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"If we take that to auto insurance, what the leading sites are doing is to allow customers to pay for their policy online and print out insurance cards online," he explains. "There are a few sites that support that, and those are going to grow. The consumer says, 'Don't make me wait; I want to drive the car now.'"

Second is account management. "[Policyholders] expect to be able to pay their bill, file a claim, and check the status of a claim. They expect to be able to make changes to their account–if they buy a new car, they want to enter that information online. Those are some of the ones we've offered for many years," says Guru Vasudeva, chief enterprise architect at Nationwide Insurance.

But some carriers, particularly in life, have been reluctant to provide robust account management, and insurers that write through independent agents often are wary of disrupting the customer-agent-carrier relationship. "If a customer is going to be changing or adding a beneficiary, that's an instance where the agent is going to want to have that conversation," maintains Christopher Musto, general manager of financial services at Keynote, which offers Web-site testing and measurement services. "Those conversations will be so fruitful to the agents that agents don't want that [transaction] to be online."

The third is information. "A big no-no is [making] your site a 'get quote now' button," Ellis says. "That works for a certain percentage of consumers, but it's important to satisfy other goals, such as getting information about the nature of the product, the nature of insurance, and how much coverage I need, and to wrap that into the experience whether or not it's a quote process the consumer is undertaking."

For instance, Change Sciences evaluates auto insurance sites not just on whether the site allows customers to obtain a quote and find an easy way to buy a policy but also on whether customers can access information on how much coverage they might need, what factors influence rates, claims handling, and other features that "build trust." Yet of the top sites the company identified in a recent study, 73 percent supplied instant online quotes, but less than 40 percent offered information on claims handling.

Customers even want to know about what type of insurance company they may be dealing with. "In the 'features' section [of allstate.com], we give a lot of updates on community services," says Craig Oldham, Allstate's director of Internet marketing. "I wouldn't have thought people looking for insurance would value that information, but we found people do care. They expect an insurance company to be cold and just take your money, but we want to show more than that."

"We've seen a trend for companies to work quite hard to distinguish themselves in terms of what they are as a company and to provide information that educates the consumer," Ellis says. "When folks are in an information-gathering mode, the more information an insurance site can give, the more helpful it is."

Features aside, consumers also demand a "good" site–one that is fast, accurate, and secure. In fact, Gomez, which used to issue an insurance Web site scorecard based on site features, today focuses its Web application measurement services solely on sites' performance. "Availability, responsiveness, and consistency are important. Without availability there is no [customer] experience," asserts Matt Poepsel, vice president of application management at Gomez.

That understanding hasn't percolated completely through the industry, Poepsel says. "Insurers don't think about testing the entire site. They'll test the quote engine or home page, but ultimately the apps that are being deployed such as self-service and single sign-on touch different parts of the back end. Companies think they're doing [enough], but they're caught off guard when something bad happens."

Mention "insurance Web site" today, and you're likely to get people talking about auto insurance. "Auto is the hottest area on the Web as far as insurance goes," Ellis remarks. "That's where all the major companies are devoting their resources, even if they write different kinds of policies."

For instance, although Esurance's Web site offers several lines of P&C business the company underwrites as well as life and health it provides through other companies, the main thrust of the site is auto insurance. It's also the only line where the company offers one-visit quote and policy purchase, including using an e-signature for online application. "The auto insurance shopper has high expectations," says Swigart. Similar capabilities in homeowners are "probably four to five years behind auto," he adds.

Esurance was ranked in 2006 as one of the top three sites in "customer experience performance" by Change Sciences and one of just eight percent of carriers that provide rate comparisons online. In early 2006, Esurance expanded its comparative rating function so when a customer chooses a competing company's quote, Esurance electronically sends the application to an MGA that submits it to the other carrier and, in turn, delivers the results back to the consumer at the Esurance site.

