6 LOGIC FOR EVALUATING THE DEVELOPED ARTEFACT
7.1 Descriptive characteristics of traditional approach on
Insurance is traditionally seen as complex and confusing matter by customers (e.g. Järvi-nen et al. 2001). The essential characteristics of (electronic) insurance services theoreti-The essential characteristics of (electronic) insurance services theoreti-cally discussed in chapters 3.1.3 and 4.1.4 (see Figure 10) refer to low frequency of use, low involvement, and high self-contact by customers. Furthermore, in the electronic serviceFurthermore, in the electronic service context the characteristics of the service environment may even strengthen customers’
perceptions on the above mentioned characteristics of insurance, and thereby, increase the complexity and confusion perceived by the customers. This study suggests that the characteristics of electronic (insurance) service environment can, more or less, be seen to refer to usability-related attributes such as content, appearance, navigation, and interactiv-ity/assistance.
In this research I discuss traditional and novel approaches on designing the electronic insurance service environment. My opinion is that in insurance service context the tradi-tional approach seems to refer to the nature of insurance as perceived in earlier studies and literature, and depicted above. The empirical results of the research support this insight as is established through the discussion below.
Altogether four descriptive categories characterizing the traditional approach on elec-tronic insurance service environment were found by interpreting the discussions of the interviewees. These categories comprise: conservative, trustworthy, comprehensive, and un-clear. The descriptive characteristics of traditional approach on designing electronic insur-The descriptive characteristics of traditional approach on designing electronic insur-ance service environment are depicted in Figure 23. In addition, the dark red color is usedIn addition, the dark red color is used to visually symbolize the essential (e.g. conservative and trustworthy) nature of traditional approach indicated through the four categories.
Before discussing the descriptive characteristics of a traditional electronic insurance service environment more thoroughly, I shall consider the issue in more general terms.
In this regard, the empirical results indicate that traditional electronic insurance service environment is perceived as lacking a kind of Web-orientation in designing the electronic service environment by the interviewees. From the perspective of usability-related
attri-butes the most crucial factors determining the lack of Web-orientation are especially re-ferring to appearance, and interactivity/assistance.
As the empirical results reveal, ignoring the importance of designing the appearance of electronic service environment can also be interpreted as a sign of low customer orienta-tion. One respondent, even getting slightly irritated, stated that if a company is not put-ting effort to designing the appearance of electronic service environment, it may be a sign that they are underestimating their customers:
P14: Well, I certainly wouldn’t buy a single insurance from that company. That’s for sure. They’re nothing but underestimating the consumer by not having paid any atten-tion to the appearance.
As addressed already in theory part, assistance and support are important elements to customers especially in electronic service environment since the physical service contact is missing. In such a case customer has to rely on the ability of self-service technology (SST) to fulfill his service needs. However, if the customer faces problems it is utmost important
TRADITIONAL ELECTRONIC
INSURANCE SERVICE ENVIRONMENT Conservative
Trustworthy
Comprehensive
Unclear
FIGURE 23. DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL APPROACH ON DESIGNING ELECTRONIC INSURANCE SERVICE ENVIRONMENT
to get help and/or advices to be able to go further. In the context of electronic insurance services this issue is even more emphasized due to the complex nature of the service itself.
A generally essential observation concerning the traditional electronic insurance ser-vice environment was that there could definitely be more assistance and support available for the customers. Otherwise customers are left alone with their questions and/or problems:
P6: The fact that there’s no help available is quite a blunder, in my opinion.
P15: … here there are also much less help options.
P17: Well, phone numbers and so forth are missing. And the number of phases has also not been presented anywhere.
However, the above presented insights on the traditional electronic insurance service environment being non-Web oriented are just preliminary examples about the tendency discussed in this chapter. In the following sections the descriptive characteristics of the traditional approach on designing electronic insurance service environment are discussed in more detail.
