Members applying online for auto loans at Patelco Credit Union's website now get instant insurance quotes simultaneously.
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"We make auto loans like they're coming out of our ears," said Scott Waite, senior vice president and CFO at Patelco and CEO of Patelco's CUSO. "But with the traditional insurance sales model you're still at the mercy of the front line staff saying the right thing at the right time."
In phase one of the first-of-its-kind integrated online auto loan and insurance application platform, Patelco CU partnered last month with Esurance Inc., a nationwide direct-to-consumer personal auto insurance provider and subsidiary of Folksamerica Holding Company, Inc.
Now, members applying online or with front-line staff at the $2.2-billion CU are automatically offered free instant quotes-to-claims coverage from Esurance. They get the convenience of closing the deal on the auto loan and insurance at the same time through an automated online application.
Based on previous loan-to-insurance sales ratios, Waite figures that "one out of every three auto loans should turn into an insurance sell." At 2,000 auto loans a month, Patelco CU should turn over close to 700 insurance policies as well, Waite projected.
Additional income is just icing for a technology that was originally developed to better serve members. "Expenses were negligible and it only took a couple of meetings and then a couple of hours to add code," said Rebecca Nicolay, vice president of consumer lending at the 200,000-member CU.
The technology enabling the live, instant quote, which only Esurance was able to develop promptly, will soon enter phase two. The more sophisticated application will integrate the insurance estimate smoothly into the application, compliments of Extensible Markup Language (XML), said Mark Galli, manager of information technology.
"Also, the new version will provide members with a comparison of the Esurance quote and their existing insurance," he said.
Within the next 30 days, Esurance will replace American Express Property Casualty companies as the sole online insurance option at Patelco CU's website, according to Waite.
The CU's unique dual application relies on the member providing car model and loan amounts at the beginning of the online loan application. The CU securely sends that information to Esurance and a quote is calculated while the member finishes the loan application, Galli explained. A pop-up box then lets the member click for a preliminary Esurance quote.
Patelco CU doesn't advertise the instant insurance quote on its web pages. Instead, the feature appears as an auxiliary to the auto loan application process.
"We really think our member is going to react more to the insurance quote while they're applying for the auto loan, rather than looking first for the insurance quote," said Nicolay.
