays.

But regardless of vertical, customers share a common expectationabout the brand experience. "While we would love to be coddled, weprimarily want to be treated with courtesy and respect. Whencompanies treat us like they don't know us or they don't value ourtime, it's an annoyance," points out Bruce Maynard, seniorassistant vice president at Amica.

Amica, ranked five years in a row as the highest in customersatisfaction among national homeowners insurers by J.D. Power andAssociates, has a brand reputation to protect. "Your brand isn'tjust what you say it is; it's in large part what the consumingpublic says it is," explains Maynard. "The brand we've created hasbeen developed over the last 100 years through word of mouth andinteraction with customers because we've only recently becomeengaged in advertising. [The Amica brand] is a caring, consultativeapproach to business where we treat you like we would want to betreated."

That philosophy guides Amica's technology strategy. "Thecustomer experience is priority number one," Maynard says. "Somecompanies say their number-one priority for technology is reducingexpenses. That's a mistake."

Since the majority of Amica's business is conducted betweencustomers and its call center representatives, the company usestechnology to provide a seamless call center experience. Amica'sIVR routes customers to where they need to go, such as underwritingor claims. All service reps have access to a Siebel-based front endthat provides a consolidated view of customer information and isthe launch point into back-end administration systems.

"The information isn't siloed," Maynard notes. "Whether you'redealing with someone in California, Indiana, or Texas, thosecustomer service people all have access to the same information insystems they can navigate easily. They also can record and documentkey decisions, often in preformatted manners. If a customer callsback the next day and talks to a different rep, that person canpick up right where the other person left off. That's importantbecause customers give you some time to get up to speed but not alot. They don't appreciate those 'silent holes' that happen whenreps are dealing with a back-end system rather than thecustomer."

That type of quick, seamless service supported by technology isimportant to branding, says West. "Carriers have to have a callcenter system so every customer touch point has a consistent lookand feel and whoever is responding is able to pull up my accountand all the products I have with the company. You're not going todo that if someone has to flip between different screens. If youwrite multiple lines of business, you also have to be able tohousehold data so the life side knows what the P&C side has andvice versa," he advises.

Although what Maynard calls "old-fashioned values" are essentialto Amica's brand, modern technology is a reality. Its Web siteoffers expected functionality, such as online policy applicationand claims reporting, augmented by instant messaging that customerscan use if they get stuck on the site.

The company is looking to enhance customers' Web experience. "Wetend to have three groups of customers coming to us. One isself-directed, one is open to guidance, and one needs guidance. Wehave to create 'forks in the road' that offer different paths. Ifwe force everyone down the same path, it won't be right fortwo-thirds of them," Maynard says. "We want to give customers thesame consultative experience they have on the phone."

The initiative, which Maynard indicates will be a "major,multiple-year" project, will enable customers to identify whichgroup they feel part of and then will dynamically modify the Webexperience based on their ongoing actions. "How we train our repsto provide service over the phone will be the blueprint for how itis done online. On the phone, reps get a sense of your needs andmodify their approach accordingly," Maynard explains.

Amica also is in the process of implementing a new claims systemfrom Guidewire to replace the homegrown system it currently uses,which will enable fully electronic claims management. In addition,it plans to replace the Siebel platform with a simplified customermanagement application the company now is developing in-house.

AGENTS: MAKING IT EASY

How your technology treats your customers affects how youragents or distributors view your brand, contends West. "If yourbrand loses value to customers because you're not servicingcustomers appropriately, your brand also will lose value to agentsand you will lose business," he remarks.

"The Chubb brand is about quality coverage and effectiveservice, so what's required from our technology is to provide aseamless consistent approach, regardless of how the customercontacts us," Yacik says. "That manifests itself in the consistentlook and feel of policy documents, the experience customers havewhen a Chubb appraiser or claims adjuster interacts with them, orthe online services either they or their agent can tap into."

In the case of Chubb's personal lines business, how that brandmanifests itself via technology is influenced by the high-worthmarket it targets. "Back when we first developed our Web site, webegan by looking at other insurers. But then we realized it mademore sense to look outside our industry to other businesses thattargeted a similar type of customer and had similar brandingapproaches; companies such as Tiffany and Lexus," Yacik says.

That led to features targeted specifically to the affluentconsumer as well as different tiers of Web site functionality. "ForVIP and 'signature level' customers, we make available to them aportion of our Web site with additional functionality and onlineservices that are exclusive, such as guidance about personalsecurity, international travel services, and collectionsmanagement," Yacik explains.

Of course, it's also important to agents how well technologysupports them. Although it's a well-worn phrase, "ease of doingbusiness" is the measure by which agents judge carriers'technology.

