Rank and File

There are high-quality Web sites in the insurance industry, and there are some poor ones. A study of the online presence of 11 leading national carriers offering personal auto insurance found a wide disparity among carriers, report representatives of Keynote Systems, which conducted the study.

Keynote selected the largest and most prominent online competitors in the insurance industry for its study, according to Steve Foster, director of competitive research for Keynote. "When we look at the overall index, the number-one performer last year and this year is Progressive Insurance," he says. American Family ranked second this year, up from third a year ago. Allstate climbed to third from fifth place a year ago. GEICO was second in 2006 but slipped to fourth this year. The remaining carriers, in order, were Travelers, Nationwide, MetLife, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, GMAC, and AIG.

The study uncovered some major issues insurers need to address with regard to technical quality. While studying the sites over a 30-day period, Ben Rushlo, a senior manager for Keynote, discovered some sites were down for between 20 and 40 hours, eliminating any opportunity for customers to get a quote online.

Rushlo also found varying levels of performance quality in terms of download speeds. "The industry always is pushing for new interactivity, but you can't leave the basics behind–the site has to work when the user comes to the site, or all the money spent on branding and usability will go for nothing," he says. "A couple of insurer sites, at least in the month we measured them, were not up to quality in providing the basic level of service to customers."

Speed of the Web site and the ability to be error-free are the two main issues insurers have to conquer, indicates Rushlo. "There are lots of things underneath those two buckets, but those are the basics," he says. "If sites aren't doing those two things, users are going to be frustrated. Users have high expectations based on the belief the Internet is pretty mature. If those issues aren't met, it's going to be a problem."

There are huge differences between the top carriers on Keynote's list, Rushlo contends, and those on the bottom. Some sites, such as Progressive and GEICO, did not have any outages over the one-month study, while three sites had more than 10 hours of outage and two sites had more than 30 hours. "That's like saying, 'I'm supposed to be open Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, but this week I've decided to be closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday' and not let you know, which basically is turning business away," he says. "People accept that more on the Internet because it is technology, but some companies are turning people away. In a competitive industry, people will go somewhere else."

The worry over privacy and security on insurance Web sites has diminished in the last year, notes Foster. "Insurance companies have done a good job of assuring visitors to their sites private information won't be compromised," he says.

Contact information is a key factor on an insurance Web site, Foster believes. Insurers are able to deliver information to a site visitor on policies and rates, but they then need to hand off the visitor to someone who can deliver more information and consummate the transaction. "[Visitors] have questions, and the reason [contact information] is rising in importance is because [insurers] are doing a good job at intriguing the interest of visitors to the site," he says.

Most visitors prefer the option to call someone and speak with a human being, but Foster contends carriers should offer options, including the ability to instant message, e-mail, or phone someone. "All the options should be in place," he says.

Foster also is impressed with how insurers are getting the quote and research process down. "Effectively delivering a reasonable quote fairly quickly was the toughest thing to accomplish for insurers," he says.

Rushlo points out doing business on the Web rides mainly on the assumption the Web site will be available when a user goes to it, and there is some level of technical quality and performance. "Users are less likely to accept poor quality today than they were five years ago when the Internet was more of a neat thing to have rather than today where it is regarded as a utility," he concludes.