Insurance Carriers Continue Enhancing Mobile Channels to Engage Users
Wilmington, Del. March 30, 2022 – Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of the Q1 2022 edition of its semi-annual Mobile Insurance Scorecard. GEICO earned top honors for its mobile user experience, ranking first in Overall Score in Keynova Group’s 14th competitive evaluation of the mobile apps and mobile websites of the 12 largest U.S. auto and property insurance carriers. The Scorecard’s key trends show carriers leveraging mobile to build user engagement by incorporating telematics, location-based experiences, enhanced claims capabilities, and virtual assistant (VA) support.
“Mobile is no longer an ancillary mode for servicing insurance companies’ policyholders and prospects,” said Beth Robertson, managing director, Keynova Group. “Mobile channels provide carriers an opportunity to interact on a regular basis, serving up more than policy summaries and premium payment by envisioning opportunities to support users across a spectrum of actions.”
Key Findings:
Apps Increasingly Positioned to Build Recurring Mobile Interactions
Although many carriers have relied on the web as the primary option for mobile delivery, mobile apps are becoming increasingly important. Apps’ residency on the mobile device home screen, integration of key mobile functionalities, and personalization options are among factors that make them ideal for driving the recurring utilization that reinforces the carrier’s brand. Half of carriers now integrate features such as gas or parking locators, vehicle maintenance tools, or travel planners to drive regular use of their apps. As a mobile app innovator pioneering in-app usage-based telematics, GEICO has also added to its app location-specific experiences to support users visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles or a car dealership. Liberty Mutual recently became the second firm to integrate usage-based telematics into its primary servicing app.
Mobile Claims Enhancements Strengthen Policyholder Satisfaction
Claims handling is one of the most important factors influencing policyholder satisfaction and retention, prompting insurers to continue bolstering mobile capabilities for on-the-spot digital claim filing, tracking, and information. Streamlined mobile claims forms incorporate elements like GPS prefill and mapping, calendar and picker tools, and image scan and upload. All of the Scorecard insurance firms now provide roadside locator tools in both mobile web and their apps, while one-third of insurers enable roadside claims expenses to be submitted via the mobile web or in-app. A quarter of the carriers now support digital payment options like Zelle or PayPal for claims disbursements, enabling policyholders to select their preferred alternative. And two-thirds of carriers offer claim-specific chat support via mobile.
Virtual Assistant Chatbots Improved with Targeted Support Actions
While the banking industry has several notable examples of VAs that utilize artificial intelligence (AI), most insurance firms utilize chatbot-style VAs to streamline support: 83% offer a VA in mobile web and half employ the option in their app. Some insurers are advancing their chatbot capabilities with predictive support options related to a user’s navigation path and by supporting common inquiries. For example, 25% of firms enable mobile web VAs to be used to access, save, or share a policyholder's ID card or to provide the premium payment amount and due date, while one-third of app-based VAs can be used for these actions. Half of the firms link a user to a live agent after a maximum of two failed VA answer attempts.
About the Mobile Insurance Scorecard
Keynova Group’s semi-annual, fact-based Mobile Insurance Scorecard, offered for nearly two decades, evaluates user capabilities, customer experience elements, and best practices to identify evolving trends and insights that drive mobile strategy in the auto and property insurance industry. The evaluation encompasses the mobile channels of Allstate, American Family, Esurance, Farmers, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Progressive, State Farm, The Hartford, Travelers, and USAA. 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.
For more information:
Meggan Manson
Young & Associates, for Keynova Group
301-371-6995
megganm@yapr.com