Conservative
While comparing and discussing the examples, which described both traditional and nov-el approach on nov-electronic insurance services and service environments, the interviewees generally described the traditional electronic insurance service environment with terms official, matter-of-fact, outdated, conservative, and even boring.
From the appearance point of view, the layout of traditional electronic insurance service environment is described as outdated and unsophisticated by the interviewees. The cita-tions below support this notion:
P17: … yeah, it looks a bit out-of-date, gives me the impression that they haven’t in-vested in that [appearance] or that it’s just what it has been, like yesterday.
P18: right away you get the impression that it’s really sort of typically official.
P14: … by the way, this is very conservative. Slightly old-fashioned.
However, my opinion is that terms “official”, “matter-of-fact”, “outdated”, as well as “bor-ing” can be seen to be related to conservativeness. Therefore, the term conservative is cho-sen to descriptively characterize the traditional approach on electronic insurance services and service environment while the other four terms are seen to be included in “conservative-ness”.
One reason for interviewees’ opinions on the traditional electronic insurance service environment being outdated might be the logic by which the content is displayed on the Web sites. The empirical results indicate that the traditional electronic insurance service environment resembles written insurance brochures and the content is only transferred to the Web by using copy-paste technique:
P9: … this reminds me of those brochures which are distributed, like it could be that they have brochures just like that at the office, with basically the same picture and the same text.
P11: … and that was copy-pasted from somewhere, from some insurance company, be-cause it’s just that kind of text added to the end of the other text.
P11: Yes, it has a cut and paste -feel to it, they’ve probably taken it directly from some brochure and added it to the website.
The empirical results, reflecting the prevailing general attitude of the customers towards insurance business, indicate that matter-of-fact and official-natured business like insur-ance is also often associated with being boring, or even depressing. This is not any surprise, but as said, the notion gives support to the earlier research on customers’ insights into insurance (see e.g. Järvinen et al. 2001; Ahonen and Salonen 2005). As the following cita-tions indicate, one essential point in line with the earlier research refers to the relacita-tionship between matter-of fact and boring. One respondent associated “grim” with “trustworthy”
whereas another respondent from a different focus group doubted whether matter-of-fact and boring could relate to each other:
P18: it does look quite depressing but of course what they’ve tried to achieve is trustwor-thiness… but it is very boring, so would one even bother to start reading it through?
P9: But this is more matter-of-fact, but trustworthy and boring, I wonder if that’s the same thing to some extent.
In my opinion, conservativeness, as well as the other four terms (official, matter-of-fact, outdated, and boring), describe particularly well the essential nature of the traditional approach on electronic insurance services, and service environment. In addition, the emerged terms, more or less, follow the prevailing general conception on the nature of insurance business.
Trustworthy
Insurance as a business is generally characterized by the fact that it should create trust among customers. This insight also clearly emerged through the empirical data of this
study. While the focus group participants were discussing the characteristics of electronic insurance services, and electronic insurance service environment, the term “trustworthy”
was used very often. Especially the discussion on examples referring to traditional elec-tronic insurance service environment was strongly characterized as being trustworthy by the interviewees.
From the perspective of usability-related attributes, the term trustworthy was especially reflected through content, and appearance. In the first case the insights of the interviewees were mostly referring to the amount of the information while in the latter case colors used (on the Web sites) played a crucial role in the discussions.
Concerning the content, the empirical results indicate a clear connection between the electronic insurance service environment being trustworthy, and the comprehensiveness.
As is indicated in the Figure 23, comprehensiveness might cause unclarity due to the large amount of information. On the other hand, comprehensiveness was, however, seen asOn the other hand, comprehensiveness was, however, seen as one of the crucial factors creating trust. The empirical results reveal that large amount of information and (juridical) clauses create the feeling of comprehensiveness. In addition, traditional electronic insurance service environment was generally characterized as trust-worthy in a positive sense by most of the research participants as is established in the last of the three citations below:
P20: That one is more convincing, because it has a long list of things…
P18: … like it’s an extensive list and they’ve listed articles, that has a certain trustwor-thiness aspect so it’s extensive and thorough, so that’s the impression it gives.
