Progressive.com Ranks #1 on Keynote’s Auto Insurance Carrier Scorecard

MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio .— Improved functionality, security, and quality and availability features helped progressive.com earn the #1 spot on Keynote® Systems’ (Nasdaq:KEYN) Q1 2008 Insurance Carrier Scorecard produced by Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote. Progressive has held the top spot for 12 of the last 13 scorecard rankings published since 2000.

Keynote’s Scorecards for Financial Services are industry-specific benchmarks using 250 or more best-practice criteria to measure adherence to customer experience best practices. Criteria are grouped into industry-specific user tasks and categories. Each scorecard is created and maintained by a team of Keynote analysts, with criteria based on user testing, industry interviews and user experience research.

“We’re thrilled that our efforts to provide an outstanding online experience are recognized by Keynote,” said Toby Alfred, general manager with Progressive’s customer acquisition group. “Simplicity is a progressive.com hallmark, so we’ve introduced new ways for online visitors to interact with us and kept it easy for auto insurance consumers to find what they’re looking for. Our goal is to be the best site to get auto insurance on the Web, and we’re proud that we achieved it.”

To collect scorecard data, Keynote compared the online offerings of 13 insurance carriers. Keynote analysts followed a rigorous research process that included interviewing and surveying scorecard companies and examining their Web sites. Based on its evaluation of Progressive’s online offerings, Keynote named Progressive #1 overall and in three of four category rankings — Functionality, Privacy and Security, and Quality and Availability. It also earned top marks in Get Insurance and Learn and Plan task rankings.

The study said that progressive.com exemplifies customer service best practices, noting that “Progressive has been busy updating its site — with heavy references to Web 2.0, a simplified navigation screen and immediate entry into the quoting application from almost all pages.” Keynote also applauded progressive.com for paperless sales and service options and its ease in locating independent agents.

Progressive was the first major auto insurance company in the world to introduce a Web site (1995), first to sell auto policies real-time online (1997) and first to feature a “Rate Ticker,” showing Progressive rates side-by-side with those of other top insurers in real-time. In 2007, Progressive became the first major car insurer to launch a Web 2.0 site. The redesigned site lets users get more from their visits; share their experiences; and have their progressive.com experience delivered to them in blogs, RSS readers and personal home pages.