Follow DRNO on...
Research and consulting firm The Customer Respect Group has released results from its Winter 2004 Online Customer Respect Study, showing the performance of American insurance firms' web sites. All firms ranking among the country's largest 1000 companies are included.
The Customer Respect Index (CRI) offers an independent measure of a customer's online experience when interacting with companies via the Internet. It assigns a rating to each company on a scale of one to 10, using qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis. More than 60 different attributes are considered, and more than 1,000 web sites analysed.
The best performing insurance firms improved their ranking versus 2003 (CRI 9.6 for the top company versus 9.1 a year ago), although results as a whole were comparable. Responsiveness and Principles issues are still holding the sector back, however, despite their being flagged as problems in previous surveys. Surveyed firms receive the best overall rating (CRI: 7.9) for Simplicity and the worst (CRI: 5.8) for Principles.
While 93% of the firms covered have privacy policies, 35% of them share data without permission from users.
Responsiveness varies enormously. Some 13% of firms do not respond to any online enquiries and a further 24% respond to half or less. 63% responded to all inquiries and of these, 88% responded within 48 hours. And while more than half of surveyed firms (55%) have Autoresponder technology, in which emails are automatically sent back to users to confirm the receipt of their inquiry and let them know when they should expect a response, this was the last customers heard from them in 16% of cases.
Roger Fairchild, president of The Customer Respect Group, says his researchers are cheered by the results of the top few companies in the survey - 'But frankly we are concerned to note that so many of the nation's largest insurance companies are sharing personal data without permission and that responsiveness to online inquiries remains, at best, spotty. These firms need to strongly consider the connection between respectful Web sites and their ability to compete for new business and retain current customers'.
The highest ranked organization within the sector was Cincinnati Financial Corporation at 9.6 (out of 10), while the lowest was Unitrin at 3.0 and the mean score was 6.8. The Winter 2004 ranking for all 70 insurers is as follows:
| Insurance Companies | Overall Score |
| Cincinnati Financial Corporation | 9.6 |
| Minnesota Life Insurance Company | .9.3 |
| American International Group, Inc. | 8.8 |
| Liberty Mutual Insurance Group | 8.8 |
| Pacific LifeCorp | 8.7 |
| Mutual of Omaha Insurance Companies | 8.6 |
| Principal Financial Group, Inc. | 8.5 |
| Phoenix Companies, Inc. | 8.5 |
| Erie Insurance Group | 8.4 |
| Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co | 8.3 |
| American Family Mutual Insurance Co | 8.2 |
| CNA | 8.1 |
| Ohio Casualty Corporation | 8.1 |
| Selective Insurance Group | 8.0 |
| American National Insurance Company | 7.9 |
| AFLAC, Inc. | 7.8 |
| MetLife Inc. | 7.8 |
| American Medical Security Group, Inc. | 7.6 |
| UICI | 7.6 |
| StanCorp Financial Group, Inc. | 7.6 |
| The First American Corporation | 7.6 |
| Conseco, Inc. | 7.5 |
| AmerUs Group Co. | 7.5 |
| The Progressive Corporation | 7.4 |
| Amica Mutual Insurance Co. | 7.4 |
| The Commerce Group,Inc. | 7.4 |
| Allmerica Financial Corporation | 7.3 |
| Jefferson-Pilot Corporation | 7.3 |
| OneAmerica Financial Partners, Inc. | 7.3 |
| MGIC Investment Corporation | 7.3 |
| UnumProvident Corporation | 7.2 |
| United Services Automobile Association | 7.1 |
| New York Life Insurance Company | 7.1 |
| GEICO | 7.1 |
| Torchmark Corporation | 7.1 |
| Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co. | 7.1 |
| John Hancock Financial Services Inc. | 7.1 |
| Sentry Insurance Group | 7.0 |
| Protective Life Corporation | 6.9 |
| Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America | 6.9 |
| Mercury General Corp | 6.7 |
| Union Central Life Insurance Co. | 6.6 |
| LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. | 6.6 |
| The Allstate Corporation | 6.4 |
| Safeco Corporation | 6.3 |
| State Farm Insurance Cos. | 6.1 |
| Markel Corporation | 6.1 |
| Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co | 6.1 |
| Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. | 6.0 |
| The MONY Group, Inc. | 6.0 |
| Factory Mutual Insurance Company | 6.0 |
| Thrivent Financial for Lutherans | 6.0 |
| Radian Group, Inc. | 5.9 |
| Prudential Financial, Inc. | 5.7 |
| Fidelity National Financial, Inc. | 5.6 |
| The St. Paul Companies, Inc. | 5.6 |
| Auto-Owners Insurance Group | 5.5 |
| Federated Mutual Insurance Company | 5.5 |
| Knights of Columbus | 5.1 |
| Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. | 5.1 |
| Lincoln National Corporation | 5.1 |
| CUNA Mutual Group | 5.0 |
| MBIA, Inc. | 5.0 |
| Chubb Corporation | 5.0 |
| Stewart Information Services Corp | 4.9 |
| American Financial Group, Inc. | 4.8 |
| W.R. Berkley Corporation | 4.7 |
| Teachers Ins and Annuity Assoc C.R. | 4.6 |
| Old Republic Life Insurance Company | 3.5 |
| Unitrin | 3.0 |
| Industry Average | 6.8 |
The report provides detailed suggestions for improvements for each company. The Customer Respect Group is headquartered in Bellevue, WA and its web site is at www.customerrespect.com
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
Register (free) for Daily Research News
REGISTER FOR NEWS EMAILS
To receive (free) news headlines by email, please register online
