Fidelity And Pacific Life Lead In Dalbar Web Site Rankings
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Fidelity Investments, Boston, was the top-ranked consumer Web site for life insurance and annuities during the first quarter of 2002, while Pacific Life Insurance Company, Newport Beach, Calif., held onto its strong lead among sites for financial professionals, according to the latest quarterly ranking by Dalbar, Inc., Boston.
The Dalbar rankings, closely watched in the industry, rate financial services firms Web sites on a range of user-friendly factors, including number of helpful functions provided, ease of use and the freshness of information presented.
Among consumer sites, Fidelity boosted its score from 83 to 88 points (out of a possible 100), after having tied for first place with TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Company, New York, in the last two quarters of 2001.
"Fidelity did a lot of little things to increase its score," says Csilla von Csiky, Dalbar managing director. "They added more media contacts, community outreach information and searchable account statements."
Safeco Corporation, Seattle, also stood out, entering the top-10 list of consumer sites by jumping from 12th to sixth place. It improved account access by adding online statements and giving clients the ability to look up historical account information. The company also began offering a Spanish version of its site, which Dalbar notes is unusual among U.S. financial firms.
The first quarter also saw two newcomers to the top 25 consumer sites, as Principal Financial Group Inc., Des Moines, Iowa took 24th place, up from 29th in the previous quarter, and Equitable/AXA Advisors, New York, rose from 27th to 23rd.
Dalbar gave Principal good grades for an improved news section and for its online periodicals for consumers.
AXA improved account access to consumers by allowing them to complete transactions online and otherwise increasing the usefulness of its site, Dalbar observes.
Overall during the quarter, many insurers energized their consumer sites with useful new services, such as referrals to financial professionals and live online help.
Safeco, for example, introduced an advisor search service, while Fidelity started an instant messaging system that lets consumers contact a live company representative online.
