What's the Ideal Way to Set Up Online Quote Forms?

[BlockO]

I am curious to see what success/failures other agents have had with their online quote forms. I design my own quote forms, but I am second guessing whether or not I have things done optimally (simply based on the fact that my closing ratio is much higher with walk-in/call-in quotes than they are with internet quotes). my question is WHY? there are 4 things in particular that I'm curious about:

1. phone contact vs. email contact: I currently give the potential client the option of entering one or the other (some enter both but not many). I was wondering if this is a mistake. should I go with one or the other, or leave it like it is? my quote forms have only been active for about 3 months, so I don't have enough data to make a valid conclusion as to which is more effective.

2. length of the quote form. an English teacher once told us that a term paper should be like a mini-skirt: short enough to be attractive yet long enough to cover the main parts! I try to adhere to that with my quote forms, and only ask for the minimum info needed to do a quote. Too much information, and the customer runs off because the questions are too personal without an established relationship.... too little information with multiple companies and you can't quote accurately. ...where's the happy medium?

3. level of aggression. once your site gets a quote request, how aggressively do you chase after them (1 or 2 calls/emails, 3 or 4? as many as it takes for them to say "no"?). whether it be phone or email, I give them my best price, and let it go at that until they respond (which is probably a big mistake, but how aggressive should I be?).

4.when responding to a quote request with a phone contact, and you reach their voicemail, do you quote the prices on the voicemail or simply say something like "I have great rates for you! call me back...."?

curious to hear some feedback.

 

[mynarky]

Just buy a quote engine from compulife

 

[ksigmtsu]

7 touches per lead is pretty normal. By touch I mean 1 email 1 call, until they say leave them alone.

Don't leave rates on a phone you don't know who might get them.

Longer form = less but more qualified leads. Shorter form = more unqualified leads, more work, less serious buyers.

Are you showing a quote onscreen when they hit submit? If not they're probably going to another site after yours if they're looking for prices.

 

[djs]

My philosophy is more that I want their contact info and enough info to talk to them when I get hold of them.

I'm not sure what you are selling with the form, but for P&C, you pretty much will need to have a conversation. Not much need to get a lot of detailed info before the conversation happens.

With things like life and health, I would think you pretty much could get anything but the up close and personal medical/personal details. With P&C, you start asking for vin numbers and people will drop out like flies.

Dan

 

[Aaron_4SIGHT]

You could always do an A/B test with Google Website Optimizer and go off real data instead of a bunch of opinions.

 

[ksigmtsu]

You could always do an A/B test with Google Website Optimizer and go off real data instead of a bunch of opinions.

An A B test won't show the lead quality of the submission. You need to do a % tracking in your crm for that, but I've already done all this, which is where my answer came from.

This is just purely what I found with multiple forms and landing pages, shorter form = more people fill it out. Longer form with more details = less people fill it out, but the leads are more qualified.

 

[Aaron_4SIGHT]

An A B test won't show the lead quality of the submission. You need to do a % tracking in your crm for that, but I've already done all this, which is where my answer came from.

Just don't optimize for the wrong metric!

 

[djs]

Problem is, to do a good A/B test, you have to have a decent sampling, done over time, followed through to conclusion, to determine where your best ROI is.

Several problems with this, given that getting a decent sample without other significant external factors, for a single agent website, is difficult at best.

My preference is more leads, less qualification. A few years ago, when I was much busier, fewer leads, more qualification would have been good.

Right now, I would prefer the chance to talk with them. Of course, my goal out of a web lead is to lead to a conversation, which in turn will lead to a sale. The web lead is step one of many steps. Others may want to just go close the deal, which is great.

You have to know what you want, that will give you the answer. You also have to balance it with volume.

Dan

 

[ksigmtsu]

You get a lot more data faster on AB testing with email than you get with websites unless you're doing heavy ppc.

I can AB test an email in 3-4 days, a website would take months to ab test when it's new.

The majority of agents probably don't have enough traffic to AB test, and would be a lot better off focusing on traffic generation.

 

[mynarky]

An A B test won't show the lead quality of the submission. You need to do a % tracking in your crm for that, but I've already done all this, which is where my answer came from.

This is just purely what I found with multiple forms and landing pages, shorter form = more people fill it out. Longer form with more details = less people fill it out, but the leads are more qualified.

exactly I traded all of my quote requests for just about 1/3 as many app requests. They are so easy to sell and when they are bogus you know immediately.