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AIG Direct
http://www.aigdirect.com
AIG considers the e-solution a big success– for clients as well as the company– as it's a practical and cost-effective way to conduct business. Accolades about the e-solution continue to arrive from both company employees and clients. In addition, Gomez Advisors, a respected independent consumer research service, recently ranked aigdirect.com a top overall insurance carrier Web site. Scott Alexander, AIG's Chief e-Business Officer credits much of the project's success to US Interactive. "US Interactive did an outstanding job creating this robust, creative, and cutting-edge e-solution, delivering it on time and within budget," he says.
One-Stop Shopping www.aigdirect.com
www.aigdirect.com sells more than just auto insurance. Visitors to aigdirect.com can choose from auto, homeowners, renters, life, or accidental death and dismemberment insurance– even home warranty products. The idea, says Alexander, is to provide consumers with one-stop-shopping for all their insurance needs. He compares the approach to direct-mail marketing: selling auto insurance is like conducting a mailing campaign that offers only one product. www.aigdirect.com on the other hand, resembles a print catalog, offering an array of choices.
In addition, the e-solution provides customer personalization to further sell AIG products. For example, in the future it will remember products a customer is interested in and subsequently suggest other complementary products. "The Internet," says Scott Alexander,"is a logical place to do that kind of cross-selling."
Happier Customers
Making it easy for customers to satisfy all their insurance needs in one place helps ensure that AIG's customers will stay with the company. But www.aigdirect.com also aims to improve customer satisfaction. AIG is the first insurance company where customers can handle nearly all their customer service needs online. In addition to filing claims, clients can renew policies and make payments. There's also an Insurance Resource Center that provides tips, advice, and articles on a variety of insurance topics.
AIG says this translates into more satisfied customers. "Our customers really like being able to file claims online," says Alexander. "It's highly efficient, and much less tedious. Plus, they can do it at any hour of the day or night, whenever it suits their schedule. The user-experience is much more friendly on the Internet."
A Different Set of Skills
While consumers find www.aigdirect.com easy to use, building it was actually complex. It required careful planning and hard work and Alexander says US Interactive had the skill sets to tackle it. "US Interactive had the full complement of both technical skills and creative skills needed to carry out a project of this scope and complexity," he says.
While US Interactive and AIG planned the new e-solution, AIG decided to carry out an update to its existing auto-insurance Web site, using a large advertising agency that AIG had worked with previously. "It was a test of sorts," says Alexander, "and what we saw was that the project was not handled efficiently." For Alexander, that was confirmation that online and offline skills and experience are not the same, and that AIG needed a company that specialized in e-business. "The Internet requires a different set of skills," says Alexander. "To create an outstanding e-solution, you really need a firm that has substantial Internet application experience."
Alexander's decision to work with US Interactive was later confirmed by AIG's internal management consulting group, which independently reviewed Internet companies as part of a corporate vendor analysis. "They started out with 30 Internet vendors, and narrowed it down through several rounds of interviews to a handful of finalists– including US Interactive," says Alexander. "It was nice to have that decision confirmed independently. But the real proof is the successful e-solution."
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