— How to improve customer experience of online quotes to increase conversion of insurance policies —
People want three things from online insurance quotes : ease, options and advice. How do I get the information quickly? How does my plan compare to other alternatives? Am I making a good decision?
To improve the online quote customer experience, you must first understand what they want. When it comes to insurance, clients mostly want three things from an online insurance quote: ease, options, and advice.
What do clients expect from an online insurance quote?
- Ease: Let’s face it, no one enjoys spending their time on insurance websites filling out forms. Get visitors in and out as quickly as possible and they’ll thank you.
- Options: Users want to be in control of their purchase and decision-making process. They must be presented with the right information so that they feel they are getting good coverage at an acceptable price.
- Advice: Users are likely to need some level of guidance and reassurance during the buying process of something as complex and important as insurance.
The 10 most useful tips to improve customer experience of online quotes, facilitate the purchase and boost insurance sales:
1. Humanize the experience
The decision to buy insurance is already important and emotional enough. Add to that the difficulty of comparing multiple plans, as well as translating the jargon, users will quickly develop the need to give up and call an agent.
How are these complexities removed? Make plan comparisons easy: side-by-side, line-by-line, with clear explanations of what each difference means, and add a “translation” of insurance jargon into colloquial language.
2. Be transparent
People are usually willing to spend time completing the form correctly based on their needs, but they do not want to answer a question that they consider unnecessary. If customers understand why each question is asked, trust increases and creates a better experience.
Add information icons, micro-copies, tooltips, and short descriptions of any potentially confusing fields to explain what effect the prospect’s response will have on the policy or premium.
3. Avoid ambiguity
Try to ask the questions as closed as possible and if you cannot justify or explain in general what will happen with the information provided by the client, do not ask.
If the client doubts what the appropriate answer is and does not trust their own ability to fill out the form correctly, they are likely to get frustrated and abandon the process.
If the question doesn’t really have much of an effect on price, try skipping it. Work with your team to allow as many black and white responses as possible. If it’s not a critical budget question, delete it.
4. Estimate the time to complete
Provide an estimate of the time it will take to complete the forms. The motivation of the user to complete the form is crucial and helps to be clear about the time that they will have to dedicate to the task.
5. Divide forms
Dividing longer tasks into more manageable sections can make it easier to complete and less daunting for the user.
However, it is not just a matter of separating the forms on multiple pages. It has to be done correctly. Try to start with the simplest questions at the beginning. After the client has already filled out several pages with simple information, they will feel that they have already invested their time and will be more committed to finalizing, when they find themselves with the most difficult questions to answer.
6. Provide shortcuts
Anything that reduces the effort makes people less likely to leave the online quote.
These shortcuts can be as simple as including preloaded texts in the fields, with the most common answers. Add editable preloaded text and drop-down menus with predetermined information.
7. Stay relevant
It is worth keeping the number of form fields to a minimum and focus only on trying to extract the information that is required to deliver a quote.
Anything else makes the listing longer and runs the risk of frustrating customers. For example, some companies try to cross-sell for other insurance products, but this is not the place for that.
8. Show the price as soon as you can
Many would say that price is the most important factor in deciding on an insurance provider.
The online quotes that work best are those that request the least amount of information and that at the same time, are able to show a real estimate of the final cost quickly.
Overlap prices as soon as possible and allow users to play with selections to help them decide.
9. Track Quote Abandonment Automatically
Use automated flows to track each page or online form and send customers, either via email or SMS, a link that presents the opportunity to return to the purchase process.
Solutions for Follow up Insurance Online Quote Abandonment
10. Return the customer to exactly where they left off.
By clicking on the link in the email or SMS and returning to the online quote, present the customer with the information you have saved and only ask the additional questions that would be necessary to complete the quote.
Using an automated tracking flow improves customer recall of online quotes by 19%
In conclusion, ease, options and advice is what clients look for in an insurance quote: confidence in the site and in the company, confidence that they are making the best decisions for themselves and that they support them along the way.
