Insurance Carriers Support Policyholders with Online Content on Natural Disasters; Improve Educational Resources and Digital Policy Management

Progressive Wins 1st in Keynova Group's Semi-Annual Online Insurance Scorecard

WILMINGTON, Del., Jan. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of the Q4 2024 edition of its semi-annual Online Insurance Scorecard, an evaluation of 12 of the largest U.S. auto and property insurance carriers' website capabilities. Progressive continues to secure first place for the online user experience it offers to both its prospects and active policyholders.

In this edition of the Online Insurance Scorecard, key trends include an imperative for building proactive, tactical content about disaster preparation and recovery highlighting carriers' supportive role. Carriers are also continuing to expand targeted educational resources and site improvements to better enable digital policy management.  

"With more than 20 weather-related disasters in 2024, carriers are using their websites to support policyholders and demonstrate outreach in the communities they serve," said Beth Robertson, managing director, Keynova Group. "Digital resources can assist policyholders in improved preparation for these catastrophes and provide content and tools to facilitate effective ongoing management of their insurance needs."

Key Findings:

Strategic Imperative for Carriers to Highlight Support During Catastrophic Events
Even as some carriers are limiting insurance coverage in regions that are vulnerable to natural disasters, others are using their websites to provide vital information to endangered markets. Two-thirds of carriers provide comprehensive online information about preparation and recovery from various types of weather events, and many also use their digital channels as public relations tools, highlighting their actions to support communities during natural disasters. Half of carriers provide tangible evidence of value by focusing online content on how they serve policyholders during catastrophes with on-site claims services, estimates, and support personnel as well as grants for reconstruction and with daily necessities like water or device charging stations. Additional relevant website content includes videos, step-by-step guides for disaster preparation, and compiled lists and links to public and private third parties, such as FEMA or the Red Cross, that can provide immediate assistance during a disaster.

Carriers Building Value with Expanded Educational Resources
Carriers are enhancing their websites and heightening user value by continuing to build out digital tools and educational resources for prospective customers and policyholders. Not only do one-third of the leading carriers offer videos on catastrophe preparedness, recovery and emergency response actions; half now provide videos about claims to help users manage the digital process with confidence. Most carriers are also expanding their library of educational content, and 42% now offer integrated search and navigation to help policyholders quickly locate relevant articles, tools, or FAQ responses. Emerging estimator tools can help prospective policyholders effectively and accurately self-service their coverage needs. To help users value their personal property prior to obtaining a quote for a renter's or homeowner's policy, one-third of carriers offer an estimating tool, and 25% of firms support an auto policy coverage calculator that enables prospects to assess their coverage needs before obtaining a quote.

Enhanced Digital Self-Servicing for Policy Needs
Policy management is another critical area of advancing digital enablement. Two-thirds of carriers automatically enroll new policyholders in digital policy management to both encourage self-servicing and build value for the many consumers who now prefer to use digital channels. Half of carriers also provide demos highlighting how to complete various authenticated site actions, such as showing the click path to specific tasks. These demos can help to market a carrier's digital capabilities to prospects, while they are also valuable for existing policyholders when located contextually or linked to from the authenticated area. Since most carriers support online policy changes, many are supplying information to aid in completing these updates: one-third provide an overview of the change process with an associated time estimate and half integrate a coverage advice tool to explain policy components and simplify decision making. Another two-thirds supply a consolidated area in which policyholders can manage alerts, enabling efficient claims management, timely premium payments, and notification about issues that could affect account security.

About the Online Insurance Scorecard
Keynova Group's semi-annual, fact-based Online Insurance Scorecard, offered for more than two decades, evaluates digital user capabilities, customer experience elements, and best practices to identify evolving trends and insights that drive digital strategy in the auto and property insurance industry. The evaluation encompasses the websites of 12 of the largest P&C carriers in the U.S. market: Allstate, American Family, Erie, Farmers, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Progressive, State Farm, The Hartford, Travelers, and USAA. A separate semi-annual Mobile Insurance Scorecard reviews the mobile app and mobile web experience. For more information, please visit https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#insurance.

About Keynova Group
Keynova Group is the nation's foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Group's Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firm's proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.

SOURCE Keynova Group