The Self-Service Revolution Continues
January 9th, 2008Every day I see or hear someone talking about the current internet boom and drawing comparisons to the last boom and the inevitable bust. Sure, business is cyclical, but I think the real, comprehensive shift that the internet imposes on business, society, and culture is still in its infancy. I’m not prone to hyperbole or breathless prognostications, and I write this from the perspective of someone who maintains a healthy degree of skepticism.
Here’s an example: I’m reviewing life insurance policies to ensure that we have the proper coverage for my family. I did some research and found two online brokers / aggregators: AccuQuote and Insure.com. I ended up going with Insure.com to connect me with the right policy for two reasons: 1) AccuQuote sent my information (without my permission) to dozens of local agents, who then bombarded me with calls over the next few days and 2) Insure.com has a clean process, better rates, and a clear rating system for their partner’s policies.
One of the local agents that called me did have a better over-the-phone pitch than the others, so I agreed to meet him in person. I’ve done a lot of research on my own and have a decent enough knowledge of the financial landscape (thanks to a variety of self-service tools on the web) to make my own decisions. What amused me was every single decision I have made in regards to my own investment portfolio (types of insurance, indexes vs. stocks / managed funds, etc.) was criticized by this local agent (who is also a “financial planner” and who also has direct incentives to steer me away from things like non-managed index funds. (If you want to read a great book on this subject, I highly recommend The Four Pillars of Investment).
He quoted me a plan that was six times higher than what I found online (and three times higher than what I knew a comparable plan would be elsewhere online) and lost all credibility when he told me “we’ll get control of your assets and move them out of index funds.” And I bet he would.
The point is this: based on my experience, AccuQuote and Insure.com don’t even come close to sexy Web 2.0 applications. There is no social networking application built yet for this space. But I was able to quickly find the information I need and make an informed decision for far less work and, most importantly, I had the confidence that I was only buying what I needed. I wasn’t being sold anything.
This is the difference between “full service” and self-service. You take only what you need, and if you need more you come back to trusted sources. This is what the internet helps to enable and it’s going to take more than the 10-15 years we’ve had so far to complete the revolution of over 500 years of business practices and socialization.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Ray,
As the VP of Marketing for AccuQuote, I can guarantee you 100% that your information was not shared with anyone. Why would we do that considering that we don’t sell any leads generated from our site? It’s not our business model. We’re in the business of selling life insurance, not leads.
Everyone that fills out information from our site will receive several phone calls from our in-house agents in an attempt to reach you. Your impression may have come from the fact that the same agent in our office might not be the one to call you each time. Once one of our agents reaches you and you have a conversation about your insurance needs, no other agents from our office will contact you.
When it comes to social networking an other Web 2.0 applications, check back with AccuQuote in about 6 months. We already have a well established blog (www.accuquoteblog.com) that has received many praises in both the insurance and the marketing community. In addition, although we dipped our toes in the podcasting space during 2007, we’re in the process of revamping our format an re-launching at the end of Q1. We’ll be adding other video, social networking, widgets, and other “Web 2.0″ features over the course of this year for the sole purpose of increasing the value of AccuQuote, and doing business with us, to our existing customers and overall audience.
Keep in mind that all of the features and functionality doesn’t change the fact that life insurance is not a self-service product. There is a reason that we conduct a “needs analysis” with consumers on the phone before we recommend any product. We want to make sure that consumers don’t pay more than they have to, but more importantly, we want to make sure that people get the right amount of coverage to fit their needs.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Sean -
First, let me say that I’m very impressed that you guys are monitoring blogs to respond to this sort of feedback. I wish more companies were - it’s exactly what I hope happens as social media demonstrates its usefulness to companies. Out of curiosity - how did you find me?
I did receive quite a few phone calls that seemed to be from different companies. I will accept at face value that it is not your business model to sell my information, but this is certainly the impression it conveys. Perhaps there is something you can do to leave a different impression.
On your web 2.0 efforts - I will read your blog and follow your new initiatives.
As a reward for contacting me directly, I’ll offer some free (albeit unsolicited) feedback:
From a consumer’s perspective, anything that you can do to connect me with reputable, satisfied customers that aren’t being paid as affiliates, and who can recommend your services would be a huge addition to your marketing plan. I did quite a bit of searching and needed at least 3 or 4 links to your site from reputable finance sites before I even submitted my information on AccuQuote. If there is anything you can do to shorten that cycle, I’m sure it would help what already appears to be a very successful business.
