While visiting a Fortune 100 company, I was discussing Web siteswith a few senior marketing people. One of their concerns was siteobsolescence. They did not want to invest substantial resourcesinto new Web sites that would be “outdated” in a few years.

From a technology perspective, I am not sure theirs is a validconcern. The World Wide Web is, in fact, based on “old technology”and will continue to be so for some time to come. One basic premiseof the Web is it can be accessed and used by any browser on anysystem anywhere. OK, that is an exaggeration, but for the Web tohave become a ubiquitous medium, the bar for basic access had to below. After 15 years, we still are talking HTTP over TCP/IP. Flash,JavaScript, XML, DHTML, AJAX–all provide a richer experience but donot necessarily make for a better Web experience for our customers.The first question we need to ask ourselves is how can we bestserve our customers? And that translates directly into determininghow our Web sites will contribute most effectively to the bottomline.

For insurance companies or financial service institutions, thereprobably are only three really important areas Web sites need toaddress: lead generation, customer service, and product sales.Anything beyond those basics may make the executive committee happyor thrill the human resources folks, but they likely aren't goingto generate a lot of revenue.

All the Web site boilerplate such as “About Us,” “ExecutiveBiographies,” or “Our Favorite Charities” are very nice publicrelations vehicles but probably should be funded and administeredfrom a different bucket. A corporate technology division ought tobe so closely aligned with the business goals of the organizationthat the best and the brightest always should be working onprojects that contribute to profitability. Let HR fund the rest ofthe Web stuff. An investor relations site might be veryinteresting, but it doesn't create any income at the end of theday.

As we design customer-facing Web sites, we need to keep our eyeson our goals. And those goals must be business goals–not technologygoals. Banks began to invest significantly in automated tellermachines some 30 years ago. At the time, it was a no-brainer–overthe long haul an ATM was cheaper to own and operate than a humanteller. Hence, banks could improve the bottom line by reducingtransaction costs.

The unanticipated problem caused by ATMs was thedisenfranchisement of the customer. If you interact with yourcustomer only through direct deposit and ATMs, you lose a realrelationship with that customer and you lose the opportunity tocross-sell other bank services. Many banks now charge a service feewhen a customer uses an ATM. I'll warrant the transaction coststill is cheaper for the ATM customer, but the lifetime value ofthat customer is less, so the bank needs to make up the differenceby imposing a service charge.

Let's return to our customer Web portal. How do we quickly andefficiently get customers where they want to be . . . and where wewant them to be? The front door–the portal entrance–must be simple,and it must load in a heartbeat. Forget the fancy, time-consumingFlash intro movies. Forget a “rich” image-laden environment. If youare selling sunglasses, that might be an effective way to get yourcustomer in the right “frame” of mind to purchase. But consider whythe customers are even at your front door. They either need helpwith their policy or claim, they want to buy a policy, or they wantknowledge about your product. That dictates you really need onlythree links from your home page–one to each area of focus. OK, Iknow you still need that link for all the other corporate stuff.So, you also have a link to “Corporate Information.” Everyone whodoesn't fall into one of our three main categories goes there.

The most important Web site you will create is customer service.Make the effort to find out how much money your organization spendson sales and marketing per customer. Also examine the hidden costssuch as the amount of time it takes to convert a potential customerinto a signed check. Add up those costs, and you now have an ideawhat your “spending limit” is per customer for customerservice.

Most organizations don't spend nearly enough money on customerretention. We call our sales staff “producers,” and we pay them bigbucks. How do we take care of our customer service representatives?I suggest you first talk to them–not to the manager but to thepeople who actually man the phones. Find out what situations theyroutinely handle. Find out what the really hard cases are. Use yourcustomer service people to help write the FAQs.

As you design the customer service site, you will start withstatistics. We know the nature of the transactions we alreadyperform with our customers. The customer service Web site mustprovide a mechanism for handling all those types of transactions.It must be easy to use. It must not intimidate an average user.

Those of us who live on computers fail to appreciate the anxietymany people experience when performing an online businesstransaction. Customers initially are dealing with their fear ofidentity theft and then their fear of “messing something up.” Wealso must think about why they are online in the first place. Mostpeople have become totally frustrated with the seemingly endlessmenus encountered when trying to do business on the telephone.After pressing “one” three times and “two” two times and enteringtheir account number, they are shuttled into a phone queue andforced to listen to Mozart on Muzak. People go online because itseems like it might be easier. And you better make sure it iseasier.