Even though this can send prospects to competitors, Esurance believes it is an important innovation that visitors appreciate and actually encourages them to become customers. "When you're shopping for auto insurance, the reality is any one company is not going to have a competitive price for everybody, or even the majority of people," Swigart points out. "We recognize that fact and, in effect, are thanking the consumer for spending time at Esurance. It does help us in the long run with our brand."

To evaluate its site, Esurance uses focus groups with customers, surveys on site usability, and customer-experience monitoring software from TeaLeaf. "Consumers want something that's intuitive, that's fast, that works, and that doesn't have any errors," notes Swigart. "So, we focus on that before we get into features. From a features standpoint, people want accurate quotes provided with the least amount of input necessary. Their expectation also is all their questions are going to be answered, and that's our goal. We try to explain jargon in common terms and have an online adviser."

Esurance also has found customers tend to be channel-specific. "If they buy the policy online, they want to interact with it online, so we support the ability to make changes to policies, such as vehicle additions," Swigart says.

Of course, agent-channel insurers have gotten in on the Web market, as well. The challenge–besides not alienating the existing agent force–has been how to compete against Web-only marketers when it comes to features and functions, particularly in lines of business that have become more and more commoditized.

Allstate, for instance, sees its Web site as a defense against commoditization. "It's not just '15 minutes and 15 percent,'" Oldham says. "People are looking for information, and if they have easily digestible information about the trade-offs between price and value, they may choose value over price."

When it comes to that information, an important informational feature is the Auto Insurance Guide–Oldham calls it a "calculator on steroids"–which Allstate deployed in early 2006. Visitors navigate through a series of questions that cover "your car," "your life," and "your assets" and that help recommend to consumers a number of coverage options and policy features they might not otherwise select.

"The biggest challenge is how to make the product digestible for consumers," Oldham states. "Rather than give them static definitions about products, we give them active tools to determine what coverage they need. Once they go through the tool, they have a higher propensity to buy and a higher propensity to buy our choice auto options, as well, including accident forgiveness, new car replacement, or deductible rewards." The company plans to expand the Insurance Guide into other lines in the future, starting with homeowners.

But the most important, and most used, feature of allstate.com continues to be the Customer Care Center, which dates back to day one of the site's launch and indicates why it's front and center on the index page.

"It's important for existing customers, whatever channel they purchase through, to be able to go to the Customer Care Center, pay bills online, review policies, and manage their accounts," Oldham says, adding most customers use the feature for bill payment.

With a three-channel delivery strategy (agent, call center, and Web), channel consistency is important. "Our auto and property [sections] allow you to purchase online, but what we often find is eventually in the quoting process, [customers] want to talk to someone. We've enabled a lot of connection points and information sharing between the Internet, the call center, and the agent channel, but we keep looking at other ways to make it easier for customers to bridge the channels, such as 'click to talk' technology," Oldham says.

Allstate does consumer research to help shape its site and also uses WebSideStory's HBX Analytics product for site performance and click-through analysis. "We're seeing double-digit [annual] growth in traffic at our site, and numbers show at least 50 percent of the people who come to the Web site shop for insurance," Oldham reports. "Eventually, a lot of those people buy in an offline mode, but we find it's important to come online and shop. The Internet is today's Yellow Pages."

Just as P&C isn't limited to auto, the Web isn't limited to P&C. Nationwide Insurance says its customers expect a common set of functionality among various lines.

"Fundamentally the expectations are the same," says Vasudeva. "They want a Web site that is very intuitive, easy to use, and quick. It's open 24 hours, and customers expect to be able to complete their transaction any time they come to our site."

Nationwide has a set of common goals that has customer service as the top priority. "Our first goal is to support customers through online service. Second is to drive revenue through new sales and cross-sales, and third is to build our brand," says Susan McManus, associate vice president of Internet marketing.