P7: Well, the first thought that came to my mind is that the one on the left is more trustworthy. Yes, definitely.
From the appearance point of view, the colors used in the context of traditional electronic insurance service environment were seen to create trust, and also reflect quality. The col-ors used on the Web pages of the companies representing the traditional approach on electronic insurance services were characterized as cautious, subdued, or conservative. As the latest citation below indicates, one respondent found association with the Finnish in-surance company Turva, which also supports the notion of Finnish inin-surance companies representing the traditional approach on electronic insurance services:
P18: very understated colors… like let’s not use any color that might stand out, so just that kind of very subdued colors.
P3: … certain quality shines through. At least with this picture, like the colors are sub-dued, but then again there’s too much text…
P14: The left one reminds me of the site of Turva, an insurance company in Tampere.
As the discussion above establishes, the traditional electronic insurance service environ-ment is perceived as trustworthy by the interviewees (i.e. the customers). This character-istic is more emphasized than it is in case of the novel approach on electronic insurance services and service environment as the later discussion in the chapter 7.2 establishes.
Comprehensive
Large amount of information was perceived to characterize the traditional approach on designing electronic insurance services and service environment. When compared to novel approach the interviewees indicated that there is greater amount of comprehensive infor-mation about insurance available for the customers. The results also reveal that text-based page layout (i.e. appearance) gets customers more convinced about the comprehensive-ness of information on the Web than a more graphical page layout. Further, by displaying much information in the electronic service environment a company can deliver a message of openness to the customers, and show that they have nothing to hide:
P9: Well, if I had to search for information, so from these that are here in front of me, I would rather search for information from this one, because I think it contains more information, and there you would get more pictures or other links.
P1: … and that other one is like, you get all the information from here and we have nothing to hide, read everything and then come and get this insurance from us.
On the other hand, the results also indicate that in most cases there is actually too much information available. The citation below illustrates this insight:
P6: And then of course in this one on the right [traditional example], since it has so much text, then maybe it, I don’t know, if it maybe should have a little less text.
Traditional electronic insurance service environment was seen as suitable for people who have knowledge and experience about insurance matters. This impression mainly refers to the amount of information and, on the other hand, to the way the companies display the information on the Web (i.e. content and appearance):
P3: This is raw material, one has to have some understanding of what it is they are listing here… The left one [novel example] is graphic, smart looking, where you can click and choose what you want to look at more closely. I think it’s easier to find from this one [novel example], but if you know a lot about insurance, then this [traditional example] gives more information even, this left one.
Similarly as in case of “trustworthy”, discussion on the traditional approach got some par-ticipants to associate with Finnish insurance companies, which supports the fact that in Finland insurance companies generally represent the traditional approach in case of elec-tronic insurance services. This was mainly caused by the great amount of information on the Web:
P7: If one thinks about Finnish insurance companies, then really they’re presenting style is more similar to that right one [traditional example].
P11: They too, try to put too many things in there.
On the basis of the empirical results, it can be interpreted that comprehensiveness as a characteristic of electronic insurance service environment is preferred by the customers.
However, as the discussion referring to the traditional approach indicates, service provid-ers should especially pay attention to how the content is structured, and how the layout factors should be organized in order to support the content structure in a way that the electronic insurance service environment is easy and appealing to use for the customers.
Otherwise, there might be a risk that the customer faces an unclear electronic service en-vironment when entering onto the Web sites of insurance service provider. Thus,Thus, there is a connection between the terms comprehensive and unclear as is illustrated in the Figure 23.
Unclear
Clearness is perceived as one factor determining the usability and quality of information systems. Clearness is especially related to the relevance of information (McKinney, Yoon, and Zahedi 2002, 301). In case of insurance the focus group participants more or less gen-erally argued that the Web sites indicating the traditional approach are unclear in many ways. From the perspective of usability attributes, “unclear” is referring to the amount of information (content) but also to the issues related to navigation and appearance.
