LAS VEGAS--Insurance agents to stay relevant with an increasingly tech-savvy consumer base must update Web sites to offer the type of electronic services these consumers demand, professionals at an industry conference here advised.

Speaking at the ACORD/LOMA conference, Richard Roy, president and managing partner of Artizan Internet Services, said agencies must adopt technology solutions via their Web sites in order to increase sales and keep pace with other agencies and increasing consumer demands.

Today's consumer, he said, is asking for greater and easier electronic access to policy information, and tomorrow, the consumer will likely be asking for even more services.

Agents have to position themselves to be able to offer these services, or else they risk being "lapped" by the consumer from a technology standpoint. Mr. Roy described this as consumer expectations exceeding the technological capabilities that agencies have built.

Cyndy Smith, vice president and director of technology for Haylor Freyer & Coon Insurance, an agency based in Syracuse, N.Y., noted that agencies could face some difficult decisions when deciding what solutions to adopt.

She said market realities sometimes help to force the agent's hand. For example, Ms. Smith related that her agency had to wrestle with the question of whether it wanted its customers to have the ability to issue their own certificates though the agency's Web site.

Ms. Smith said errors and omissions concerns were one argument against this solution. However, she noted that her agency implemented it once a prospective customer threatened to go to a competing agency that offered this service. Now, Ms. Smith said, customers that are taking advantage of the service have indicated that they are finding great value in it.

Ed Higgins, principal of Thousand Islands Agency in Clayton, N.Y., and winner of National Underwriter's Agency Technology Award, said that some of the solutions he has implemented in his two agency locations have exceeded present consumer interest, such as a live chat option with a customer service representative through the agency's Web site.

However, Mr. Higgins stressed that it is important to have such facilities in place so the agency is well positioned to "move with the momentum when it starts."

He also stated that functionality on a Web site is important because customers "start to see your Web site as an extension of who you are." What is on an agency's Web site, Mr. Higgins said, can leave an impression one way or the other on a new customer who is being exposed to that agency for the first time.

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