Progressive Tops Gomez Internet Scorecard

Readers of Internet quality measurement firm Gomez's newly published Fall Insurance Carrier Scorecard may sense a certain repetition as Progressive Insurance (Mayfield Village, OH) appeared in the number-one spot for the fifth consecutive time. That was somewhat relieved, however, by news that Allstate (Northbrook, IL) finished an extremely close second, with SAFECO (Seattle) coming in a strong third.

While some carriers have unveiled some new functionality to allow themselves to catch up with the leaders, according to Gomez analysts, in general carriers are not making huge changes to their Web sites. "A lot of firms are looking at the functionality they already have on their sites and saying, 'How can we make this useful?'" says Tim Carpenter research analyst, financial services, Gomez.

A notable shift in insurance, and across financial services, according to Alan Alper, Gomez's editorial director, "is that they're not going to blindly spend a lot of money on customer acquisition." Carriers are over their infatuation with "the big-bang bells and whistles that many were using to dazzle not only customers, but also competition," Alper says. Their efforts now are "much more targeted in terms of the types of qualified leads they're pursuing."

The biggest news of the quarter, says Carpenter, is that "carriers are starting to consider the path that a customer uses, and to design their sites in a more solution—rather than product-centric manner." Customers come online to perform certain tasks, Carpenter adds, "so carriers are trying to design paths for them to follow and integrating products and services along those paths so that a consumer can address issues and concerns without having to pick up the phone."

Allstate's stellar showing should be seen in the context of its aggressive multi-channel strategy (see article: www.insurancetech.com/allstate). Having integrated its term life products and services to the allstate.com site a year ago, according to Carpenter, the firm "continues to improve its online offering for consumers seeking to meet most of their protection needs from a single source," he says. "Allstate has continued to roll out its online quoting and binding functionality to more states," and recently launched online decision-support tools.

Among third-place SAFECO's recent accomplishments are the launching of a password-protected policy management area. SAFECO's site now features demonstrations to guide customers in the use of the policy management area, as well as its online enrollment capability. "Currently only 20 percent of carriers rated by Gomez are providing demos, which are extremely useful for customers not currently using self-service," Carpenter notes.

According to Gomez, its analysts examined more than 300 objective criteria for each firm in the Fall Scorecard. All firms must support online quoting for personal auto or individual term life policies, and must support at least $1 billion in annual premium for at least one of the products quoted online. Carriers are evaluated for on-site resources, ease of use, relationship services and customer services. The basic Scorecard results can be viewed at the following link: www.gomez.com/scorecards

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio