When Safeco Insurance, a fortune 500 property and casualty insurance provider, replaced their legacy quoting and issuing system with a new web-based version, they faced a key challenge. Since Safeco sells virtually all of their business through a vast network of small independent agents, with various technology skill levels, there was risk that the change could drive agents to shift their book of business to competing carriers. Safeco needed to properly position these changes with agents, ensure awareness, and have an understanding of the number of key FAQ’s in order to manage this risk.

Curtis worked with a team of product managers, instructional designers, graphic artists, and management. They developed and executed a direct marketing initiative to educate and highlight key points in an interactive way. The flash experience was pushed to a target market of over 30,000 independent agents selling Safeco products in three form factors: a direct (traditional) mailing, an online version promoted via email, and kits hand delivered to agent offices via Safeco’s field sales force. In addition to helping drive the development, testing, and launch of the initiative Curtis had the foresight to implement a survey and custom usage tracking technology. This evaluated the success of the program, as well as understanding user behavior for optimization in future launches.

After effectively managing an issue with the mailing vendor, the initiative rapidly became a success. Between the three form factors, Curtis was able to verify impressions and feedback from virtually all of the targeted users. The new Quote & Issue tool not only was viewed by agents as a vast improvement over the legacy system, but Safeco was also viewed as leapfrogging several other competitors in perceived ease of doing business.