Lost in Space

Todays sophisticated Web surfers dont complain when they get a lack of response from an insurers Web sitethey just take their business someplace else.

Insurance companies dont let their telephones ring without someone answering them, so why do many carriers fail to respond to simple online inquiries from potential customers? The Customer Respect Group discovered this gaffe in its Summer 2004 Online Customer Respect Study. Twenty-seven percent of carriers surveyed do not reply at all to online inquiries, and another 25 percent answer only about half of their inquiries, according to Roger Fairchild, president of the Customer Respect Group.

What does this lack of responsiveness mean? Twenty percent of online users will abandon a visit to a site and go to a competitors site to make a purchase if they have a less-than-satisfying experience, says Fairchild. One of several reasons they cite for this is if they have a slow response or no response to an inquiry.

The dollar impact of such lapses for companies can be tremendous. Fairchild reports 10.6 percent of all transactions made in this country last year were initiated by a visit to a Web site. We try to translate the revenue impact for a company from that, says Fairchild. If you have a $1 billion company, $100 million of your sales would be initiated by a visit online, all things being average. If 20 percent of your online visitors are abandoning your Web site, there is a potential revenue loss of $20 million.

Getting those responses out in a timely manner is an important factor, as well. Of the 25 percent of insurers that responded to half of their online inquiries, nearly half of those responses (44 percent) took longer than one day. Even in the group of insurers that responded to everything48 percent of the participantsnearly one-third of those responses came more than one day after the inquiries were submitted.

Responsiveness just seems so logical, asserts Fairchild. If someone is making an inquiry while visiting your Web site, you not only are responding promptly, but you are making the experience as simple and as professional as possible.

Examples of excellent responses, he adds, include having a low number of fields that need to be filled out on forms and allowing customers to submit their inquiries online rather than through the telephone or by writing a letter using traditional mail service.

Online users are getting more experienced every year, he notes. If they go to a Web site today, they are less tolerant than they were five years ago. Before, they might blame a clumsy online session on their own lack of skills on the Web, but today they have skills and experience surfing the Web. They know some sites operate very easily and others dont. Their tolerance level is way down for working with a site that doesnt perform well.

Similarly, offering customers an on-line form that is both simple and easy to use is important. This means customers get their acknowledgements right away and a full response that completely answers the questions and gives them a feedback option, explains Fairchild.

Another section of the Customer Respect Index deals with privacy and the sharing of customer data. The survey showed 60 percent of respondents share data with affiliates, subsidiaries, or business partners without getting explicit permission from online users. Fairchild points out that number is up from 35 percent in his groups winter survey.

Based on the study, one area companies must begin monitoring is improving their online presence for those with disabilities. Online users have been raising this issue, he indicates, adding the fact that 20 percent of men are colorblind and cannot be ignored. You need to make sure your Web site is designed in a way where there is significant contrast between the text and the background, he suggests. Only two percent of insurers responding to the survey are providing inquiry forms for people with disabilities, he says.

The Progressive Insurance Web site once again led all other insurers in the Customer Respect Index. Companies such as Progressive tend to be consistently good across all categories, reports Fairchild. Other companies had high scores in certain areassimplicity, responsiveness, attitudebut they were not quite as good across the board.

ROBERT REGIS HYLE