"More than half our traffic is existing customers," Vasudeva indicates. "Bill payment in various lines and self-service for investments and pension plans–those are very common transactions." In addition, customers can obtain auto or home quotes and report claims online. They can submit endorsement requests, but those currently go through their Nationwide agent.

"We want to make sure the agent is able to advise the customer if necessary, and many of our customers have told us they still want to have that contact, as well," he explains.

Although Nationwide targets all its products equally, one of the newer site features that has been popular with policyholders is Nationwide AutoWatch. Made available in early 2006 to policyholders in many of Nationwide's states, AutoWatch allows claimants to track the process of the repair of their vehicles when using one of the carrier's preferred repair shops.

AutoWatch provides policyholders digital images of their vehicles in various stages of repair, along with information on repair progress. The system also provides policyholders an e-mail link to communicate with agents and repair shops.

Originally, the main goal of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network site (nmfn.com) was to supply customer self-service. However, that goal now comes second to the objective of promoting Northwestern's representative network.

"Having online self-service is table stakes–everyone has it right now, so it's the cost of doing business," York contends. To meet its primary Web-experience goal, the carrier creates and hosts nearly 7,000 individual sites for each of its representatives, all linked through and featuring a consistent look and feel from the nmfn.com site.

Northwestern has designed its site to provide information and contact mechanisms and to do so in an interactive and graphical way. "By using the HBX [Analytics] tool, we've learned 96 percent of people who come to our site have broadband, so we're trying to use rich media more. Also, in our surveys, we were surprised at how powerful imagery could be, so we're trying to put more imagery in our Web site," York says.

This includes scrolling product information and the extensive use of Flash throughout the site, including in financial calculators. For instance, Northwestern revamped its "Longevity Game" to feature an animated character whose appearance of health changes with each bit of information the user enters.

"The Longevity Game always has been one of the more popular features, but use of the tool increased three times after we Flash-enabled the calculator because it's a more engaging experience. We also see people aren't dropping out of the game; they're following it the whole way through," York says.

Equally important, continues York, is Northwestern has wrapped call-to-action features around the game and other calculators. "If the calculator shows they have a need, and they're presented with some information on a product, they can 'raise their hand' and be directed to a financial representative," he says. "We're up almost 200 percent in lead generation and are on track to generate 25,000 leads this year."

In addition to HBX Analytics, Northwestern conducts focus groups, site surveys, and page/eye-track analysis and benchmarks its Web site experience and performance against competitors. As a result of its analysis, in 2006 Northwestern strengthened the callouts to its financial products, locking them into the main navigation bar, and implemented a site-design rule that it would take no more than three clicks for users to find information. They also have encouraged representatives to create custom content on their own pages.

"We've had to make some portions of our site 'static' so they are search-engine friendly, but having more robust content at the representatives' pages has caused usage to grow exponentially. It's a primary communication method for our representatives today," York says.

The future of the nmfn.com site experience likely will include additional rich media. "We do a lot of R&D, and we find interest in even more media-related features such as the ability to have articles read to [customers] they can listen to or even download into MP3 players. With a broadband connection, it doesn't take away from the surfing experience," York notes.

In addition to the growth in site usage and number of leads generated, Northwestern measures the effectiveness of site changes by customer opt-in activity to various features, such as subscriptions to its e-newsletter. First offered in mid-2004, the subscriber base has grown to 300,000, with less than one half of one percent opting out after subscribing.

Despite differences in lines of business and Web site functionality and design, one thing every insurer wanting to provide a customer experience on the Web has to contend with is a constant struggle to stay ahead of the competition. "Everyone is getting better and more sophisticated," Swigart says. "Companies are committing more and more resources, and we have to run faster so others don't catch up, particularly those that have more resources and funds than us."

Carriers also have to deal with customers' changing expectations of the online experience. "Any attempt to do business with people online is a moving target and will continue to be," Ellis concludes. "It doesn't just crystallize to create a 'best site' that's a cookie-cutter solution everyone can copy."