Large amount of information is one of the most dominant characteristics of the tra-ditional electronic insurance service environment. The empirical data reveals that large amount of information increases the unclarity of the electronic service environment. For instance, one respondent indicated that due to the amount of information it is more dif-ficult to find the desired piece of information:
P11: In my opinion they’ve put too much information in one. … to find the one thing you need, I could imagine that it would be more difficult here [traditional example].
In addition, the empirical results indicate that structure of text on the Web sites can be a determinant of unclear electronic service environment. This is especially the case when
there is a mass of complex information available on the Web. In traditional electronic insurance service environment the text structure was perceived as poorly executed by the interview participants. Text mass is put to the Web as such without highlighting the es-sentials or points that might be important and useful for the customers:
P11: Then again maybe here on the right there’s more text, perhaps it gives you more information, but it’s so unpleasant to read that if you’re considering taking out insur-ance, you definitely [don’t] feel like reading such long verses.
P17: That they’ve really just listed [things] there… so not even the headings are empha-sized in any way, so it’s just one chunk.
P18: … it’s extremely heavy to read, that sort of text mass, when there’s nothing animat-ing it.
Links on the Web sites were generally perceived too long and hard to find. As can be inter-preted from the citations below, constructing functional and clear links to the electronic service environment is important in terms of the Web sites being clear rather than un-clear:
P10: In general the headings in the one on the right are much too long, if you need to [search] for something, so what would you really find on any page. Probably just a long chunk of text.
P23: And in that one on the other hand, there’s a smaller list over there, a bit apart, so it would be difficult to find the link that you need or where you want to [go]…
P1: But that other one… I mean, you start wondering if you should really start reading it, that would you even know, where you then…
Unclarity also refers to the appearance of the service environment to some extent. Many respondents associated the layout of the traditional electronic insurance service environ-ment with a written insurance policy docuenviron-ment full of small-printed matter-of-fact text, which customers are used to receiving from insurance companies. That is seen to turn off interest in getting oneself familiar with insurance matters:
P10: Well this right one in my opinion is the same as a traditional insurance docu-ment… Just as tedious to start reading that small print.
P15: That looks boring, that, that looks exactly like the small print that the insurance terms normally contain.
All in all, an interesting notion is that when observing the traditional electronic insur-ance service environment interviewees use somewhat negative adjectives even though they describe the positive characteristics of the environment. A good example is the discussion above related to the electronic insurance service environment being comprehensive as well as trustworthy. In principle they were seen as positive characteristics but still it was associ-ated with negative expressions (e.g. boring and confusing).
In my opinion, this discussion also well describes the general and traditional attitude towards insurance services - both physical and electronic; insurance is reflected by com-plexity, severity, conservativeness, and trustworthiness, among others. None of these at-tributes of the nature of insurance are joyful or frisky atat-tributes, quite the contrary. This is the way things have been within the insurance industry, and also among customers. Nev-ertheless, there are still both insurance companies and customers who would rather keep the situation unchanged by thinking: “this is the way things have been, and also should be”. However, along with the increasing use of electronic services the essential question here is: “can there be something else”? Something easier and more sensible better enabling customers’ operations in the electronic service environment? In the next sub chapter the novel approach on providing insurance services in electronic environment is described.
In my opinion, this discussion also well describes the general and traditional attitude towards insurance services - both physical and electronic; insurance is reflected by com-plexity, severity, conservativeness, and trustworthiness, among others. None of these at-tributes of the nature of insurance are joyful or frisky atat-tributes, quite the contrary. This is the way things have been within the insurance industry, and also among customers. Nev-ertheless, there are still both insurance companies and customers who would rather keep the situation unchanged by thinking: “this is the way things have been, and also should be”. However, along with the increasing use of electronic services the essential question here is: “can there be something else”? Something easier and more sensible better enabling customers’ operations in the electronic service environment? In the next sub chapter the novel approach on providing insurance services in electronic environment is described.