SOUND INTERNET SOLUTIONS
Agency Web site success stories
By John Ashenhurst
Only one in four agencies has a Web site. Can that be right? According to research we completed in December 2002, there are about 7,500 sites in a universe of about 30,000 agencies. Of those agencies with sites, many agency principals have expressed disappointment in them. On the other hand, some agents report getting real value from their sites. Why the disparity? What follows are some success stories about agencies that consider their investment in a Web site money well spent.
Modest expectations
Dave Carlson of Carlson Insurance, Inc. (www.carlsoninsurance.com) believes that agents who are disappointed in the return they get from their Web site had unrealistic expectations with respect to the Internet. Many agents, he thinks, naively expected a flood of new business to roll into their agencies through their sites. That was the atmosphere of the Internet boom times. It didn't happen for agents. In fact it didn't happen much for anyone. So agents with high expectations were disappointed and withdrew, and those sitting on the sidelines watching concluded there was no point playing.
The key, Carlson says, is to have realistic Internet expectations. Agency Web sites are not absolutely necessary today, but they are key elements of the emerging insurance and general business environments. Agency Web sites are part of an evolutionary--not revolutionary--process, just as other agency technology has been.
The Carlson Insurance Web site enjoys about 150 visits per month and has assisted in the sale of perhaps 20 auto policies and more life policies. With an initial investment of only $1,000 (and little agency time) and annual hosting costs of $300, Carlson thinks the money is well spent. Carlson reports modest though consistent efforts to publicize his site to his customers. For instance, out-going envelopes are stamped with a reminder about the Web site.
Customers have access to online self-service through the site and especially like being able to pay premiums via credit card. That's convenient--and perhaps more important--it allows customers to pump up their frequent flyer points as a painless by-product of paying premium.
Though Carlson sees benefit from his site, he'd like more information about how shoppers and customers actually use it. He doesn't know today how many make use of his reference information and self-service areas. He does know that when he follows up with customers who have bought online, without agent assistance, he can often help them understand that the choices they've made don't meet their real needs. He shows them how to make better choices and thus demonstrates the value of having an agent behind online services.
Some agents are skeptical about the benefit of agency Web sites. Carlson isn't. He knows he receives real, though modest benefits. The point, for him, is to provide channels for all of his customers--Internet enthusiasts as well as the Internet-anxious--and to make incremental improvements to his site over time.
Attracting prospects
Some agents have been disappointed that merely having a Web site doesn't automatically mean an increase in sales. One problem, of course, is that prospects may not be able to find the agent's site. John Berkowitz at www.medequote.com has found an effective way to lead prospects to his site via search engine optimization.
Consumers often use popular search engines like Google and Yahoo to find potentially relevant Web sites. Web sites that appear high on the results list (the first page) are much more likely to enjoy click-throughs (and thus visitors) than sites that appear lower down (subsequent pages).
Berkowitz uses an outside service that optimizes his site (keywords and so on) on a regular basis to ensure that certain searches (the ones that his best prospects would likely use to find him) put him near the top of popular search engine results lists.
Berkowitz reports that his Web site is a success and a major source of new business. Search engine optimization brings prospects to the site, and useful elements of the site (for instance, needs analysis information, quote request forms, and real time quoting) move the sales process along.
Putting a face on the agency
Gateway Insurance Agency (www.gatewayins.com) recently had its Web site redone to better represent the focus and personality of the agency. Debra Zambrana says the agency wanted its customers to have a better idea about who was actually serving them in the agency. The result is a series of agency team photos on the site so that when customers look up an e-mail address they have a chance to match a face with a name.
Zambrana added that staff photos on the site have been a help to job candidates who come back to the site to review and remember whom they talked to and what was discussed.
Personalizing the site, showing that the agency is a team of friendly insurance experts, people you can talk to and get help from, is supplemented with convenient ways to communicate information to the staff--for instance, through e-mail and an easy-to-use survey form.
Inexpensive advertising
Angelyn Treutel at Treutel Insurance Agency, Inc. (www.treutel.com) offered that her Web site is an inexpensive way to advertise (and more generally, market) the agency and its services. The agency uses the site to supplement agency print advertising--which is expensive and always inadequate to tell the complete agency story. Advertising leads prospects to the Web site and the Web site tells the agency story.
Treutel explained that the agency Web site makes it possible to provide 24/7 service, customer and prospect agency e-mail access, a feedback form, a quarterly newsletter and other response elements that should be part of an agency's repertoire. The Web site isn't intended to replace person-to-person contact, but it is intended to be and does successfully function as a supplement to that contact.
The point, according to Truetel, is to give customers what they want--and that means choice--to stop in, call, e-mail, or use the Web site for information, service requests and the like. In the future, Truetel intends to provide more extensive self-service via links to carrier sites that have that functionality.
Substance rather than fluff
Peter Anderson at Anderson Insurance Services, Inc. (www.insuremass.com) aims to provide customers and prospects with what's really important and valuable to them. So, the site provides real-time customer self-service, including the ability to retrieve policy information, print ID cards, fax certificates, and enter a first notice of loss.
Anderson thinks that some agency sites emphasize information that's not particularly useful when they should focus on day-to-day substantive customer needs. Frequently, when Anderson agency customers are car shopping, they want to know the insurance implications of a potential purchase. The Anderson Web site now provides forms for customers (or prospects) to request quotes.
Although Anderson admits that his customers have not clamored for online self-service, follow-up surveys show that in fact they are pleased to have that choice and do use it. Online self-service certificate requests have been a hit with some customers. Anderson believes that prospects are more likely to do business with his agency, and existing customers will stick around because of the value the agency Web site provides them.
Individual independent agents can use their Web sites to differentiate themselves from other independent agents, but a larger issue is the need for the independent agents in general to respond to the challenges of some direct writers--that are doing a very good job of providing their customers with online self-service options.
Stage one
Warren Wheeler at Hunter Insurance (www.hunterins.com) acknowledges that so far his site receives modest visitation by prospects and customers. But some of those visits have resulted in sales. For instance, a consumer moving from Florida, looking for an Ohio agent, found the site and eventually bought insurance--with the comment that she wouldn't deal with an agency that wasn't progressive enough to have a site. A local commercial framing contractor, dissatisfied with his current agent, found Hunter Insurance through the Internet, not bothering with paper Yellow Pages. The account resulted in $30,000 in new premium to Hunter Insurance.
Hunter Insurance promotes its site through its newsletter, letterhead, business cards, agency brochure, and other communication opportunities. In addition, some of its site traffic comes from its carriers' agency locators. Wheeler points out that some agency locators are well designed, while others are not very consumer-friendly. The best locators allow the consumer to search for all relevant agencies within a specified number of miles from a ZIP code or city name.
Hunter Insurance doesn't yet provide much online self-service through its site. Wheeler is skeptical that consumers are willing to use quote engines that require a great deal of input and don't deliver reliable quotes. But he does look forward to providing policyholder self-service, for instance, to review coverage or request a change.
The most important value of his site, according to Wheeler, is that it provides an Internet channel for that growing minority of prospects and consumers who want it. The current site, as Wheeler describes it, is "stage one" in an evolutionary process. As appropriate technology becomes available and the agency is ready to use it, the agency will broaden and deepen its site to provide its visitors more choices and services.
Agency sites provide value today
Perhaps value, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder; and thus the agency Web site success efforts briefly recounted here would look like a waste of time to skeptical principals and conservative bean counters. On the other hand, it's hard to deny that these agencies and others like them receive real benefit from their sites. Admittedly, agency Web sites are not a life or death issue. Neither are management systems or even PCs for that matter. An agency can survive with little technology. And, one can survive without hot and cold running water. That doesn't mean it makes sense to do without it.
Agency Web sites don't need to change the world to be useful and act as an important part of agency marketing, sales, and service efforts. They don't need to be expensive or require much agency time--but if they're implemented, they do need to be taken seriously and accepted into the agency family to be a success. Is it time for your agency to get serious about having a site? *
The author
John Ashenhurst and his company, Sound Internet Strategy, provide information and analysis (through his Web site, www.soundingline.com), consulting, Web site evaluation, and seminar services to independent agents and their trading partners. He can be reached at johnashenhurst@soundingline.com or (360) 376-1090.