Agency Web Assistant

What should be on our agency web site?

The good news is their are no rules when it comes to what you should place on your agency web site. Common sense and input from the entire staff will usually give you a good start.

The second step is to search for insurance agencies on the Internet and find out what you like and you don't like about their web sites.

First start with the basics;

Who, what, where, when, why and how!

• Who You Are - Your home page.
• What You Do - A list of insurance products you represent.
• Where You Do It - Your contact page including your address and how people can get a hold of you.
• When You Do It - Your hours of operation and if you have special evening appointments for example.
• Why you do it - This could be your "About Us" page, how long you have been in business serving the community.
• How you do it - Also could be on your "About Us" page or on a "Meet Our Staff" page outlining the agency personnel credentials.

Many web site programs have some pre-built templates to create a company presence web site. Here are some of the basics:

• Home Page - Welcome
• How To Contact Us
• News About Us
• What's New On Our Site
• Products and/or Services
• Feedback Form
• Search Form
• Table of contents

Those are the basics, once you have the site created content is only limited by your imagination. Here are a few ideas.

• Companies you represent.
• Staff directory including who handles what, credentials and e-mail.
• Logos of professional associations you belong to, insurance and local community.
• Picture of the agency - if your agency has good street exposure people in your area will recognize it or the building.
• Picture of the staff - so much of what we do is over the phone it is nice to put a face with a voice.
• Map to the agency - sometimes can be helpful. If you include a map you might also want to consider driving directions from the north or the south etc.
• Quote forms - on line forms the prospect can fill out and you receive a formatted e-mail quote request.
• Service forms - on line forms customers can fill out for certain service requests. Agency's often express concern about these forms worried that the customer will infer the change has been made. Simply approach this in the same way you handle your voice mail in big bold letters on the request form let the customer know that the on-line request is a convenience for them however coverage is not bound until an authorized representative of the agency contacts them.
• Start a claim form - what information will they need to get you to begin a claim.
• Company claim and catastrophe phone numbers.
• What to do in case of a claim after hours or on the weekend.
• What the customer should do to protect their property in the event of a loss.
• What to do in case of an accident information that can be downloaded.
• Value added information pertinent to the area of the country you are in. For example, preparing for a hurricane or earthquake.
• Links to your community - community based web sites, media such as TV and radio stations very often have sites.
• Links to other community businesses for information such as real estate, mortgage rates, home inspectors etc.
• Information about child safety, car seats for example.

This is not a complete list but hopefully it will spur some ideas that would work in your community.

Keep in mind two things; you serve a community and you serve them by providing products that deal with risk. Using this concept don't be afraid to post information about or that serves your community and information about safety and how to reduce this risk you provide products for.