Word: agented
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...that woeful customer experience, McCue and others hear an enormous opportunity. Most of today's touch-tone call centers are built on expensive proprietary equipment that can't talk to a company's other systems. That's why no matter how often you punch in your account number, the agent you finally speak to will invariably ask for it again...
...savings stems directly from the popularity of more than a dozen online insurance sites, such as InsWeb.com and Quotesmith.com which instantly serve up price quotes for term-life policies sold by hundreds of insurance companies. This lets shoppers pinpoint the best rate without having to contact an agent...
...windfall for Internet surfers has come at the expense of many of the sites that make the savings possible, since consumers frequently shop online only to purchase a policy from their own off-line agent. Some gratitude. "These websites have done consumers a tremendous service," says Brown, "but they have not figured out how to make money." Indeed, the stock prices of Quotesmith and InsWeb, the two largest insurance shopping sites, have fallen some 90% below their 52-week highs...
...wobbling because they solved one problem--finding a good price--without making it just as easy to apply for and buy the product. Because all initial estimates are preliminary, locating an attractive price quote is often just the start of a lengthy process. Next, shoppers must contact an agent--either online or off--or apply directly to an insurance company. They then complete a questionnaire and take a physical exam before obtaining final quotes and purchasing their policies...
...Information technology personnel at some companies ignored those warnings while they circulated mostly in the technical community. FBI officials are now trying to go over their heads to alert top managers to the threat of the new cyber-racket. As one agent put it, "We can't prevent bank robberies if you don't lock the doors...