With summer’s end fast approaching we thought it would be good to post an update on how the CoverHound product progressed this summer.
Here is a recap of some big changes we made.
Faster Quoting
Like offensive linemen in football, backend optimizations can sometimes go underappreciated. But when it comes to comparison applications like CoverHound, backend optimizations can be extremely impactful to the user experience.
[Keith](http://coverhound.com/team#keith) spent much of the summer refactoring our carrier API integrations. As a result of his diligent work, we are returning rates to our customers 23% quicker!
The speed at which we get rates will continue to be a major focus of user experience optimization. Try our service again in a few weeks for even quicker and smoother rate rendering on our rates page.
Rate Estimate API
CoverHound works with great brands in other verticals such as personal finance, and automotive (ie - [MotorTrend](http://coverhound.com/press/coverhound-announces-strategic-partnership-with-source-interlink-media)) to help them add value for their loyal customers who are looking for insurance. To facilitate that we are building tools enabling them to key into our goldmine of insurance pricing data. This summer we built a rate estimate algorithm that can be accessed via an API for select partners. Now partners can present insurance estimates to their users by passing CoverHound only a few inputs (ie - zip code and vehicle), and enhance their value proposition! [Joe](http://coverhound.com/team#joe) did some great work on this. Here is an example of an insurance estimate widget we have on our own site; you'll even see it at the bottom of this post!
Purchase Online
In another effort to optimize user experience and make our process more efficient, we implemented a feature to enable purchasing your policy online. In our early product iterations we found that some consumers were not buying policies even though we were offering to save them lots of money. We now understand that some consumers prefer self-service and so we built out the online buying feature with them in mind. So far the feedback from our new policyholders who have used this feature is very positive. Awesome work by [Jeff](http://coverhound.com/team#jeff) and [Laura](http://coverhound.com/team#laura) leading the charge here!
The team is hard at work on some great features including: support for online home and renters insurance, additional carriers, and a revamp of our auto form. Stay tuned for more updates!
