The Real Deal - Optimum Mobility with Responsive Design

For many folks, insurance is perceived as an evil, be it a necessary one or otherwise.

But a few days ago, I found myself actually amazed by insurance. Or, to be more specific, how that industry has embraced mobile technology.

A friend of mine works as a sales representative for a big-name commercial insurance company, specializing in small business liability and property coverage. Like many, he and I both alternated between shooting the breeze, feeding our faces, and tending to our respective smartphones when we met up for lunch.

At one point, he raised his fist in victory, having bound coverage for a 24-unit condominium – a $10,000 policy when all was said and done – with a few scrolls and punches on his iPhone. He then gave me an impromptu demonstration, creating a full and thorough quote for an apartment building that was good to be bound from where we sat. From start to finish, it took him ten minutes, I’d say, to put the quote together.

“Even ten years ago, this would’ve taken us at least a day to get a quote like this together,” he said. “From here, I can e-mail a full proposal to a client and offer multiple coverage options. Anyone that knows just enough about quoting insurance to be dangerous and knows how use an iPhone can do this. I’m not kidding.”

He’s right. The fields he went through to enter the quote were simple to understand and simple to maneuver. And for me, the setup and design of the quoting program he used was as impressive as his ability to create a $4,500 apartment quote over a chicken sandwich and diet coke.

The availability of the technology at his fingertips – especially given the competitive nature of his profession – as well as the user-friendly mobile responsive design of the program is paying off for my friend with his bosses when they track his sales numbers.

Websites that are optimized for mobile viewing are seemingly becoming the norm these days rather than the exception; Google is now alerting users if a site isn’t mobile-friendly as opposed to indicating a site has mobile capabilities. To me, that’s saying something about the importance of mobile accessibility for both the myriad of businesses embracing the platform as well as their visitors.

Additionally, the program my friend used to generate the quote was, he said, the same as the one he used at his office and on his laptop. Today, one website takes care of both pc/laptop and mobile strati as opposed to separate sites for each individual use, which was the case early on in the mobile era.

While mobile operations are becoming more and more commonplace, we at Leverage have long been aware of its potential and the rewards clients can reap from factoring this into their overall online operations. We incorporate mobile use into our plans for clients and see the rewards of its applications and designs as essential in the long run.

Case in point: a client of ours who switched to a mobile-responsive design saw his order volume increase more than 150% over the first six months of this year when compared to the same time period last year. Additionally, his order revenue nearly matched that, up 148% the first half of 2014 compared to the first half of 2013.

Seeing my friend make $10K over lunch on his hand-held device and watching clients up their total revenue by 148% YOY reinforces my belief that there are many other companies out there that haven’t begun to scratch the surface of the potential benefits from smart phone ecommerce and responsive design. We’re ready to start scrolling and tapping away on any size device when you are.