There's no lack of opinions about whether agents should offer comparative quoting on their Web sites. Some agents make online quoting their growth strategy, promote their sites aggressively, and successfully generate new business through the Web channel. Other agents want Web site quoting as a convenience for their existing customers.
But other agents and some consultants warn against online comparative quoting, pointing out that prospects are likely to be confused, ending up with a quote that is inappropriately too low or too high. And, besides, some suggest, consumers shopping on the basis of price may not turn out to be the most desirable insureds.
From my point of view, there's no one right answer. An agency Web site is the extension of the agency to the Internet and one expression of the agency's business strategy. Agencies that won't quote over the phone probably won't be interested in comparative quoting on their Web sites. Agencies that seek lots of opportunities to compete may find Web site quoting just the edge they've been looking for.
Internet quoting isn't going to disappear. Studies suggests that consumers educate themselves through comparative quoting and then buy from an agent, more confident that they know what they're getting and whether it's priced reasonably. So, agents need to ask themselves whether they want to educate prospects on their site (with the high probability that they'll get them as customers) or whether they want to leave education to the InsWebs and Progressives of the Web world.
Once an agency decides to host comparative quoting, the task is to find a service that is both convenient for the prospect to use and easy to set up and connect to agency workflow. WebFSC appears to offer such a service.
How does it work?
What does WebFSC look like to an agency's Web visitors? Is it easy to use? Is the process interminable or does it move along quickly enough so that the visitor doesn't lose interest? You can see for yourself by going to the FSC Web site (www.fscrater.com) and choosing the WebFSC link. Or, read on for some impressions.
Having myself suffered through the InsWeb quoting drill (it's my job), it's hard to imagine that very many consumers have the patience to complete the process. And when they do, too often, it's an exercise in futility -- no quotes forthcoming or only by mail in a few days. If agency Web site quoting is to succeed, it must focus on producing a satisfying user experience rather than attempting to extract every possible piece of information from the visitor for future follow up.
Happily, the WebFSC process is efficient. It took me six minutes to go through the process on their sample Web site and get a set of comparative auto quotes (a better typist might shave 60 seconds off that time). I did find part of the process a bit confusing, but I was very impressed with how quickly the quotes came back once I completed entering the appropriate information.
The process requires dealing with four forms: general information; vehicles; drivers (and maybe violations); and coverage. The results are delivered on a comparative quote page and company detail pages (as requested).
The general information form insists on only four pieces of information: name; ZIP code; number of drivers/autos; and contact channel (phone, FAX, or e-mail).
The vehicle form uses a succession of four drop-downs (year, make, model, and sub model) for each vehicle. The user makes a choice from the first drop down -- year. The WebFSC server analyzes the choice, fills the contents of the second drop down, then displays it, allowing the user to specify the next level of detail, and so on. Each choice requires a trip to the server that takes a few seconds. A first-time user encountering these delays might be confused and assume that the service was broken. User confidence could be increased by displaying instructions that help the user understand what to expect. (This comment applies to the entire quoting process).
The driver form is straightforward, but the coverage form isn't -- at least in my view. There is nothing to help the user understand what the fields mean or how to choose between various levels of coverage or deductibles. One attractive feature, though, is a pull-down that lets the user choose among five different pre-set coverage levels (e.g., minimum required by law).
Once the limits/coverages/deductibles are chosen, a quote comparison screen is returned in just a few seconds -- impressive response time. Besides company name and six-month premium quote, the screen lists each company's AM Best rating (though without explaining why anyone should care), and a "DETAILS" button. The details page provides a premium breakdown and a form for requesting follow up from the agency.
By the way, once the user has seen the quotes, he can back up to the coverage screen and change the limits and request a new quote -- a reasonable thing to do because the quote calculations are so fast. This convenient feature may be lost on most users, however, since it's not obvious how to use WebFSC to test a number of scenarios.
The Homeowners quoting function operates like the auto function, except that it is considerably simpler. It's possible to enter information and get a comparative quote in less than a minute.
Set up
The forms data entry and quoting process takes place on a WebFSC server. All the agency needs to do is to provide a link from its Web pages to the WebFSC server. The agency can customize the look of the WebFSC pages, for instance, to match the color scheme of the agency site. Central City Insurance (www.centralcityinsurance.com), for example uses, WebFSC pretty much as is, while Auto Insurance Specialists (www.aisinsurance.com) has wrapped a more distinctive look around the WebFSC core.
FSC has arrangements with Superior Access Internet Software to build sites that integrate with WebFSC (www.superioraccess.com).
WebFSC integrates with the vendor's desktop rater. Data entered into WebFSC is transmitted as quotes are completed to the agency as an e-mail attachment and can be brought into the agency rater immediately after the user has completed the rating process.
Comments
WebFSC's strong points are its simplicity of entry and speed of calculation. But ease of use could be improved on the vehicle and coverage forms.
Since quoting is valuable to customers as well as prospects, it would be valuable to be able to populate the forms from detail in the agency's management system. And, it could be worthwhile to let the user store and later retrieve a quote. Finally, for agencies that want to let the visitor get quotes and then apply for insurance through the Web site, it's not obvious how the data entered into WebFSC could then appear in application forms on the site. The prospect would have to re-enter the data.
Incidentally, WebFSC is multi-lingual. Both auto and homeowners quoting processes are available in Spanish language versions, probably owing to the fact that FSC is the largest comparative rating vendor in California.
FSC/Fiserv
FSC provides rating in personal lines, BOP, and Commercial Lines (via Rackley). FSC was recently purchased by Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV), an independent, full-service provider of integrated data processing and information management systems to the financial industry. It will be interesting to watch what Fiserv does with its rating vendor purchase. Fiserv's press release covering the FSC purchase explained, "We are committed to building a full suite of front office as well as back office solutions to completely streamline all major end-to-end insurance business processes. With its strong management team and leading software solutions, FSC will help further our commitment to the insurance industry."
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