Insurance News - Monday, May 28, 2012

Quality of Website Can Make or Break Auto Insurance Sale

A good customer website experience can lead to increased sales and recommendations for auto insurers, but a poor website experience can drive consumers away, says a J.D. Power study.

The Westlake Village, Calif.-based information-services company released its 2012 Insurance Website Evaluation Study yesterday, which indicates that with 34 percent of auto-insurance consumers preferring to shop online, the website experience “impacts the likelihood to shop and recommend the insurer” to others.

According to the study, of consumers who said they were “delighted” with their website experience, 63 percent say they are more likely to shop with that insurer.

Conversely, of consumers who were disappointed with their experience, just 14 percent say they were likely to shop with the insurer.

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Consumers Think Beyond Price; Not Interested in Online-Only Experience

Consumers do not want to do all their insurance shopping online, they care about more than just price, and good claims service is something consumers expect, rather than an extra bonus that will help a company’s retention rate, according to the findings of an Ernst & Young survey.

The survey polled 24,000 respondents across 23 countries. E&Y breaks down the results for the Americas respondents in a report, “Voice of the Customer: Time for Insurers to Rethink Their relationships.”

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Rehabilitation Clinics, Owners and Directors Face 15 Charges Related to Submitting False Invoices

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) has charged five rehabilitation clinics and 10 individuals affiliated with these clinics with offences under Ontario’s Insurance Act.

The following clinics were charged with one count each of knowingly making false or misleading statements to an auto insurer to obtain payment for goods or services provided to an insured and engaging in an unfair or deceptive act or practice:

• Professional Medexam Management Inc. (2414 Major MacKenzie Drive, Maple ON)
• Assessment Direct Inc. (2888 Bathurst St., Toronto ON)
• Century Diagnostics Inc. (37 Kodiak Crescent, Toronto ON)
• Evident Diagnostics Inc. (160 East Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill ON)
• Supermed Rehabilitation Centre Inc. (7777 Kipling Avenue, Woodbridge ON)

The following individuals, affiliated with a clinic as a director, were also charged with one count each of failing to take reasonable care to prevent the corporation from making false statements to an insurer and from engaging in an unfair or deceptive act or practice:

• Mark Zinger
• Yan Krivoruk
• Alex Smolar
• Paul Benchetrit
• Pavlo Tsysar
• Ivan Terziev
• Vladimir Naidenov
• Alla Pechenik
• Eugene Gurevich
• Valeri Znamenski

On May 24, 2012, these individuals and corporations were summonsed to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice.

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