By John Ashenhurst
According to consumer attitude surveys conducted by the Independent Insurance Agents of America, about 80% of consumers want online access as one of their insurance service options. Allstate has taken online service seriously, making it available to its policyholders and integrating it with agency and call center channels.
Interestingly, agents are much less inclined to believe their customers want online access. Are the agents being practical and the consumers fantasizing? Do agents know that people ask for all kinds of things they never use? Or are agents out of touch with their customers?
Other financial service providers have been more aggressive than P&C agents and carriers in providing online self-service and they seem to be having some success. It's commonplace now for consumers to handle many of their banking and securities activities online.
And why not? Online self-service may be a little more work for the customer than delegating the task but the customer gains control--completing the task in one sitting and at a time and place most convenient for the customer.
It's not only the customer who benefits from online self-service. The agency has a great deal to gain as well. Certainly satisfied customers are more likely to continue being customers. But customers who use self-service, at least some of the time, are likely to be better, more profitable customers for an agency. Online self-service can reduce some of the service burden an agency faces, leaving CSRs more time to provide more value to the customer. And online self-service sessions can be an ideal venue to cross-sell what's relevant to the particular customer.
What's not to like? Online self-service is an obvious win for the customer and the agency. This column is intended to provide some insight into what might make sense to offer and where to get it.
What might be included?
What elements might be included in a self-service offering? That depends to some extent on your agency--its current automation and business focus. For instance, some agency management systems provide a leg-up for online self-service, others don't. Or a commercial lines agency with contractor customers might want to provide access to online certificate issuance but a smaller, personal lines agency wouldn't have the need. (See sidebar.)
Ultimately, an agency must find out from its customers what they want. That insight can come through surveys, focus groups, and/or customer response to service offerings.
How can you provide online service?
Online self-service looks attractive but how do you actually do it? What should you do yourself? What help can you get from your existing vendors and their offerings? Where can you look for additional sources of out-facing services?
A useful way to look at online self-service functions is to break them down into three categories:
* General information
* Customer specific information
* Requests for service
So, for instance, information about your agency or carriers is general information, a schedule of insurance is customer-specific information, and a vehicle change request an example of a request for service.
Sources of general information include your agency, third party insurance content suppliers, and generic content suppliers. Customer-specific information can come directly or indirectly from your management system or a completely separate service. Requests for service can occur via e-mail or forms, for instance.
General information The Rough Notes Company offers a demo site (www.roughnotes.com/onlinedemo) which provides access to an insurance dictionary and a set of personal lines relevant articles. IMMS (www.imms.com) with its reorganized and expanded service provides three dictionaries, newsletters, and a number of financial and other services that can be imbedded into agency Web sites. JCRS (www.jcrs.com) has created a library of consumer jewelry information that can make better jewelry consumers and insureds.
A few rating vendors supply online comparative rating services that can be delivered through agency Web sites, among them FSC (www.gofsc.com) with WebFSC and TowerStreet (www.towerstreet.com, formerly Rating Services) with QuoteNETWorks.
Customer-specific information Customers, typically, may want access to billing and payment information, policy detail, and the status of various agency open service items. Where would this information come from and how would it appear on the agency Web site? Most likely it would come from agency management and carrier systems.
Today, as far as I know, there are four different approaches to providing (at least some of the) agency account, policy, billing/payment, claims, and activity status information into an agency Web site: extensions to the management system provided by the vendor, real-time interaction with the management system provided by a third party, duplication of the agency database by a third party, and access to carrier systems.
1) Agency management system extension
Both Applied Systems (www.appliedsystems.com) and AMS Services (www.amsservices.com) provide Web-enabled, customer access extensions to their management systems. The customer receives current content from the management system but doesn't actually use the management system itself. That level of insulation makes a great deal of sense.
2) Real-time interaction with management system
At least one third party, NSG (www.gonsg.com) provides real-time interaction with agency management systems (in this case AMS' AfW). Unbeknownst to the customer, the agency Web site links to the NSG site, which formats and presents the information. The NSG site, in turn, uses the Internet to communicate with the agency's system--requesting and receiving information--almost as a CSR would.
The NSG alternative is in some ways better integrated with the management system than the primary vendors have chosen (thus far) to implement (free-form e-mail) since service requests become part of the CSR suspense system.
3) Duplicate database
A third approach, offered by idNET (www.goidnet.com), is to duplicate the agency database regularly (daily or less often) to their Web site and provide customer information access there. idNET supports Applied's TAM and AMS' AfW and Sagitta systems. Though the data access isn't real-time, a nightly update is probably adequate in most cases. And idNET provides a 24x7 service center function to provide high-touch interaction to supplement the online customer access capability.
4) Carrier system access
A fourth approach is for the agency to provide access through its site to information contained in a carrier's system. For agencies that don't keep policy detail, this can be an attractive approach. And it may be the only way to access up-to-date direct bill information. But click-through to a carrier-hosted customer self-service Web page has some disadvantages, not the least of which is that it disintermediates the agency from the customer service transaction. Some agencies may want to get out of the service loop, but for those that believe that account retention depends on it, click-through to a carrier may not be attractive.
Requests for service Agencies can avail themselves of at least five different approaches to providing online requests for service: free-form e-mail, Web forms, management system related, carrier related, and specialty ASPs.