"For the independent agent, it's about rich agent portals,integration with agency management systems, transparency in theunderwriting process, accuracy in billing, not accidentallynonrenewing people because bills get messed up, almost everythinginsurers do," Josefowicz says. "Insurers' brand promise to agentshas to do with rapid processing of new cases, handling claimseffectively, being responsive to any service inquiries. And allthose are driven by technology one way or another."

Yacik says for Chubb's personal lines agents, it's about easier,seamless e-business. He illustrates that point with the carrier'srecently deployed enhancements to its Masterpiece policy processingplatform, available to agents via the company's agency portal andthrough bridges to AMS Services' TransactNOW and IVANSTransformation Station. Improvements to the system targeted thetime required to make common policy changes, the ability to quotemultiple coverage options and promote cross-sell and up-sell, andthe way in which information was logically organized foragents.

"From a new-function standpoint, the clearest example is 'MyAlerts,'" Yacik says. "It allows agents to get automaticnotification when a policy document has generated for their agency,in lieu of receiving paper policy documents. Other companiesprovide online documents, but the onus is on the agent to find themrather than with our approach, which lets agents know they've beengenerated."

Many Chubb agents choose to make chubb.com their default workspace, with the site receiving more than one million agent visitsin each of the last three years. "The use of TransactNOW andTransformation Station is considerably less. If agents have a largebook of business with Chubb, at the beginning of the day they willlog on to the site and it's just as efficient, if not more so,"Yacik reports.

Chubb believes in the importance of expanding the capabilitiesof its existing bridges to agency systems. "In terms ofcross-selling, the bridging piece is particularly relevant. Let'ssay we're the incumbent on the homeowners side but not the auto. Inthat case, having a bridge rather than a portal makes it easier forthe agent to move the auto portion to Chubb and round out theaccount," explains Yacik.

EMPLOYEES: BUSINESS BRAND MEETS CORPORATE CULTURE

A company's public brand image affects how people view it as apotential employer. "When we talk about [Nationwide's] 'On YourSide' brand, it's not just focused on people coming to us asapplicants or customers, it's about how we provide that brandpromise to all our stakeholders, including employees," says RockyParker, assistant vice president of talent acquisition atNationwide.

To give potential employees a better idea of Nationwide'scorporate culture, the company rolled out a 360-degree virtual tourin April 2007, akin to the walkthroughs more commonly found on realestate and travel Web sites. The Flash-based application, whichalso can be burned to a DVD for on-the-road use by Nationwide'srecruiting staff, was created for the insurer by Quantum Tour, adivision of A&G Productions.

Nationwide's tour includes embedded video and audio. Click onthe receptionist for a welcome greeting. Sit in on a job interview.Or visit the on-site Jazzman's Caf?, where you can watch televisionand hear people speaking in different languages.

"Each year, about 150,000 people apply online at Nationwide, andmost don't have the ability to come into our world headquarters inColumbus. This is a way to give them a better sense of what theenergy is like here and to see the personal side of the company,which really comes across in a genuine way," Parker says.

With the system in place since spring, the impact thus far hasbeen anecdotal. "We've gotten great feedback from people who havetaken the tour," says Stephanie Pino, production coordinator atNationwide. "They say it's influenced their decision to apply toNationwide, and when they do visit headquarters for the first time,they say they feel as if they've been here before because it's sucha realistic view of what they're going to experience."

Nationwide also hopes the tour creates another link between theemployee and customer brand. "We can't hire everyone who applies,but we can try to turn everyone who takes the tour into a customerbecause of being able to see the company in a positive way," Parkersays.

In addition, the insurer is piloting another feature on its Website that will give recruits a virtual job preview. "Clicking on aworkstation would enable you to see a 'day in the life' of somebodyin the sales or service worlds or in some of the other areas wherewe do a significant amount of new hiring," Parker says. "Therefore,you'd get a sense not only of the culture and the brand and thebuilding from the 360-degree tour but also a deeper dive into whata job might feel like."

Just as a company's self-service technology must be supported byback-office technology to present an effective brand, high-techrecruiting tools need to be backed by efficient systems employeesuse to do their jobs. "If you want to attract high performers, youneed to have a brand promise as a [tech-savvy] employer,"Josefowicz says. "That will become increasingly important with thenext generation of employees. You can't hire college grads todayand plop them in front of a green screen."

FROM TACTICAL TO STRATEGIC

Finally, there is an ancillary benefit to using technology forbranding: It reinforces the importance of IT as part of businessstrategy. "The historical problem between IT and business is IT isseen as the 'gatekeeper.' IT owns the systems and data, businessthrows projects over the transom, and IT throws them back whenthey're done," West says.

Leveraging technology for branding enables IT to "keep itsfingers on the pulse of the business and establish its importanceto the business," says West. "Innovative companies are those whereIT has a seat at the table and is an equal partner in anybranding-related initiatives."