The Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their online customers, released on March 17 findings from its “First Quarter 2008 Online Customer Respect Study of Auto Insurance Industry Websites.”

The study evaluated the websites of a representative sample of automobile insurers. Using a common set of criteria, it is the only study to bring objective and consistent measure to the analysis of corporate performance from an online customer’s perspective. A directly comparable Customer Respect Index is provided for each company. The Customer Respect Index is a qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis and independent measure of a customer’s experience when interacting via the Internet.

The average CRI score for the industry was 5.5 on a 10-point scale. This represented a slight improvement on the industry’s 2007 showing, and industry progression, although slow, is visible. The rating puts the industry about average overall, keeping pace with improvements made in other industries.

Progressive led the overall CRI rankings for the second time with 7.5 and maintain their ‘Excellent’ rating. It was followed by GEICO at 6.9 and Liberty Mutual with 6.5. The Progressive website was strikingly interactive and innovative, featuring RSS feeds, blogs, and other features more commonly found on high-technology or retail websites.

Key Findings:

Improved Communications

• 23 percent of sites now provide real-time interactive chat, well ahead of the Q2 2007 figure and above the average rate.
• 45 percent of sites provide telephone numbers on every page, almost double the percentage in Q2 2007.
• Email replies were more helpful, with 64 percent of queries fully resolved in a single message, up from 43 percent.
• Response times were better than average.
• 86 percent of sites contained “contact a rep” links or buttons on their homepages.
• 23 percent of sites offered online purchasing of policies. Online purchasing is growing strongly; only 5 percent of sites offered the feature to buy online and print the necessary documents in Q2 2007.

Quote Engines now Accepted Functionality

• 95 percent of sites contained a link to a quote system on the homepage.
• 91 percent of quote engines showed a progress bar to give users an idea of where they were in the process.
• 59 percent of quote engines specified a timeframe for the quote.
• 86 percent allow visitors to save quotes.
• 23 percent of sites offered online completion and purchasing policies. Online completion is growing strongly, up from only 5 percent of sites a year ago.

“Industry sites have become much more interactive and more integral to the overall sales process, with many more customers demanding quotes and communicating with companies on their terms,” said Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group. “The growth of online and real-time help through chat, email and telephone is a major step in building websites into the sales and customer service process. This has not been the case in the past.”

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Source: Customer Respect Group

© Copyright 2007, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).