Europe Press Room: 2008
Moneysupermarket.com Drives Away Competition in Keynote Systems Car Insurance Study
LONDON, ENGLAND – July 10, 2008 – Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), the global leader in on-demand mobile and Internet test & measurement solutions for continuously improving the online experience, today announced the results of its ‘UK Car Insurance Open Web Research’*.
The study aimed to identify the online behaviour of consumers looking for car insurance and assessed the strengths and weakness of the most visited car insurance sites, measuring ease of use, comprehensiveness of content and site organisation. To provide full insight into what consumers look for when investigating insurance renewals, the 500 participants were not directed to any particular site, but were free to explore the entire Web from a blank starting page. Using Keynote’s WebEffective 6.0 product, the top three aggregator sites and top three insurance company sites were then analysed – these were moneysupermarket.com, Confused.com, Gocompare.com, Directline.com, Churchill.com and TheAA.com.
The study revealed that competitive prices, privacy and security, and getting instant online quotes were the most important factors for choosing a site to research car insurance. 99 percent of participants indicated that they would consider purchasing from a new insurance company if better or cheaper rates were offered.
When beginning their search for car insurance, one third of the panelists started on a search engine, another third went directly to an aggregator site and the remainder started on various other sites including those of insurance companies. From Google, the most visited sites were moneysupermarket.com, confused.com. gocompare.com and directline.com. Moneysupermarket.com received the most unique visits.
Overall satisfaction
Once on their chosen sites, Keynote was able to gain a deeper insight into what exactly users liked and disliked about these sites, as well as conduct an in-depth customer experience study. Moneysupermarket.com was rated highest on overall site satisfaction with a score of 72 percent, coming out top, or joint top, in the three areas of ease of use, comprehensiveness of content and site organisation. Of the six sites identified earlier as the most popular, theaa.com scored lowest on overall satisfaction with a rating of 53 percent.
For ease of use, moneysupermarket.com and Churchill.com shared the top spot with 67 percent each, while moneysupermarket.com outperformed all the other sites with 69 percent when participants were asked about the comprehensiveness of the content. Moneysupermarket.com again came top on site organisation, this time sharing with gocompare.com – both scored 69 percent.
The top five sites for ‘overall satisfaction’ are as follows:
- moneysupermarket.com
- Churchill.com
- Confused.com
- Gocompare.com
- Directline.com
“Whether or not their policy was due for renewal, a significant number of potential customers were looking for a better deal on their car insurance – representing both significant opportunities and challenges for all insurance websites,” said Martin Stern, regional manager EMEA, Keynote Systems. “What’s interesting here is that of the top two sites for overall satisfaction, one is an aggregator site and the other an individual insurance company, suggesting that consumers remain open to both direct and indirect propositions. While the importance of achieving prominence in search engines rankings is clear, all insurance sites need to make sure their own site is geared-up to meet the ever-increasing expectations of the visitor from a usability and performance perspective.”
Aggregator vs individual company sites
On average, participants visited two sites with the majority ending on insurance aggregation sites where they could easily view multiple quotes. When comparing the most popular aggregator site, moneysupermarket.com, with the most popular insurance site, directline.com, there is a 20 percent difference in overall satisfaction, indicating that aggregator sites may be better suited to meeting the customer’s requirements. However, Churchill.com was rated second of all six sites for overall customer satisfaction.
Based on their online experiences, participants were also asked about the likelihood of them returning to the site. Overall, the chances of customers returning to aggregator sites was much higher than insurance company sites. Eighty percent of participants said they would return to moneysupermarket.com, while for Churchill.com (the highest scoring insurance company in this category), this figure stood at 59 percent.
The top five sites for ‘likelihood to return’ are as follows:
- moneysupermarket.com
- Confused.com
- Gocompare.com
- Churchill.com
- Directline.com
During the study, more participants obtained a quote on confused.com than any other site, but moneysupermarket.com and Churchill.com again came out top when participants were asked to rate the site on ease of obtaining a car insurance quote. Again, in both these categories, the three aggregator sites were rated higher than the individual companies.
“While the study clearly highlights the benefits to visitors in comparing multiple insurance offers at the same time, that’s not to say that insurance companies should abandon their own sites,” continued Stern. “While more panelists were likely to return to the aggregator sites, both Churchill.com and Directline.com - rated joint first and third respectively for ‘ease of obtaining a quote’ - highlighted the benefits of delivering a superior online customer experience. This should not be underestimated, considering that the ability to secure an instant online quote was one of the most important factors identified by the participating panelists.”
To perform the study, Keynote used WebEffective 6.0 which provides Web marketers, researchers and advertisers with a customer experience research and usability lab without walls and now includes cutting-edge capabilities to measure the attitudes and behaviours of users as they investigate an interactive Web site incorporating Web 2.0 technologies. Querying the user as he performs specific rich interactive Web site tasks, as assigned by Keynote, and collecting technical metrics at the same time, provides marketers with a holistic picture of which site elements are working effectively to promote your brand, and which are not.
*Study was based on 500 panelists taking part in February 2008. All participants were based in the UK and 18+
About Keynote
Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”) is the global leader in on-demand test & measurement solutions for continuously improving the online experience. As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with an unbiased view into their Internet services from around the world. For over a decade, Keynote has been providing measurement data and testing capabilities that allow companies to understand and improve their customers’ online and mobile experience. Keynote has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming & VoIP, and customer experience/UX. In addition, Keynote’s industry analysis group called Keynote Competitive Research publishes proprietary studies measuring customer experience and service levels across a wide range of industries
Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority™, Keynote has a market-leading infrastructure of 2,500 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 locations around the world. Keynote also maintains one of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000 consumers. Keynote’s on-demand, hassle-free infrastructure allows businesses to access services they need, when they need them to pinpoint and fix mobile quality and Internet problems before they impact customers.
Keynote helps over 2,800 corporate customers become “the best of the best” by helping them improve online business performance and mobile communications quality. Keynote’s customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Dell, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at (650) 403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority, Perspective and WebEffective are registered trademarks and The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority and True Experience are trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2008 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Editorial Contacts:
Ryan Whelan and Kathryn Mills-Webb, Johnson King, +44 (0) 20 7401 7968, keynoteteam@johnsonking.co.uk
