Case Study
Thoroughbred Insurance Agency
Lexington, KY
48 years covering Central Kentucky — and every visitor who tries to request a quote online gets a “Whoops! There was an error” message.
The “Request a Quote” form on thoroughbredinsuranceky.com is the primary call to action on the homepage — large, centered, prominently placed above the fold. When a visitor fills it out and clicks “Get My Free Quote,” the page returns:
“Whoops! There was an error. Please try again.”
The form is broken. It has been broken for an indeterminate period. Every visitor who reaches the most important touchpoint on the site — the moment of highest intent, when a prospect has decided they want a quote — hits the same error and disappears. For a 48-year Lexington agency competing against online insurance comparison tools, a broken quote form means every digital lead the site generates terminates before the first conversation.
The Agency
Thoroughbred Insurance Agency has been serving Central Kentucky since 1978. Auto, home, life, farm, and commercial coverage across Lexington, Frankfort, Georgetown, Richmond, and the surrounding Bluegrass region. 143 Google reviews. 4.4 stars. An independent agency with carrier relationships that give clients real choice — the kind of agency that survives 48 years because clients send their children and neighbors.
The Lexington insurance market is large and competitive. State Farm, Allstate, online comparison tools, and direct writers all compete for the same prospects. An independent agency's digital advantage is the ability to offer a multi-carrier quote request — the one thing a captive agent can't do. That advantage only exists if the quote form works.
What We Found
A broken primary CTA with no fallback — the digital equivalent of a disconnected phone line.
The Quote Form Fails on Submission
The Contact Form 7 plugin powering the quote request form has either been misconfigured or the email handler has stopped functioning. The form accepts input — name, email, phone, coverage type — but fails on submission with a generic error message. No quote request is received. No confirmation is sent to the visitor. The data goes nowhere.
The exact duration of the breakage is unknown. Every lead generated by Google Search, Google Ads, social referrals, or word-of-mouth during that period who tried the online quote path has hit the same wall.
The Highest-Intent Visitors Are the Ones Getting Burned
A visitor who fills out a quote request form isn't browsing. They've decided they want a quote from this agency specifically. That's the highest-intent action a prospect can take before calling. A broken form ends that moment of intent with an error message. In a competitive market like Lexington, those visitors don't try again — they click the next result.
No Visible Fallback for Online Visitors
The phone number is in the header, but the quote form is the designed conversion path for digital visitors. A broken form with no visible alternative — no “call us instead,” no chat widget, no secondary CTA — means the site offers no digital path to the first conversation. Visitors arrive, try the form, see the error, and leave.
What We'd Build
A Lexington independent insurance agency site where the quote request actually works — and where 48 years of Central Kentucky service is the opening argument.
A Quote Form That Works
The most important thing: a functioning multi-carrier quote request form. Tested. Verified. With an immediate confirmation email to the visitor, an internal notification to the agency, and a clear response time commitment. The quote path should be frictionless and reliable.
48 Years as the Competitive Advantage
An independent Lexington agency since 1978 has something no online comparison tool can replicate: relationships. The homepage should open with that — “48 Years Covering Central Kentucky” above the fold, carrier logos showing the breadth of choice, and a quote form positioned as the first step toward a better conversation than any algorithm can offer.
Multiple Contact Paths — No Dead Ends
Quote form. Click-to-call. Email link. Response time commitment visible on the contact page. A visitor who wants to reach the agency should have three working ways to do it, with the quote form as the primary and phone as the immediate fallback. No error messages. No dead ends.
143 Reviews as Social Proof
143 reviews at 4.4 stars represents real client relationships in the Lexington market. A live review feed near the quote form puts real client voices at the most important conversion point on the site — right before a visitor decides whether to submit a request.
Spec Redesign Deliverables
- ✓Quote request form rebuilt — tested, confirmed working, with instant confirmation emails
- ✓“48 Years Covering Central Kentucky” hero with multi-carrier choice messaging
- ✓143 Google reviews embedded near quote form — real social proof at the conversion point
- ✓Click-to-call header with response time commitment — phone fallback always visible
- ✓Coverage type pages: auto, home, life, farm, commercial — each optimized for Lexington search
The Opportunity
Thoroughbred Insurance has survived 48 years in the Lexington market — through the rise of online insurance, the emergence of comparison tools, and every economic cycle the Bluegrass region has seen. That survival is a story of real service and earned relationships.
The digital version of that story isn't being told right now — because every prospect who tries to engage online gets an error message. Fixing the form is the minimum. A site that actually tells the 48-year story and makes it easy to get a quote is the version this agency deserves.
The clients are already there. The reputation is built. The website just needs to stop turning away the people who are actively trying to become clients.
See what we'd fix on your site
We'll review your website top to bottom, record a 10-minute Loom walkthrough of exactly what's broken, and deliver a PDF report with prioritized fixes — in 48 hours.
No commitment. No pitch deck.