Kainos, a leading IT consulting company, has today announced that FBD Insurance plc is enjoying early success with its new customer-focused, interactive website following a 4 month intensive project with Kainos’s web design and development team.

FBD claims that customer service is at the heart of its business philosophy, striving to excel in service levels and to keep abreast of changes in customer buying behaviour and how best to respond to these needs and expectations.  So when the FBD team embarked on a project to design a new website that would enable customers to self-serve on insurance quotations and products, it went straight to its customer base to gather their insight and opinions. 

Brendan Hughes, FBD’s eCommerce Manager explains, “Consumer buying behaviour has gone through an enormous change since the growth and adoption of the Web from predominantly phone or face-to-face based transactions to a staggering shift towards online research and web based purchasing.  We knew that we too needed to respond to this growing trend in online trading and so conducted a customer survey to help us design a website that would give our customers the product comparison and buying experience that they needed from an online insurer.”

The survey confirmed that a staggering 70% who already had a policy with FBD, had looked for quotations online before buying from FBD. Brendan and his team embarked on an ambitious project to develop a new generation website, based on Web 2.0 technologies that would provide FBD with a solid, modern platform for developing insurance products both now and in the future.  FBD selected Kainos as its website development partner, confident in their ability to deliver the project on time and to budget.

Another recent survey by Rostrvm also indicated that Human Interaction was a vital link in online conversions and that many businesses were failing to close business because of ignoring this (Read Full Story)

Brendan continued “We created a blended team made up of our own experts and Kainos’s technical, design and business consultants. The project was ambitious technically and the delivery timescale was pressing.  We knew that the success of the project depended on the blended team and their ability to work well together. It is testament to the commitment, expertise and focus of each individual that we achieved our project on time and within budget.” 

Kainos and FBD worked hand in hand to design and build a world class car insurance website using Web 2.0 technologies to enable a more dynamic customer web experience. The site also fully integrates with FBD’s administration, payment and documentation systems enabling a seamless buying experience for the customer.

The FBD site has exceeded customer expectations mainly because it improves on the experience that the customer can get elsewhere, by reducing the time and effort it takes to get the quote they need. 

Kainos was established in Belfast in 1986. Now, with additional offices in Dublin, London and Gdansk, the company employs 260 people. It boasts customers such as AIB, the Audit Commission, Shipowners, Bank of Ireland, Hibernian, Northern Ireland Civil Service, the Information Commissioners Office and permanent tsb.

Liam Noone of Kainos comments, “Many companies make the mistake of taking a manual process and automating it, adding little value to the online experience.  FBD approached this quite differently setting out to produce a site that would reduce the number of steps for the customer, thereby making it easy and quick to get the quote they need.”

Liam continues, “FBD focused on the customer experience and as a result have produced a fast, intuitive and efficient insurance website. We are delighted to be part of this success story.”

FBD launched its new website on September 3rd; a mere four months after work began on the project.  The company has completely embraced the new web model introducing social networking tools like an FBD Twitter chatroom (http://www.twitter.com/fbd_ie), Google maps, free calls on SKYPE and direct messaging building a very visible connection with the customer that encourages feedback, addresses issues and projects a very open approach.

Brendan adds, “We have created a unique, customer-centric website that delivers personalised, fast and accurate comparison of competitive insurance quotes and enables our customers to self-serve and buy and pay online. We are delighted with the initial feed-back and response from customers and we look forward to continuing to exceed our targets and driving even greater share of the market to www.fbd.ie.”

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