Safeco Expands Commercial E-Site

Seattle-based Safeco Business Insurance announced the expansionof its online sales platform, a move the carrier said will make itfaster and easier for agents to sell commercial auto insurance tosmall businesses.

The platform, called E.S.P, will allow agents to quote, bind andinstantly issue commercial auto policies online, Safeco noted. Itallows agents to sell insurance in minutes, rather than days.

Since 5,400 agents representing Safeco Business Insurancecollectively sell or renew nearly 100,000 commercial auto policiesevery year, this adds up to a significant time savings, the companysaid.

“Selling commercial auto just doesn't get simpler than this,”stated Jeanne Lind, director of automation for Safeco BusinessInsurance. “With E.S.P, we can cut the time it takes to quotecommercial auto policies, and with real-time underwriting we canissue a policy instantly. In most cases, agents can literally issuetheir auto policies while theyre on the phone with a client.

“Its part of Safecos strategy to reduce the time, cost andcomplexity of selling and servicing small and medium-sized businessaccounts,” she added.

In the E.S.P process, the company said, agents can select the“full quote” option, enter data on drivers and vehicles, andinstantly receive a final price that they can bind and issue. E.S.Ptechnology automatically pre-fills common customer informationfields based on vehicle identification numbers, and the systemadjusts its questions according to the data entered.

Agents can also choose to enter a “quick estimate” to get aballpark price without having to enter detailed driver and vehicleinformation. All of this allows agents to spend a lot less time ondata entry, said Safeco.

“By introducing E.S.P for commercial auto, were giving ouragents a real opportunity to profitably expand their small-businessaccounts,” said Tom Troy, vice president of underwriting for SafecoBusiness Insurance.

“Small businesses represent the largest, fastest growing segmentof the commercial auto market in the United States, and thesebusiness owners typically rely heavily on the few vehicles theyoperate,” Mr. Troy continued. “E.S.P gives agents a quick and easyway to add commercial auto coverage and better manage thisexposure, helping business owners avoid increasingly common legalactions and other business disruptions that can make or break asmall and growing company.”

Initially, agents will be able to use the system to sell Safecoscommercial non-fleet policies for vehicles garaged in a singlestate, the company noted.

In 2003 and 2004, Safeco said it would enable agents to useE.S.P. to sell workers' compensation policies, commercialmulti-peril package products, and other commercial auto policiesincluding fleet vehicles, multistate garaging locations and farmvehicles.

E.S.P. is accessible at www.safecoplaza.com/esp forboth business owner policies and commercial auto risks.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 11, 2003.Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.