Healthcare.gov and CGI: WTF.
What marketers need to understand about website engagement.
No matter what side of the political aisle you may stand on, one thing is for certain; The selection of the CGI Federal to handle the healthcare.gov website demonstrates a serious lack of understanding in customer engagement and in customer relationship management. And while it burns me to know that it went out to a Canadian company, I would be fine with that selection if they had the experience to create a site with this level of engagement by the public. In other words, I don’t blame CGI in this case — I blame the people who selected them.
CGI is a technology information company and if this were a case of building a site solely around that, I’m sure they would be fine. What our government officials failed to understand is that this wasn’t a site about the healthcare industry and what it has to offer. This was a site for consumers to understand what their options are as it affects their choices, lives and budgets. Furthermore, the site should also be a portal to a customer relationship management and nurture program that would allow for continuing communications on a consistent basis about the implementation of plans and services rendered. Instead, you have a $200 million piece of crap that fails at every turn to be helpful in the ways it was intended.
The people of our nation would have been much better served if an agency like R/GA www.rga.com (that has the size and website customer experience modeling) had built it. Or even a small firm like Second Story www.secondstory.com in Portland whose interactive customer experiences are truly engaging. I could even forgo an agency I respect if it was a company that truly understands CRM like salesforce.com, which could also tie into ExactTarget for ongoing communications. Heck, amazon.com would even be a better choice. I think you get my point that there were a lot of options that would have served the public far better than a technology information company.
So here’s the lesson for you. If you find yourself needing to engage an audience through an online experience (website or otherwise), realize this: technology information distribution is a starting point and not the end game. Anyone can build and market a site to get people to go to it — that’s easy. But if the experience isn’t creatively crafted to the needs of the audience, along with a clear decision path based on its goals, it’s pointless. And then, not only have you missed a sale, you’ve missed an opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with that person as well as all the people that person has an influence on.
