The Customer Respect Blog has moved – please join us

We. like many started a blog to discuss in a more informal way, some of the observations we noted while reviewing, benchmarking and using websites in the broader  financial services industry.

The blog provides a platform for us to express our view and for you, our readers to get a better ‘flavor’ or who we are are and what we do. We have been surprised and quite delighted to find out that our blog readership, often times exceeds our website traffic. Is this to be expected or is this a change in the way people look for information?

Blog content is up to date (or should be ), it is editorial in nature and therefore should inform and advise, we certainly hope we do that. The website, in comparison is much more static, we do not move premises, our mission statement is largely unchanged for the past 7 years, our approach and products have changed but this is slow moving, as it should be, after all you cannot change your product set every week.

The blog allows us to comment and highlight key issues and trends, not least social media, mobile and the trends for consumers to assume greater control over the process of buying products. It allows us to demonstrate our expertise, again we hope it does, and this speaks directly to trust. Our opinions demonstrate what we know and what we think and in a firm of advisers, our value lies entirely  in our expertise. So what tell you all of this? Well as part of our blog maturity, it seems wrong to have multiple sites and so we have moved our blog to our own website and as such our experimentation on this ‘outpost’  is at an end.  You can reach the blog now at

www.customerrespect.com/blog

We hope you continue to read and digest our thoughts and views as well as consume our products and services.

Twitter Continues to Attract Insurers

Follow me, I am an exciting insurance company

Twitter has been adopted into many roles for insurers as they look to understand and exploit the technology. In a recent survey of insurers, we found that all of the companies engaged with a social media strategy see Twitter as playing a role. So what are they using Twitter for?

As a driver to other forms of content.

Some insurers have build and established blogs, microsites, financial guides and task-focused calculators as ‘Tweet’ destinations. Active in this endeavor include @libertymutual and @allstate with extensive blogs. Online calculators and quote tools are promoted by tweets by @farmersgroup and @newyorklife. @Chubb has been relentlessly promoting their new Facebook site.

To deliver news

Typically these accounts push out news items, often manned by and PR groups and directing links back to corporate websites. PR groups typically do not follow many people and have a low level of conversation. Examples are @USAA_News, @ThriventMedia and @AMFAM_media. Not all of the news relates to the company with Fathers Day and the USA soccer team recently coming in for comments.

To provide customer service

Twitter has a role in reaching out to customers. Used primarily in other industries including BestBuy, Comcast and AT&T, it has started to appear in insurance where it is most prominent in the auto segment. As this use matures, we are seeing more specific twitter identities being added by companies for this role. @Ask_progressive, @GEICO_Service and @esurancecares are three examples even though the primary Twitter identities still field a lot of service questions. There is a high level of  individual conversations and few tweets sent to the entire follower base. To preserve privacy and enable private messages, there is a little ritual mating game played where both partied ‘follow’ each other. Caseloads can be estimated by follower counts. The twitter identity @Progressive, which has been used for customer service sent 80% of the messages to individuals.

To promote sponsorships and events

Last summer, there was tremendous activity in sponsorship activity and we can expect the same increased activity levels again this summer. NASCAR, tennis, baseball and golf are popular sporting themes from insurers including @Nationwide, @StateFarm and @TheHartford. @Metlifeblimp provides updates of every location visited and @NewYorklife promotes events at the Bronx Zoo.

To develop a brand image

Some insurers are creating or enhancing brand images, often going a long way to ‘stay in character’. The @Aflackduck and @TheGEICOGEEKO are good examples. Mutual of Omaha is developing its @ahamoment image.

Provide claims information

After snow, rain, hail storms, after flooding or other natural disasters, insurers are sympathizing with their customers but also providing links to claims groups set up to handle the event. Active in this category include @Progressive, @amfam and @allstate.

To acknowledge compliments

Tweeters, for some reason, seem very inclined to compliment brands on good service or products. Maybe it’s because they can. Compliments are captured and ‘retweeted’ often with a ‘thank you’ message. @StateFarm, @amfam are active in this category

The Numbers

With so many objectives, it is hard to compare success metrics. One simple measure is the number of followers; another is the customer service ‘cases’ started (or closed). PR and media groups tend to measure ‘influence’ or ‘reach’ adding their followers to those of anyone that ‘re-tweets’ them.

So looking at the simplest measure, followers, here is the latest set of tables.

The Leaders in Follower Count

USAA, as always beloved by its customers, have led this table for a year now and it will hard to see them getting dislodged. State Farm is the ‘energizer bunny’ of insurance tweeters. They just keep tweeting away adding to their follower count, utilizing most of the strategies listed above.

USAA

State Farm Insurance

Aflac

Allstate

Progressive Insurance

Nationwide

Chubb

GHCommunity

The Hartford

Farmers Insurance

Liberty Mutual

Geico

Esurance

Travelers Insurance

Movers and Shakers

The average monthly follower growth is about nine percent; movers and shakers exceed this number, and restricting ourselves to companies with at least 500 followers, we can predict new strategies or staffing. Farmers takes the latest best ‘mover and shaker’ title with 1525 followers in June, up from just over 200 in March. Chubb is a company to keep your eyes on; they have increased social media activity on Twitter, Facebook, and crowd sourcing. The following companies have increased the follower count the most, as a percentage, in the past 3 months.