1) Free-form e-mail
In this case, the insured sends an e-mail from the agency Web site to the agency requesting a service action. It's a straightforward matter for agencies to implement service e-mail on their Web sites. E-mail links can be inserted into any Web site page so that when clicked on they will open the visitor's e-mail program, initiate a new message, and populate the "To" field with the address the agency wants used.
2) Web forms
Some agencies include service request forms on their Web sites. The forms are empty, that is, they are not pre-filled but they do encourage insureds to include all the information required to effect a particular policy change, for instance. The agency may forward the filled-in form to the carrier as an e-mail attachment and then receive the changes into their management system via download or enter the change into the management system and then upload it to the carrier. One supplier of online customer service forms (stock and custom) is Enhanced Web Services (www.quoteforms.com).
3) Management system related
In this scenario, the customer accesses information from the management system indirectly (that is through a mediating program) and it's displayed on the screen next to a change form. The customer fills in the change form and it goes into the management system suspense queue for a CSR to process. In the ideal case, the CSR would not have to re-key any information but only view the new data and then approve the change.
Today, as far as I can tell, only one vendor (NSG) actually integrates the Web site originated request for service into the normal agency workflow. NSG does not take the next step and make the update into the management system just a click-to-approve process.
4) Carrier related
In this case, the agency site has provided a click-through to the carrier's insured service page. The customer views information on the carrier Web site and then requests service using whatever functionality the carrier provides. The agency finds out about policy changes via download after the carrier has processed and fulfilled the request.
Though convenient for the agency (because it doesn't even see the request), it's not clear this approach is really what most insureds are looking for and it has a tendency to further disintermediate the agency.
5) Specialty ASPs
A number of special purpose ASPs have sprung up recently that focus on certain common service request tasks. For instance, there are a number that focus on the management and delivery of certificates and evidence of property forms. Others support the claims process from first notice of loss through resolution, connecting the insured, agents, carriers, and adjusters. Another group supports the commercial lines submission process with work flow and document management capabilities--linking the prospect/insured with the producer/CSR and then underwriters at multiple carriers.
Generally speaking, the specialty ASPs provide a deeper and more flexible service than is available through a conventional management system. So, for instance, certificate ASPs may bring the holder into the process as well, relieving both the insured and agency of having to deal with all certificate issuance.
For the most part, the specialty ASP services are not integrated with agency management systems. That means agencies must key some information into two systems. Presumably the net time savings for the agency is so attractive that double-entry is worth it. Perhaps over time the ASPs will be integrated with agency management system databases though the management system vendors may consider them competitors. Or perhaps over time, management systems will be replaced by integrated collections of services provided to an agency by many different vendors and carriers.
For information on and links to specialty ASPs, take a look at Barry Klein's www.ultimateinsurancelinks.com and the Resources section of www.soundingline.com.
And so...
Online customer self-service, as an element of out-facing services (that also includes marketing and sales elements) will become a critical part of agents' increasing value to their customers in the years ahead. A great number of useful self-service elements are already available to agencies and can be installed into the agency Web sites with little effort. More are on the way. Much to their customers' delight, agencies of the future will provide significant online self-service--and it will be tailored, one-to-one, to the interests and needs of the customer. Stay tuned. *
The author
John Ashenhurst is editor of Sounding Line, a monthly newsletter covering insurance and the Internet. For more information see www.soundingline.com. His company, Sound Internet Strategy, provides consulting, Web site evaluation, and seminar services to independent agents and their trading partners. He can be reached at johnashenhurst@soundingline.com or (978) 318-1944.
What elements might be included in a self-service offering? In the interest of getting the process started, I've created a candidate list below. Note that I haven't (much) distinguished between personal and commercial lines. In many cases, the needs are similar but met with different content. You can add/delete/edit to create a possibilities list relevant to your agency.
* Account information: people, locations, addresses, phone numbers, fax, e-mail
* Billing/payments: current statement, current receipts, billing and payment history, online payment, payments from escrow accounts
* Policy change: especially scheduled items--drivers, vehicles, inland marine; certificate holders, interested parties, lien holders
* Transactions: (e.g. policy change): current status, account history
* Appraisal/valuation: home, building, vehicle, jewelry, inland marine items
* Claims: first notice of loss, claim status, claims history, claims analysis (location, class)
* Risk management: young driver's education, sprinkler systems, etc.
* Special exposures: flood zone, earthquake, wind, brush fire, crime
* Coverage: exposures and coverage, current policies, special policies (time sensitive), exclusions and ways to cover
* Specialty coverage: wine, antique vehicle, guns, D&O, etc.
* Pricing: hypothetical (new vehicle, new limit), new coverage (life), comparative quotes
* Evidence of insurance: certificates, auto ID cards, evidence of property insurance
* Policies: list of policies (past, present), dec sheet, schedule of insurance, schedules, limits, deductibles
* Risk analysis: risks and coverage by type of business, vacation homes, boats, etc.
* Agency: personnel, contact info, background/skills, history, community involvement, group involvement, specialties, description of services
* Location: map, driving instructions
* Contacts: departments, people, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, fax, mailing address
* Insurers: carrier, MGA, other sources of coverage, ratings, background
* Affiliates: banks, accountants, attorneys, realtors, financial advisors, benefits, life and health, chamber of commerce, trade associations
* Educational: overviews, definitions, special cases, court cases
* Government: division of motor vehicles, insurance commissioner
* Industry: professional organizations, information groups, publications, carrier rating services, appraisers, risk managers