SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Despite today’s consumer increasingly researching and buying products on PCs and mobile devices, a phone call is a crucial step when shopping for a new auto insurance provider or policy. According to a new report titled “Auto Insurance Industry Benchmarks for Digital Marketers,” released today by the Marchex Institute, the data and insights center for advertising analytics company Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), there is significant opportunity for auto insurance companies and marketers to capture more market share by better addressing consumer preferences.
The data comes from more than one million inbound phone calls placed by consumers to auto insurance providers in the US and UK in 2016, including six of the top ten providers, and highlights that 60 percent of consumers are likely to click-to call from a mobile device when shopping for auto insurance. Of those calls, consumers show intent to purchase 73 percent of the time. While this shows clear need for auto insurance providers to properly allocate call center resources and optimize agent call routing processes, the data points to some concerning trends. Not answering the phone quickly is a weakness for many auto insurance companies, as some local agents did not answer the phone more than 50 percent of the time, leading a consumer to abandon the call.
Additional findings from the report include:
- Sixty-seven percent of millennials prefer to purchase directly from an insurance company versus a local agency.
- Millennials don’t receive quotes as often as older generations, highlighting that most insurance companies have yet to adapt their product set to serve this group.
- Call centers seem to serve the customer better and generate more revenue, as they are better at delivering quotes than local agents.
- There is no significant correlation between how long it takes to deliver a quote and the quote rate; a longer quote process did not produce fewer quotes. At the same time, costs are certainly higher for the brands that take longer to handle quotes.
Tips for digital marketers in auto insurance based on the findings from the report include:
- Improve customer experience on phone calls by reducing hold time and the number of transfers to easily lead the conversation toward a transaction.
- Use call analytics to capture data from high intent calls to tailor ads to the right audience.
- Attribute sales to individual sources of traffic in multi-channel campaigns to create a performance benchmark for a smarter investment of budget.
“Customers are no longer following a linear path-to-purchase, particularly when shopping for auto insurance, as the complexity of the offering often requires a real conversation. This presents a real challenge for marketers, who are faced with a massive blind spot around media attribution, and limits sales opportunities for brands that aren’t efficiently handling inbound phone calls,” said John Busby, Senior Vice President, Marchex Institute. “Ultimately, the auto insurance companies and digital marketers that truly understand their customer across all channels – and use the data to better engage them – are poised to grow their market share.”
A full copy of the study, which includes tips that insurance marketers can utilize can be found at www.marchex.com/InsurancePaper.
A webcast will be conducted on the report with panelists John Busby, SVP Marchex Institute, and Mike Fast, Analyst at Marchex on October 27th at 1:00 p.m. ET. Registration is available at www.marchex.com/InsuranceWebinar.
About Marchex
Marchex is a mobile advertising analytics company that connects online behavior to real-world, offline actions. By linking critical touchpoints in the customer journey, Marchex’s products enable a 360-degree view of marketing effectiveness. Brands and agencies utilize Marchex’s products to transform business performance.
Please visit www.marchex.com, www.marchex.com/blog or @marchex on Twitter (Twitter.com/Marchex), where Marchex discloses material information from time to time about the company, its financial information, and its business.
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