Dennis and Jeanne Lex founded Lex Insurance in 1986 in Concord, Massachusetts. The agency has a staff of four full-time and three part-time employees. The agency writes personal and commercial lines business (60/40) through Safety, Commerce, Utica Mutual, Andover, Acadia, Chubb, and Preferred Mutual. Concord, a small, historic town in the Boston area, has seen increasing growth in high tech businesses. The agency uses Applied's The Agency Manager.
Dennis reports that the purpose of their site is to provide information and education as well as background on their products and agency strengths. The Lex site is not intended to offer out-facing sales and service functionality though the agency is experiencing increasing e-mail traffic with their customers, an consequence of their Web presence.
When asked whether he could live without a site, Dennis said he could, but that having one is consistent with the agency identity. They want to be recognized as knowledgeable and up-to-date. Some of their customers are high tech firms or work for them; thus, the need for a Web site.
In his sensitivity to what his customers want and expect, Dennis provides useful content, but thinks it inappropriate today to provide on-line sales and service functionality. He believes his customers wouldn't use it. On the other hand, he does intend the site to answer general insurance and company questions on-line rather than have them come in by telephone. So he has staked out a middle ground between no Internet presence and an elaborate Internet site by providing an evolving marketing/information/education site.
Site features
Probably like many other agencies, their son set up the initial site, www.lexinsurance.com, a bit less than three years ago. More recently they contracted with DataTrails, a Web development firm located in Lowell, MA, to redo their site. Before getting acquainted with DataTrails, Dennis talked with a number of generic site builders and found the experience painful, as he discovered he needed to teach them the insurance business. However, he was impressed with Ron Cavuto of DataTrails because Ron already knew the insurance business. (See the DataTrails article that follows.)
As part of the update, they changed hosts from Verizon to AT&T, and in doing so saved some money and got more for it. Dennis said he is reluctant to depend on hosting from small outfits that don't have the resources, history, Internet backbone connection, and track record of suppliers like AT&T.
The site is structured around a strong name banner across the top of every page, with a persistent push-button menu down a left-hand border underneath the agency logo. The Front Page (home page) features springtime photos of the agency entrance, especially hopeful in the midst of the January as I write this.
First up in the body of the home page are community links to the Concord Town site, the MAIA, and the Concord Chamber of Commerce. Because Lex Insurance provides convenient Massachusetts RMV services (license plates, titles), a link to MASSRMV is featured as well. The home page goes on to list the types of insurance provided, the Lex 30-year industry history, how to find out about the companies they represent, their "moving kit" for those relocating to the community, how to request a homeowner or auto quote, how to e-mail them, and how to find their office. The left border buttons do the work of the site connecting to their Auto, Homeowners, Moving Kit, MASSRMV, Links, and Contact pages.
The Auto and Homeowners pages contain extensive forms the prospect can fill out then submit for a manual quote. The forms are thorough, but also intimidating. Not surprisingly, the agency has seen little quote request traffic. (Though I understand from DataTrails, the site builder, that other agencies with the same quote forms get quite a bit of activity.) Dennis expects to add more insurance educational material in personal lines and commercial lines as well, since the site has only a mention of but no commercial lines content.
A fair number of agency referrals are for people relocating to Concord. The Lex Insurance Web site Moving Kit contains links to the MassRMV, Concord Hotels, Concord Realtors, and links to nearby town sites, as well as to Digitalcity's Boston portal.
The Lex Insurance Web site also contains a Links page that points to a number of auto related service sites: MASSRMV and its links to the other states' DMVs; nadaguides.com for vehicle valuation; pre-insurance inspection sites, how to donate your used vehicle to charity, drive-in claims appraisal locations for Commerce Insurance Company, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and Massachusetts auto testing stations.
The Links page also connects to the home pages of the agency's companies. Dennis says that customers with questions about the companies that insure them get value out of the company links, where, for instance, they can check the company's rating.
Suggested improvements
Clearly there's a great deal of value in the site for prospects and customers, but Dennis has identified a number of improvements he'd like to make, including the additional personal and commercial lines content mentioned above. He'd also like to use company logos for those links rather than just a list of names.
It seems to me that the site might benefit from some rearranging. For instance, it might be well to have a page specifically devoted to the agency's companies rather than having them appearing on a generic links page. And rather than just linking to the company sites and depending on the customer to find what they're looking for, it would be worthwhile to write a short summary that perhaps includes the company's rating, and place that on the agency site's "company links" page.
Similar thinking would suggest that replacing the auto quote form page (which is hardly used) with an "auto background" page that includes links to the various auto related services (presently on the Links page) would be clearer and more useful. A "homeowners background" page would also make more sense than the current homeowners quote form page. And the moving kit might reiterate the Concord links found on the home page.
The site encourages comments and suggestions in several places. That might be facilitated by links to simple forms rather than depending on the visitor to create a free-form e-mail. The site also contains a few links that are no longer relevant or don't work. All sites require regular housekeeping. Dennis mentioned that he'd like to include news and changing content on the site to encourage return visits. That's a good idea, but will require the time and attention that the Lex agency staff already finds in short supply.
All-in-all, I think the Lex Insurance Web site accomplishes the agency's current goals. It sets the right tone -- a kind of solid but not stuffy dependability, enough variety and depth to suggest understanding and thoughtfulness of customers needs, and a kind of friendliness that comes through- - especially because of the home page photos and the outward-facing (customer-oriented) text. In effect, the site says, "Will this help you?" not "Look at us!"
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