A prospect lands on an agency website at twenty to ten in the evening, renewal notice in one hand, and finds a contact form that promises a reply within one working day. By the next morning the question has been answered somewhere else. An insurance chatbot exists to close that gap: it answers the questions an agency or brokerage already answers on its pages, captures the quote request properly, and passes anything that needs a licence to a person.
This guide covers what one does on an agency website, where its limits sit, and what to check before choosing one.
What an insurance chatbot is, and is not
On an agency website, a chatbot is a chat window that has read your pages: product summaries, policy wordings you have uploaded, the claims guidance, the about page with your office hours. When a visitor types a question, it answers from that material, in the visitor's language, at any hour. When the question goes past what you have published, it says so and takes the visitor's details for a licensed colleague.
It is not an underwriter, a rating engine or an adviser. It does not read a policy schedule, look up a claim or quote a premium. Treat it as the member of staff who knows the brochure rack by heart and knows exactly when to fetch the broker.
The questions prospects ask an agency website
Pull the last month of enquiries from your inbox and the same themes come up. These are the ones an assistant handles well, because the answers live in your content already.
Coverage types. What the difference is between third party and comprehensive. Whether a landlord policy covers rent arrears. Whether a tradesman's public liability includes tools left in the van overnight. These are definitional questions and your product pages answer them.
How quotes work. Whether a quote is free, how long it takes, whether it is binding, and whether the agency compares several insurers or places with one. Prospects want to know what happens after they ask.
Documents. For motor: licence details, no-claims proof, registration. For home: rebuild value, lock types, any previous claims. For commercial: turnover, headcount, trade description. Listing these up front means the follow-up call is productive.
Claims, in general terms. Who to ring first, what to photograph, whether to get repairs started, how long the process usually takes. The process, never the outcome.
Office hours and practicalities. When the office is open, whether you offer evening appointments, where to park, whether a client can drop in without an appointment.
Visitor: Do you do insurance for a small bakery? I have two part-time staff. Assistant: Yes. Our commercial pages cover shop and food business insurance, including employers' liability, which is a legal requirement once you have staff, plus public liability, stock and equipment cover. For a quote the team will need your trading address, turnover, number of staff and whether you deliver. Would you like me to take your details so a broker can call you?
How a quote request gets captured
A quote enquiry needs a handful of things before a broker can act on it: the line of business, the renewal or start date, a name, and a phone number or email. The assistant asks for these in a short exchange and the agency gets a named lead in its dashboard inbox rather than an anonymous page view.
The order matters. Ask the line of business first so the enquiry routes to the right desk. Ask the date second, because a policy lapsing on Friday should be called before one renewing in March. Then take contact details. The case for a conversation over a twenty-field form is made in how insurance agencies replace abandoned quote forms, so this post will not repeat it.
Keep medical history, criminal convictions and payment details out of the chat window. The assistant should note that the broker will cover those on the call, through whatever secure process the agency already uses.
What it must route to a licensed person
Insurance is regulated, and the line is not subtle. The assistant answers general and published information. Anything personal or advisory goes to a person.
- Which policy someone should choose, or whether a sum insured is enough
- Whether a specific incident is covered, or likely to be paid
- Any premium figure, indication or "roughly how much"
- Binding, amending or cancelling cover
- A complaint about the agency or an insurer
- Anyone describing a loss that is happening now
A visitor who types "my kitchen flooded an hour ago" does not want a paragraph. They want the claims line and a human. Claims enquiries that need a person straight away sets out how a broker's website should handle that moment.
For a renewal question such as "why has my premium gone up", the assistant can explain in general terms that premiums reflect claims history, market conditions and changes to cover, then take the client's policy reference and a callback time. The patterns are covered in the renewal questions every insurance broker hears.
A worked example
Illustrative only. Say a two-office brokerage writes personal and commercial lines, and its website gets 600 visits a month. Around 40 of those visitors currently send something: a form, an email, a voicemail left after six. Half arrive outside office hours.
With an assistant on the site, the hours question, the "do you cover X" question and the documents question are answered on the spot. Of the 40 who would have made contact, perhaps 30 now get what they needed without waiting. The rest, plus some visitors who would never have filled in a form, leave a quote request with the line of business, date and contact details attached. On Monday morning the commercial broker opens the inbox and finds a numbered ticket for the bakery, with the conversation beneath it, and rings at nine with the right questions ready.
The win is not volume. It is that nothing which arrived at twenty to ten sat untouched, and every lead that did arrive is already sorted by desk.
A short selection checklist
Before you choose one, check these in the order given.
- Does it answer only from your content? Ask it something you have never published and see whether it admits it does not know.
- Can you set the advice boundary in plain words? You should be able to tell it, in one line, never to indicate a premium or recommend a product.
- Where do leads land? A dashboard inbox and a numbered ticket, with the full conversation, that your team can see and reply from.
- Can a person step in? A broker on duty should be able to take over a live chat when the visitor needs them.
- Does it handle other languages? Clients who do not write in English still need cover.
- How is it installed? One line of code or a WordPress plugin should be enough. If setup needs a developer, the price is higher than the invoice says.
- What does it cost once you have three product lines on three microsites? Count the chatbots you need before you count the features.
Where SpideyChat fits
SpideyChat for insurance reads your agency's pages, answers coverage, quote, document, claims-process and hours questions at any hour in the visitor's language, captures quote requests with name, email and phone, and hands a chat to a broker who is on duty in the dashboard. The Free plan runs one chatbot on one website with no card. Starter at $9.99 a month covers three chatbots with the website crawler, and Pro at $29.99 a month adds the support ticket inbox and removes the branding. Compare them on the pricing page.