A recent survey shows that consumers want to be able to have online access to their life insurance policies. This is especially true for customers who are from Generation X or Generation Y. This means that insurance companies are going to need to make sure that their websites have what consumers are looking for, in order to stay competitive with more tech savvy insurance companies.
A survey was done by LIMRA, a company that does worldwide research, consulting, and professional development. LIMRA assists insurance companies, and companies that offer financial services, to be more effective with their marketing efforts. The survey asked people who had life insurance policies about their insurance company’s website.
The survey found that half of the respondents said that they had visited their life insurance company’s website. The majority of them, 70%, visited it because they wanted to use the online services that were available on the website.
Out of this group that went online to go check out their insurer’s website, the majority were from Generation X or Generation Y. People who belong to Generation X were born between 1977 and 1998, (although different sources will have those dates varying somewhat). Generation Y, also called the Millennial Generation, or the Millennials, Generation Next, Net Generation, or Echo Boomers, follows Generation X. In other words, younger adults are very interested in using their insurance company’s website.
About half of the respondents who were in the Baby Boomer generation also used their insurer’s website, as well. People said they used their insurer’s website because it was more convenient than trying to contact their insurance company in other ways.
Customers want to find certain things on the website of their insurance company. They want to be able to access their billing information, and to pay their bills online. They want to be able to go to the website in order to make changes to their life insurance policy. Changes include: setting up a college fund, building an emergency fund, saving for retirement, or saving up in order to buy a home.
Half of all life insurance policyholders who were included in the survey said that they want to see a search box on their insurer’s website. They see this as a very important feature. More than half of survey respondents want to see comparisons of the prices of the products their insurer offers on the website. Many respondents want to be able to change their beneficiary through the website, and also to initiate loan requests and fund withdrawals that way.
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