Esurance Delivers on Ease of Doing Business Online

The insurer's recently announced Express Lane capability allows applicants to pre-fill data and speed the application process.

In June, Esurance VP of customer experience Lisa Ward told Insurance & Technology that the company understands consumers' reticence toward filling out long online forms.

"So the philosophy that we follow is that less is more -- use as few keystrokes as possible, and provide clear, jargon-free, concise information," she says. "We try to collect information in a more organized and useful way."

[Read the rest of Ward's interview, which touches on how Esurance's home-built policy administration system enables superior customer experience.]

Today, the company announced the launch of Express Lane, a pre-fill option into which prospective customers can opt in. Information that can be gathered includes:

Drivers license number
Vehicle information including VIN, year, make and model
Insurance information such as the number of years insured and current insurance coverage levels

Esurance says in a statement that its goal is to "[save] consumers time from having to hunt for information that is sometimes not readily available otherwise." However, they can still elect to enter information manually, the company says.

Like Progressive's use of mobile imaging and MetLife's offer of "insurance in a box" at Walmart, Esurance's latest initiative shows a move among insurers to make their product easier to buy in an instant-access world. It's no wonder that I&T research is finding customer experience-enhancing initiatives at the top of insurance technologists' priority lists. (Weigh in on your budget priorities.)

I'll be presenting on this and other impacts of the customer experience imperative, including a shift in tech responsibilities within the C-suite and the importance of transparency, at the SAP Financial Services Forum next Tuesday here in New York. Would love to connect with some of our readers at that event — how are you enabling easier purchasing of insurance at your company? Does it excite the organization, or frighten underwriters?

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio