Computerized catalogs.

Give better service by making product information available electronically.

The limited space afforded by a traditional printed catalog coupled with an ever-growing number of resources offered by the General Agents and Managers Association, Washington, D.C., have made it increasingly difficult during recent years to provide members with up-to-date, detailed information about GAMA's products. Likewise, instead of being equipped to look up information for members on the spot, staff members - who didn't want to sift through pages of product descriptions - often responded by offering to send members a catalog, thus putting the responsibility back on the member to find the needed information or resource. To correct this inefficiency, GAMA developed an electronic catalog that functions as a library, of all GAMA products and provides staff members with easily accessible information so that they can be more responsive to member requests. (All GAMA staff members have the electronic catalog on their computers.)

"Management Solutions Disk: A Resource for Today's Agency Manager," was developed to operate on IBM and IBM-compatible PCs using MS-DOS. (Through member surveys, we found that almost every member has access to a computer with these characteristics. A Windows version is also available.) The menu-driven format of the electronic catalog is similar to a printed version in that it includes a "cover" screen, an index of the disk's contents, and order forms. Staff can continually update information - no consultants or expert programmers are required.

One significant advantage of the disk version not provided by the printed catalog is that members and GAMA staff can quickly look up specific products and information. For example, users can search for and select or print all products within a single category, such as "audiocassettes." Key words also can be used to find, for instance, all audiocassettes containing the word recruiting (a hot topic in our industry) in the product title or description.

The disk is available to all GAMA members for $15 (priced to cover the cost of packaging and shipping). Annual updates are $5. By tracking orders, we've determined that more orders are received through the disk than through GAMA's printed catalog. We sold $12,000 worth of products within the first year that the disk version was introduced, while sales from the printed catalog during that same period totaled $1,000.

While we still provide a free printed catalog, many members are willing to pay for the search capability and in-depth information of the electronic version. Ten percent of our 8,800 members are using the electronic catalog. The program has given GAMA another way to sell its products to members and to educate staff members on GAMA resources, significantly improving their servicing of members' informational requests.

Stacey Riska is director of marketing for the General Agents and Managers Association, Washington, D.C. She is a member of the ASAE International, Marketing, and Membership sections.