Progressive 2007 Annual Report Download - page 15

14
3The Increasing Role of Technology
We are observing the reach of the Internet
well beyond the initial quote and sale to
now facilitating more post-sale transactions.
Both our Agency and Direct offerings are
using e-signature and e-fulfillment as an
efficient means to complete the sales trans-
action. We have put considerable effort
into making this effective and valued.
Beyond the sale, customers are increas-
ingly using online service to make changes
in their policy, check policy status and
make payments. We are actively working
toward increasing the number of customers
who accept paperless as their preferred
means of interacting with us. A trend of
decreasing calls per policy and increasing
clicks per policy is very acceptable, allow-
ing our representatives and agents to focus
on more complex customer needs.
Recognizing the role the Internet plays
in every aspect of the insurance transaction
for consumers and the essential interface
it provides between us and our agents is
a critical priority. Leadership in this area
is our objective and, while not a specific
measure, we were happy to be recognized
as “Best Insurance Web Site” by the Web
Marketing Association and for receiving
the #1 rank in auto insurance Web sites
from Keynote Competitive Research, a
position we’ve maintained in 11 out of 12
ranking periods since 2000.
As I write this letter, we have our first
customers using new technology that sup-
plies us with vehicle activity data wirelessly
and routinely, supporting our unique usage-
based insurance offering. We have been
experimenting with vehicle-provided data
for some time and using that new and rele-
vant data to provide customers with rates
that best reflect their actual driving behav-
iors. The challenge of changing consumers’
comfort level with this form of insurance
rating is not something we underestimate,
but we believe the concept of more cus-
tomized rating can become an interesting
and powerful part of who we are, building
on our long-time association with innova-
tion in the industry. The new technology
better matches the concept and makes for a
very interesting outlook beginning in 2008.