Welch Allyn Protocol's Web site sells products, services, support services and expertise - Brief Article

Welch Allyn Protocol Inc.'s Web site, www.protocol.com, offers health care providers a very good first impression of the company and an indepth catalog of products and services coupled with rich content that helps customers improve their operations.

Very effective site

The colorful site reflects the work of professional graphics designers and experienced e-commerce strategists who obviously worked under the supervision of a marketer or two who know their markets and how to sell to their customers. The site uses standard design techniques, easy navigational links and tools and a uniform approach to marketing Welch Allyn Protocol's products and services.

What's smart about the site is that links to all of its major sections pop out of the home page's banner. The colorful banner includes a prominent search engine on the lower left side and a "Contact Us" link on the other side.

The rest of the relatively small home page is all about selling products and services.

Customers can learn a lot about products

Click on the Micropaq[TM] page to read about the company's ambulatory patient monitor. What you see is a three-part page. The first column lists links to monitoring product overviews. The third column provides a general description of the Micropaq[TM] wireless patient monitor. And the third column offers links to PDF brochures that prospects can download and print out in their offices.

Thus, it doesn't take a prospect long to zero in on the product that will meet his or her needs before meeting with a salesperson. What makes this site powerful is that when a hospital committee is involved in the purchasing process, everyone can have equal access to the "catalog" or the "brochures" and other information, which should expedite information gathering and decision making for buyers. And if the committee wants to print 20 copies of a brochure or other document offered by Welch Allyn Protocol, it can do so at once without waiting for another sales call or a shipment of the documents. Better, yet, the customer pays for the printing.

The site's "Web Store" is for domestic U.S. customers, and customers can browse or log in to buy. "Browsing provides product information and images for those products sold on the Web Store. Shopping offers product information, pricing and the ability to purchase on account or by credit card." To shop, the customer must register and create a user name and password.

It is easy for customers to find contact information

In addition to showing the "Contact Us" button on every page, the banner carries a "Distribution" link, which helps customers ask for a sales representative to call, request product information or specifications and seek other kinds of information.

Proforma is Welch Allyn Protocol's consulting service, which helps providers "improve patient throughput, improve nurse to patient staffing ratios and increase patient satisfaction." The page offers case studies to show what it has done for customers, and "Pro Forma Lite: The online analysis tool." ProForma Lite is a 20-minute "exercise (that) can reveal, through a series of highly simplified questions and calculations, the specific areas where a deeper ProForma analysis can improve the clinical efficiency and profitability of your hospital."

Clinical Support is Welch Allyn Protocol's term for in-service education and training. In addition to describing its education services, the company offers white papers on "some basic principles about monitoring vital signs, including tips about using our Propaq monitors."

Thus, prospects and customers can get a quick overview of educational services the company offers to users of its products. Someone new to Welch Allyn Protocol's products can be referred to the Web site to read the white papers.

Every customer worries about service. Welch Allyn Protocol's Service page describes its support services in detail. Prospects can learn about maintenance agreements, technical training courses, parts and repairs. And they can contact the service department through the site. The technical support team's phone number is right there on the page.

A jobs section and a section that describes Welch Allyn Protocol and its parent, Welch Allyn, complete a pretty impressive site.

Without using a lot of fancy tools that slow the site down, the Welch Allyn Protocol site is a pretty flashy Web site. The designers use big colorful type when appropriate. But they also make text readable and make a judicious use of white space, which sometimes is overdone by inexperienced designers.

This definitely is a site worth sending a marketing and design team to if you're remaking your site.

Donald E. L. Johnson is Chairman and CEO of The Business Word Inc., publishers of Health Industry Today, Hospital Materials Management, Health Care Strategic Management, Profiles in Healthcare Marketing, Healthcare Advertising Review, Financial Advertising Review, TWINS Magazine, www.TWINSMagazine.com, www.TWINS.net and www.BusinessWord.com.

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