Technology: Websites - Pick-up clicks.

(From Post Magazine)

It is a commonly held belief that savvy insurers have an online presence. A couple of years ago, research conducted by NOP showed that more than a quarter of all adults had searched for motor insurance online, making it one of the most popular financial services to buy on the internet. This figure is also likely to increase with the steady uptake of broadband services.

However, insurers may be in danger of becoming apathetic. Having established an online presence, are they now resting on their laurels?

While NOP's findings make good reading for insurance companies, they cannot afford to be complacent about their online offerings. Research carried out in January of this year by Vanson Bourne, a specialist IT research consultancy, found that insurers need to sit up and start recognising consumer demand for websites that perform well.

Poor performance

The research, which surveyed 200 chief information officers in the financial sector, shows that organisations are losing upwards of GBP500,000 each year due to poorly performing transactional websites. Worringly, a total of 18% of those surveyed believe this figure to be greater than GBP1m a year and nearly half estimate losses of more than GBP1.5m.

Specifically, insurance companies admit that various factors have led to these losses, including lost sales, the costs of resolving technical problems, and the negative impact performance problems have on their brand. The overriding finding, however, was that insurers are not effectively managing the online experience for their customers; companies are unaware of what customers are experiencing on their websites, and it is this ineffective management that is a key factor to the losses companies are experiencing.