Commercial insurers continue to offer more online: Keynova

The Hartford ranked number one for the seventh year in Keynova Group's Small Commercial Insurance Scorecard. 

It evaluates the desktop and mobile options of 10 U.S. small business insurance companies. 

Progressive scored second and Nationwide was third in the Scorecard. 

The results indicate insurance carriers are offering more digital quoting and binding features for small businesses, as well as online options for workers' compensation policies and claims. More than half of the evaluated carriers have digital purchasing and binding for a variety of small business policy types.

Beth Robertson, managing director of Keynova Group, shared with Digital Insurance: "Insurance carriers' digital capabilities are widely varied; however, the expectations of small business managers continue to evolve as they anticipate advanced digital information and experiences in interactions with their insurance providers. Carriers should continue to look for opportunities to enrich their digital resources to augment, and sometimes mirror, the services and assistance provided to businesses by agents."

Half of the carriers now allow claims to be filed online and 60% provide online claims tracking. Half of carriers also offer pay as you go options and several carriers provide pay as you go with integrated data from payroll providers, payroll notification alerts and payroll period reports. Almost three-quarters of the carriers have online audits to determine workers' compensation premiums.

More insights:

• Two carriers have CAPTCHA requests in quoting forms or within the quoting flow. 
  
• Some insurance carriers have recovery apps for injured workers that include direct communication with the claim handler.
  
• 60% of Scorecard carriers are expanding with digital assistants to help policyholders self-service without requiring live agent interaction.