Customer service

In its most recent Insurance Carrier Scorecard, Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems Inc., named Progressive Insurance’s website the top website in the car insurance industry. The scorecard, which is part of Keynote’s Online Excellence Competitive Research Study, rates companies on nine categories. Progressive has received top honors on 18 of the last 19 scorecards, dating back to 2000.

Encinitas, Calif.-based Work Loss Data Institute (WLDI) released its 2012 State Report Cards for Workers’ Comp this week. The report, which is used to track trends and give states a grade and tier ranking based on their performance, now includes data from a 10-year period. Forty-three states are covered, plus Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

Professional insurance agents have what insurance customers are looking for, according to research results issued by the PIA Partnership. The PIA Partnership is a group of insurance companies that works collaboratively with PIA National to conduct research and develop tools and resources designed to benefit professional independent insurance agents. PIA is a national trade association that represents member insurance agents and employees who sell and service all kinds of insurance.

Amica Mutual received the top honor for overall excellence from InsuranceQuotes.com’s inaugural Insurance Quality Awards.

New survey puts insurance companies at the bottom of the list in terms of consumer-friendliness on the Web.

For the second straight year, MetLife leads life insurers in annuity considerations through the first three quarters, ended Sept. 30, 2011. Prudential Financial and Jackson National Life Group round out the top three in the rankings released by SNL.

According to data from ACSI LLC, P&C insurers are improving customer satisfaction, while life insurers are steady and health insurers are slightly declining. For its American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), ACSI annually conducts interviews with approximately 70,000 consumers and plugs the information into an econometric model to measure satisfaction with a wide range of industries, products and large companies. The results are released on a monthly basis, with all measures reported using a scale of 0 to 100, and this month it was the insurance industry’s turn.

While the insurance industry was an early adopter of mobile technology for basic communication functions, it has lagged in developing and implementing internal and customer-facing applications.

Humana Inc. has acquired Anvita Health, a health care analytics company. Humana uses Anvita's Insight engine currently; Anvita Health will continue to operate independently as a subsidiary of Humana.

The industry constantly hears about the problem of retiring knowledge workers and that young people aren’t drawn to insurance careers. The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY) is doing something about it. On December 7 the association hosted more than 50 high school students who participated in InVEST, an insurance industry classroom-to-career education program.

Fledgling social network offers unique potential if search engine personalization comes to fruition.

Many companies still operate in the dark while unknown numbers of customers are turned away by websites suffering slow or tedious processes.

While insurance products are inherently complex, interacting with insurance companies should not be.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published a final rule, with a comment period, establishing health insurers' "medical loss ratios," including provisions to account for ICD-10 conversion costs.

Competition and customer expectations leave little room for error when it comes to website performance, and that pressure only increases with customers using mobile platforms.

Would customers react less negatively if their insurance company informed them about rate hikes personally over the phone versus a written letter? A new white paper by The Forum: Business Results Through People suggests that customers are less inclined to perceive a business negatively if price increases are communicated in-person, over the phone rather than through the mail.

Aetna, a diversified health care benefits company, launched enhancements to its international website in an effort to customize the user experience and provide mobile capabilities for people on the go.

CGI Federal Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Canada-based CGI Group, announced that it has been awarded a $93.7 million contract by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) to build the U.S. government’s federal health insurance exchange.

A survey of 120 U.S. P&C insurers finds them increasingly leveraging social media platforms for business purposes. Conducted by IVANS, an electronic communications services provider, the study notes that return on investment for social media initiatives can be difficult to measure and says that carriers must work with their distribution partners to ensure a cohesive strategy.

The economic crisis of the past few years has given P&C and life insurers new reasons to be competitive, and new reasons to be concerned. During this period, consumer spending on insurance dipped, while spending on personal technology reached an all-time high. In fact, experts say that we have entered an era that marks a turning point for consumer technology-for the first time, the combined shipment of smartphones and tablets is predicted to eclipse that of PCs, notes International Data Corp. (IDC), giving customers the power to access information and transact business at any time from any place. Just from 2010 to 2011, the number of mobile devices shipped is expected to increase from 305 million to 472 million, the company says.