It may not make sense for some transactions to take placeentirely online. There is a very real threshold beyond which wecannot expect a customer to continue typing in information. Forthose transactions, get a screen full of information from thecustomer and then provide an option for the customer to becontacted by a customer service representative right then. Mostpeople do not have an aversion to finishing a transaction over thephone if they are able to do so immediately. The customer fills inthe basic information about the transaction and clicks submit.Bang. The phone rings, and a corporate representative says, “Hi,Ms. Jones. I can help you complete your claims submission in thenext few minutes.”

Likewise there should be a “panic button” on customer servicepages. If customers become hopelessly lost in a simple transaction,they should be able to type in their phone number and click “Help.”Once again, a service rep comes to the rescue. Your well-designedsystem probably will minimize the number of help calls, but youwill plan for them if you truly are concerned about first-classcustomer service–and customer retention.

Web sites are one of the most cost-efficient ways of leadgeneration, but to be most effective, they must be focused. Youdon't want to send a potential customer onto a landing page with alaundry list of all the services you offer available through adrop-down list that scrolls on forever. Once again, you need towork with the business and marketing people and target the productsyou know you can sell in a particular demographic. It doesn't takea lot of effort to gather some small demographic information aboutyour site visitor. You can determine the IP address of the visitor,and from that IP, you can identify a geographical region. Thatlimited bit of information might be enough to help target apotential sale. You already may know in the L.A. market yourbiggest revenue producer is high-risk auto policies. You may knowin the Tampa market you sell more long-term care policies thananything else. So, you first direct those potential customers tothose areas. I am not talking about geographic redlining–justattempting to anticipate your customers' needs. If you can get oneother piece of information, such as age, from your visitor, you canstart targeting what information you want that potential customerexposed to. I guarantee your baby boomer-age site visitors fromPhoenix might be interested in LTC.

Gather information on your site visitors. Keep thatinformation–drop a persistent cookie on their computer. The nexttime they return to your site automatically direct them to wherethey last were. If you are hesitant to ask site visitors forinformation such as their age, be creative. There are many ways todiscern information without asking for it–seeing whether usersclick on “Jimi Hendrix,” “Frank Sinatra,” “Christina Aguilera,” or“Fatboy Slim” in response to a “fun” online quiz actually couldprovide a lot of information. That may be a silly idea, but thepoint is there are many ways to determine information about yourpotential customers.

Be selective in the products you are pitching. At the end of theline, there always will be a place for the “laundry list” of theservices your company provides, but your main marketing pagesshould be quick hits on the products you are targeting. Gettingpeople to those pages in the first place is best accomplished bycreative search engine optimization or paid search engineplacement. Your brand probably is your most valuable asset.Branding certainly can be enhanced through Web sites andtechnology, but establishment of that brand is accomplished throughmore traditional marketing media. Bear in mind for most peopleinsurance is a commodity, and your brand is the only differentiatorthey see. And that is another reason customer retention is soimportant.

The vast majority of insurance and financial service products donot easily lend themselves to closing the deal totallyonline–particularly with new customers. That should not preclude usfrom providing Web sites that allow the customer to bring the dealclose to fruition. If I feel the need to apply for a term lifepolicy at 2 a.m., I should be able to submit the application onlinecompletely and securely with the expectation and understanding Iwill be contacted within 24 hours either to close or nix thedeal.

Let's face it–many people have an aversion to dealing with“insurance agents.” I know I check my caller ID, and I know whenBob the agent is calling me at 7 p.m. it isn't to talk about theweather. Let your Web site provide a mechanism for such people to“purchase” all their simple insurance needs online. This is anotheropportunity to offer immediate customer response. After a policyapplication is submitted, potential customers could be immediatelycalled by a sales rep–should they so desire.

The real message here is a Web site should be just an extensionof your business. If your bread and butter is sellingproperty/casualty policies to corn farmers in Kansas, then designyour Web site to do that. Above all, a Web site should make it easyto do business with you. Don't focus on the technology. Focus onthe business, and bend the technology to suit those needs.