New York Life Gets More Interactive on Internet

There probably isn't any group in the IT department that has to address the question, "What have you done for me lately?" more often than the Web designers. The life insurance carrier New York Life upgrades its Web site about a half-dozen times a year, according to Ken Hittel, vice president of the corporate Internet department for the carrier, in a constant effort to improve the site.

"Most of our strategic planning for the site occurs within the confines of New York Life and is organized around the question: What can New York Life intelligently do on the Web?" says Hittel. "That's been our mantra. We pay attention to general phenomena on the Internet and what our near competitors are doing, but we steer our own ship."

Recent additions to the site offer improved access to the visually and reading impaired (as well as plain, old-fashioned multitaskers) along with some of the attributes of Web 2.0, including social networking.

By clicking the new "Read this Page" function on the carrier's Web site (www.newyorklife.com), visitors can hear the item read to them or they can download the audio file to an iPod or MP3 and listen at a later time. VoiceCorp International supplied the carrier with the functionality for the service, known as ReadSpeaker, reports Hittel.

New York Life had multiple ideas for using the service, relates Hittel. "The first idea came from the angle of providing assistance technology," he says. Estimates are some 10 million Americans are visually impaired, so the carrier felt there was a need to provide this technology.

"Initially we had in mind accessibility for the disabled, but beyond that [we wanted] to supply a technology that would allow for easier access to our content rather than having the user sit there and read it [off the monitor] or print it and read it later," he says. "You can listen to [the audio file] while you do something else. That's the multitask aspect to it."

The carrier also noticed the tremendous growth in popularity of iPods. "The initial assumption is: iPods equal iTunes equal music," says Hittel. "That's the case for the great majority of people, but we know there are a lot of people using these devices to listen to all kinds of material."

Hittel knew people such as portfolio managers and investment bankers were using the devices to listen to market forecasts. People considering life insurance purchases who are in an active conversation with an agent also use the devices. "[Customers] can download three or four different articles off newyorklife.com and listen to the articles while they're doing their nightly run around the reservoir at Central Park," he says. "It may not be the most exciting listening they'll do that day, but it's extremely useful for them."

Hittel believes this type of technology is being embraced by agents, as well, who he feels often are in the forefront of technology use. "They are very mobile people as part of how they do business," he says. "We assume they will embrace this quite a bit."

The social networking aspects of the Web site are described by Hittel as being in the embryonic stages. "We're getting in lightly," he says. "I think for us at this point we're more interested in listening than anything else."

Hittel emphasizes the insurer wants to hear what visitors to the site have to say. "In some cases, that's no more sophisticated than 'this article gets four stars out of five,'" he says.

Most people would expect a "post a comment" feature to pertain to the specific article that was made available on the Web site, but Hittel explains the carrier has heard a variety of comments on different aspects of the company's performance delivered through this feature. "[Customers] see [the feature] as an opportunity to speak to us," he says. "We're listening to our customers to hear what they have to say. We're hoping the next stage [of the interaction] will be to engage and respond to our users, but for now, at least, it's really just listening."

The carrier is aware of the phenomenon of social networking, but Hittel believes it's more a question of what New York Life intelligently can do with such an interactive feature. "Initially we know what we can do with it is enable people to voice their concerns and opinions, and we can listen to that," he says.

The carrier has had a Web presence since 1996, and in that time, the Web site has built up a lot of competencies within the company, notes Hittel. "We've socialized those competencies throughout the company so the business people are very aware of the capabilities we have and are interested in utilizing those capabilities," he says.

Hittel and his staff realize the constant challenges they face to keep the site fresh. "You can become stale in a day or a week or a month," he says. "So, we're always looking out for new things."