Text Message Service Keeps Customers Up-to-Date
August 18th, 2006 by Penny Hagerman
If you’re one of those people who can’t remember to pay your insurance premiums–or you’d like to know when your insurance company has received and posted your payment–one insurer is now taking steps to make things easier, according to an exciting update from the Insurance Business Review Online. 
Enter Progressive Direct, one of the nation’s largest auto insurance companies. As of this week, this forward-thinking insurer now communicates payment information directly with some of its customers through mobile alerts. When bills are due or payments are received, customers who sign up receive a text message reminding them it’s time to pay up–or letting them know their most recent payment arrived safely.
This new service, available to customers who have their car insurance payments automatically deducted from a bank account or through a credit card charge, gives consumers advance notice when their account is about to be hit or the charge is about to go through. If a cancellation is imminent due to non-payment or insufficient funds, customers are now notified of this before it happens, too.
The mobile alerts work on all major wireless carriers in the U.S., the company says.
“A mobile alert sent directly to a cell phone makes it easy to know when a payment is due and when it has been made,” said Toby Alfred, Progressive Direct customer experience general manager. “The beauty of it is the customer gets the information instantly–without having to be connected to email.”
What a great idea! I hope other insurers will run with this idea, too. What do you think?
If I weren’t so happy with my new auto insurance company, I might just switch to Progressive and sign up for mobile alerts myself….
August 21st, 2006 at 9:06 am
I have to say I’m a little on the fence about this.
On the one hand, I can see how this service might be helpful to some (so long as the customer isn’t being charged every time they receive a text message from their insurer).
But on the other hand, I cringe a bit, seeing this as the slippery slope down which marketers and retailers will follow. Today, a message about a deducted insurance premium…tomorrow a message about saving on long-distance?
I suppose the whole mobile messaging thing comes down to personal preference. But, as I stated back in May, I’m not interested.
August 21st, 2006 at 9:22 am
Thanks for the comment, Megan…and I understand your hesitation completely. However, in this instance, the insured (whomever they are) would be required to sign up for the alerts. That keeps people like you who’d rather not receive them out of the loop completely.
Regarding unsolicited offers, however, I’m totally in there with you. I can’t stand those annoying text messages my cell provider sends me every afternoon about its latest offer. If I could just figure out how to disable those crazy things….