Other feedback: The rates for similar policies from Insure.com were better, and the ratings of each policy that they provide was very helpful.
Regarding your final statement that life insurance is not a self-service product: I still disagree.
When anyone says to me “we conduct a “needs analysis” with consumers on the phone before we recommend any product. We want to make sure that consumers don’t pay more than they have to, but more importantly, we want to make sure that people get the right amount of coverage to fit their needs,” I’m afraid they’re trying to upsell me.
Ironically, AccuQuote is in the position to capitalize on this fact more than anyone else in this business.
What ways, via your website, in a non-sales-y manner could you educate me on the various life insurance products and help me understand how life insurance should fit into my overall portfolio, and whether it should even be considered a portfolio artifact?
Trust is built when information is given freely, regardless of whether a sale is made. If AccuQuote can capitalize on that, then I think you could dominate even more of this space. Ultimately, you want people to think Life Insurance = AccuQuote.
That’s just my opinion in the hopes that this sort of feedback is valuable - not trying to tell you how to do your job.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:36 am
[…] today, I wrote about my experiences with two online life insurance brokers. I actually had Mack’s post about a woman’s experience with Panera in mind as I wrote […]
January 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Ray,
Thanks for the advice. There is no way that we can continue to grow as a company without listening to the advice of industry thougth leaders and others who are immersed in the interactive space.
I found you through a very simple mechanism that I’m surprised more companies don’t use. I setup an AccuQuote search feed in my Bloglines account. I usually check my Bloglines account several times per day, so your post popped up when I checked it from home last night.
Within my team (and also all levels of management here), we take the approach that we’d rather know what people are saying about us so that we can join in with the conversation as opposed to sticking our head in the sand. Seems like common sense as well as good business to me, but it amazes me how many companies still haven’t caught on.
You must have been a fly on the wall at our marketing planning sessions because many of your suggestions are being implemented this year. For example, we’ll be releasing a video learning series in the next 90 days. The series will serve many purposes, once of which will be a video FAQ and a modified video version of our Life 101 section.
I also like your idea about connecting with reputable sources and other customers. We obviously need to do a better job linking the reputable financial sources (Kiplingers, Forbes, WSJ etc…) and what they say about us to the home page. In addition, we’ve had internal discussion about creating a “client panel” section in addition to more prominently linking the client testimonials. There still are some legal issues we’re trying to work through regarding the creation of a “client panel”.
As far as rates go, the rates for each product is set at the state level, so rates for the same policy (i.e. 20 year term, preferred rate class, Genworth) will be the same price no matter who sells it. The difference is simply in the company and exactly what is being quoted. It’s possible that you were looking at similar policies, but the rate class was different. Rate class is determined by many factors including heatlh conditions, height and weight, and family history. One of the reasons for the needs analysis conversation is to make sure that the right company / product are selected since each insurance company has different charts and tolerance levels. It’s not uncommon that we will do a needs analysis and quote someone accurately based on what they can qualify for, and then the person goes to a competitor who simply quotes the best rate available even though there is no way the individual will qualify for the rate. After going through the long underwriting process, the person then finds out that they have been approved at a rate similar to what we originally quoted. This explanation will be one of our learning series videos.
Sorry if this comment was a little long winded. I have a passion for the interactive space, write about it for iMedia, and can talk about it all day. Thanks again for your feedback, and I’ve added your feed to my Bloglines. Looking forward to reading all of your posts!
January 10th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Thanks again, Sean, for the follow-up. Your comments alone have been enlightening - few of us really understand how insurance (and other financial services) are priced. I think it’s great that AccuQuote is spending a lot of time on providing education to your customers. The more the better!
Video is a good idea - some people are more visual. Might I also suggest a text annotation? Similar to the way the Google AdSense training site provides both text and video. I usually don’t watch much video online - I’m more of a written words type person and would rather scan text to get the information I need.
I’ll have to play with the Bloglines tool you mentioned. I don’t typically use either Bloglines or Google Reader because the interfaces feel too much like email, but it sounds like there are some features I was unaware of.
Thanks again for responding here and also for subscribing to my blog. I’ll check you out on iMedia and see you on Facebook!