Farmers Insurance

Travelers Insurance

Geico

Chubb

Liberty Mutual

American Family

Talkers

The average across the industry is slightly less than one tweet per day. So who are the most active tweeters?

State Farm has led this category for 10 months in a row so we must applaud their stamina. In the past 3 months, they have averaged over six tweets per day. Allstate would lead if we combined Allstate and their separate GHCommunity, together sending eight tweets a day.

The leading tweeters by volume

State Farm Insurance

Progressive Insurance

Allstate

GHCommunity

Esurance

Geico

Liberty Mutual

American Family

Aflac

Farmers Insurance

Insurers Move Hestitantly Towards Online Quote Engines

In the latest Customer Respect study of life insurer websites (Customer Respect Q2 2010 Life Insurance Benchmark), it is clear that insurers are struggling with the conflict between distribution strategies and online functionality. As with most industries, customers are looking to research products and services online and are looking beyond brochureware content traditionally served. With online travel, banking and shopping commonplace, consumers have grown accustomed to comparison-shopping. The growth in insurance aggregators responding to paid search terms such as ‘life insurance quote’ confirms this trend. Insurers, however, have traditionally sold through agent consultation and self-serve online tools and calculators viewed by some as contradictory to this process.
Not all consumers are the same and while many continue to consult and buy from the agent, the number who demand self-service is growing. Insurers must provide a multi-channel distribution model to maintain the range of customers that they already enjoy. This does not imply selling insurance online, even though we are starting to see that trend for term life. It does indicate a need to help the consumer price out their options prior to consultation.
The most popular online tool, supported by two-thirds of the major insurers, is to help calculate the amount of term life insurance a consumer should have. The quality of these tools varies with many sites using mediocre third party applications. This type of tool does not influence the distribution model too much, hence its popularity and besides, many such calculators exist on personal finance sites.

Helping the consumer choose between term and whole life is much less popular as it directly addresses the type of question a consumer would ask an agent. These tools are generally custom developed and quality is higher. MetLife, New York Life, Western & Southern Life and ING offer the best tools in this category.
As for price estimates, these are becoming more popular, especially for term life. About half of the major insurers now have at least a simple tool. A few allow the quote to be continued into an application, a few others will transmit the quote to an agent for completion but the majority provide a simple quote based upon a few questions and leave it to the consumer to take the next step. The trend is for better quality calculators and MetLife, ING, TIAA-CREF, Prudential, Western & Southern now all provide options.
According to Comscore, aggregators provide 78% of online life insurance quotes. To counter this, insurers need to address this demand head-on while maintaining their distribution channel integrity. Expect to see a transition for greater online self-service websites coupled with greater sophistication in handling a multi-channel process.

Put Life Insurance in the Shopping Cart – is this the way of the future?

Term life insurance is the simplest type of life insurance policy. It is very easy to understand, it works like this: You typically pay a fixed amount per month for your beneficiaries to receive a fixed and agreed payout on death. It is a cost-effective way to provide a security blanket for a set time-period that might cover a mortgage, kids in college or expenses that would otherwise ruin your family in the event of your death; at the end of the period, it has absolutely no value.

It is easy to understand primarily because this is how most people see insurance; it is how we buy car insurance. We pay, hoping never to use it and at the end of the year, we pay it again. The parameters could not be easier, the younger and healthier you are, the cheaper the coverage. So why is it hard to buy?

Insurance companies prefer us to consult with a local agent that can guide us through this complex financial transaction. Is this just the way of the world? Should we accept that we must have this consultation with an agent who will make an admirable attempt to place a life insurance policy within the big picture of our retirement planning, net-worth management and inheritance planning? All these are good things and financial planning is highly advisable but what if we really do just want to buy a term life policy?

Barriers always create alternatives and web aggregators have sprung up offering us competitive insurance quotes in part to satisfy the growth in the Google search term ‘life insurance quote’. Aggregators often insist upon extraordinary amount of personal information and we accept a multitude of agents calling our homes.

A growing trend might derail the process and that is retail insurance. Term life is a becoming a commodity and if you want it, increasingly you can go online and buy it. In the US, this trend is slow, just a handful of smaller providers, but across the pond in the UK, they are fast saying ‘cheerio’ to the old ways. Life insurance sites are starting to look a lot like retail sites, stepping the consumer through a easily understood process. A quick estimate can be followed with a full online application and finally a purchase. A look at a screen shot for AVIVA, the UK largest insurer is typical; it follows all of the rules and best practice for retail buying online.

Online Application for AVIVA term life insurance

A progress bar shows the consumer where they are in the process and the hesitant consumer can call out to get help or request a call back. If any information is not available, the consumer can save and come back later. Specific concerns are addressed contextually with online help and the VeriSign badge provides security assurances. In short, while it is not perfect,  it is a simple online retail application for term life insurance.

Of course, the agent cannot advise of us of all the products we could and should be buying and maybe more than a few people will make mistakes by self-serving. But, maybe more people will take out life insurance if it is simpler and avoid disasters for their families.

When will we see online life insurance in the US? It is here already but not in the same volume as in the UK but it surely is a matter of time.