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Is your agency's Web site a one-hit wonder? It's never been easier to keep your site updated By Nancy Doucette “One of the mantras of Web site designers is: ‘Don’t be a one-hit wonder.’” says Tim Woods, vice president and chief technology officer of Artizan Internet Services, which combines technology innovation and insurance expertise to assist insurance professionals to better service their customers and manage their business more efficiently. “You must give people who visit your site a reason to return.” “A successful Web site strikes the right combination of technique and finesse,” explains Jonathan Spiliotopoulos, general manager of BlueFuse, a Web services and interactive media firm. “It’s about information management. Provide too much technical flash—too much information—and your message is obscured. Provide too little of each, and you attract no audience.” “Agents need to ask themselves what they want their Web site to do. What do they need the site to do? Perhaps they didn’t ask those questions when they first created their site,” notes Mark O’Brien, partner in O’Brien Communications Group, a business-to-business brand-management and marketing communication firm, and the parent company of BlueFuse. “Not all Web sites are created equal,” Spiliotopoulos observes, continuing with O’Brien’s thought. “Outlining your objectives—and based on that, the site’s purpose—helps determine the type of Web site required—a marketing site, an online storefront, or a portal. Each type is intended to fulfill a specific purpose. Each is intended to achieve a particular result from a particular audience. “In their Web sites, insurance agencies typically mix elements from all of those three types,” he continues. “As a consequence, the message becomes as confusing as the functionality. And the site’s objectives are seldom achieved.” Tim Woods says one of the sites which Artizan helped develop exemplifies the “don’t be a one-hit wonder” mantra he mentioned earlier: www.acttech.org. The ACTtech site was designed by the Agents Council for Technology to provide agents and brokers a single “go to” location where they can learn what real-time and download transactions their carriers have for agencies using the various agency management systems. “Agents, carriers, and vendors return to the site regularly to see who is ‘state of the art,’” he says. But that’s an association Web site. What about agencies? Are agency sites meeting the agency’s objectives? Are agencies updating their Web sites as agency objectives change? AUGIE—the ACORD User Group Information Exchange—surveyed some 7,500 agency, brokerage, MGA, and wholesaler professionals, between January 2006 and mid-March 2006. An executive summary of the “2006 AUGIE Agency Technology Survey” can be downloaded from: www.acordadvantage.org/augie/index.aspx. According to the survey, about 38% of those responding said they rarely or never updated the site. How come? Too expensive? Too time-consuming? Both Spiliotopoulos and Woods say that updating a Web site doesn’t need to be a big-ticket item. And maintaining it after the update is completed need no longer be a “rarely” or “never” event. “Ten years ago, the idea of maintaining your own Web page using an easy what-you-see-is-what-you-get type utility was the stuff that dreams were made of,” says Spiliotopoulos. “Today those tools exist. So you can maintain Web sites with about the same ease as you create a Word document, using Web technologies. There’s no word processor involved in that updating, but it’s as easy as using a word processor.” Woods says that Artizan provides some of its clients with data-driven utilities that make it possible for the agencies to update online employee lists or job openings, for example. “Certain tasks are better managed at the agency level,” he points out. Artizan has also helped with the creation of automated underwriting at sites. “The rules for acceptance change dynamically day to day,” he says. “We can provide utilities so agencies can make those sorts of changes on the fly. They don’t need to contact us.” Improvements in technology have made it possible for agencies to provide imaginative customer service tools such as providing online surveys to obtain customer comments, or provide customers the ability to create their own auto ID cards, or issue certificates. Woods mentions a Michigan-based agency that recently began accepting credit card payments at its Web site. “That money goes straight from their Web site to the bank,” he emphasizes. “Nobody touches it. The agency receives a notice advising that the payment was received. The customer didn’t have to call in and handle the transaction via a CSR.” He says another recent Artizan project included creating a self-service interface for an agency that does a lot of benefits business. “With this online enrollment feature, those benefits clients aren’t going to go anywhere else that doesn’t offer that feature. That becomes the minimum and that minimum keeps going up all the time,” he notes. “The customers are happier. They don’t have to call somebody to manage their benefits.” But services such as these may be a bit more than your customers need. Both Artizan and BlueFuse offer Web sites with time and budget in mind. Woods says agencies that select Artizan’s “Personalized Web sites” can choose from a number of templates and then select a color scheme and graphics from a library of options. Spiliotopoulos says that BlueFuse starts with a “solid foundation that is pre-built and then adjusts it so that it looks the way the agency wants. BlueFuse sites aren’t expensive to create and they don’t take a long time to develop. And because we use appropriate technology, they don’t require any technical expertise to manage the content.” At the AMS Users’ Group Conference, held in March 2007, Artizan asked folks who stopped by their booth whether they would freshen up their office if clients or prospects were visiting today. Without fail, the answer was: “Of course I would!” The ensuing conversation, of course, focused on the importance of freshening up the agency’s Web site because it’s just like your mom used to say: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” So if visitors to your site find stale information or decide that the site is lacking in any way, your opportunity is lost. Not sure whether your site needs an update? Both Artizan and BlueFuse will evaluate your site. “Depending on your perspective, we’re either one-trick ponies or experts,” says Spiliotopoulos. “But the fact is that our work reflects our experience. And our experience is in Web design, functionality, usage, and effectiveness. After all, you wouldn’t ask a plumber for an electrical evaluation on your house.” * For more information: |
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