The web presence of a business dramatically affects the business insurance options available for that business. Much of the insurance buying landscape for businesses is shifting to the online/e-commerce environment. This often offers businesses faster service, better prices and the opportunity to get quoted by more carriers. Many of these transactions are conducted exclusively over the phone and by email. An agent seeing a business face to face is becoming less and less common. Thus, underwriters are increasingly relying on a company’s website to assess whether they want to insure a company or pass on the opportunity.
For some industries, such as contractors, many insurance carriers will require evidence of a business online before they will quote that business (even if a formal website is not be required). This gives the insurance carriers more confidence they know what business they are insuring. A good web presence helps businesses obtain better business insurance by getting quotes from more carriers.
Websites are generally used as a marketing tool for businesses. They often are over-expansive in the services they list they will offer. That is good for marketing, but can make it more difficult for businesses to get insured. Insurance company underwriters often rely on information contained on a website more than any other resource available. Thus, they will often decline quotes if services are offered which are ineligible for coverage. The rub is that often the businesses don’t really offer all of the services listed on their websites. Many times websites are created by a vendor the business owner contracted with, and their only goal was to make the website the strongest it could be from a marketing perspective. Additionally, the business owners may not always monitor their website on an on-going basis or update the website for changes in business operations.
However, when it comes to getting insurance, it is important that your company’s web presence most accurately reflects your business operations. Editing your company’s website is one way to accomplish this task. Sometimes, it is possible to explain why websites advertise services which are not really offered. However, sometimes it is not. Furthermore, sometimes carriers might price insurance more conservatively due to their potential doubt of the company’s operations based on an inaccurate website. An accurate website puts a good foot forward with insurance carriers.
There are many persuasive reasons to have an accurate and current website. Ease in obtaining business insurance (and potentially better priced business insurance at that) is another reason to add to that list.