Golden Web Review

Greenstein Rogoff Olsen & Co (aka GROCO)

URL: www.groco.com

Substance	6
Team competence & commitment	8
Differentiation	8
Reasons to return	7
TOTAL CONTENT SCORE (40 points possible)	29
Navigation & usability	8
Attractiveness	6
Personalization & personality	9
TOTAL APPEAL SCORE (30 points possible)	23
TOTAL INTERACTION SCORE (10 points possible)	8
BONUS POINTS for "OUT-OF-THE-BOX"	8
OVERALL SCORE (80 possible)	68

NOTE: This site has undergone a minor revision since our review.

Comments:

This busy but informative site is quite a departure from the traditional “brochure” look and feel of typical CPA sites. In the design/layout style of news websites (CNN, MSNBC, Forbes, Etc) GROCO offers headlines and original content advising readers while giving a peek into the personality of the firm. It is not evident, though, how old or new the articles are.

They offer video clips of their TV commercials which are pleasantly unconventional and feature the large family of managing partner, Alan Olsen. The commercials convey family values and personalize Olsen and the firm for the audience.

The use of very well-done caricatures on bios and service pages is terrific! What a fun way to stand out from the crowd and depict their people as personable and accessible!

It took quite a while for us to go through the site—we became engrossed in the articles and reading room content: tons of great advice and ideas. Same goes for the tax tools section where readers will find the traditional tools many CPA firms offer such as calculators for mortgage payoff and determining what it will take for you to become a millionaire.

While we really enjoy the site and it scored well, we do have a few suggestions.

1. Don’t try to use up every bit of space. Some white-space on the homepage, especially, will give the eyes a rest and enhance the professional appearance. As with most news websites, we were a little overwhelmed—not quite sure where to go first.

2. A “free with membership” form is setup on every page. Why do I want to be a member? What does membership give me? This needs more explanation.

3. Some of the service pages are light on content describing how we might benefit from the service. We frequently advise firms to be client-centric: be less abundant with the use of “our,” “we,” and the firm name in the content (especially in Technology—literally all but one sentence begins with we, our or GROCO). Nearly any sentence can be rearranged such that the emphasis is on the customer. Focus the subject matter on how the firm is different from other firms but in ways that are relevant and important to customers such as outcomes and use examples whereever possible.

4. The industries (listed under Clientele) do not have pages dedicated to discussing how GROCO helps each type. The firm is missing out on an opportunity to demonstrate how much your people know about each one and why it’s important for them to choose a firm that knows what you do. Beef up this section with more about what you can do for customers in each industry. Why should they use you?

5. Such an imaginative and innovative firm ought to convey more about the uniqueness of the firm and culture as well as discuss benefits and amenities in the career section. What’s it like to work there? 

6. In Services, under Accounting & Auditing, subsection “Trust Accounting,” we think that listing a book authored by the firm adds a lot of credibility to the service offering; however, we’d like to see a description of the firm’s service and not just a book order window on this screen.

7. Visually, some of the graphic elements (photos, etc) don’t mesh with the site design. We don’t think it needs a major remodel, but a little graphical fine-tuning would sharpen the site a lot and increase it’s appeal.

Summary:

Overall, this site was informative, fun, and a very nice diversion from typical CPA sites. This site is packed with useful information. By no means is it just a brochure with links to canned newsletters! GROCO also deserves huge kudos for listing their Business Valuation prices.

Reed Tinsley CPA

URL: www.rtacpa.com

Substance	9
Team competence & commitment	8
Differentiation	8
Reasons to return	10
TOTAL CONTENT SCORE (40 points possible)	35
Navigation & usability	9
Attractiveness	9
Personalization & personality	8
TOTAL APPEAL SCORE (30 points possible)	26
TOTAL INTERACTION SCORE (10 points possible)	9
OVERALL SCORE (80 possible)	70

Comments:

This true consulting practice is doing a phenomenal job of demonstrating specialization and providing valuable information and resources for their target audience: the healthcare industry. The reader walks away with a strong impression that 'this guy must be good.'

Tinsley has not been afraid to state, quite plainly on his homepage, that his purpose is to be "a nationally renowned accountant and business advisor to physicians and medical practices." He has followed through by substantiating that claim throughout his website.

Most impressively--and the distinguishing factor from MOST practitioners, large firm or small--is that he has gobs of content (see articles, flash presentations and great checklists and other tools for download) plus he updates his site regularly via a blog. I've been monitoring the blog over the last month or so and it is good with quality information (brief, but useful) posted consistently a few times a week.

There are a few areas where Tinsley's site didn't score top marks. One is recruiting because there is no focus at all on that. Granted, he's either a sole practitioner or has a small shop of behind the scenes folks (that it isn't quite clear one way or the other if he a team has slightly impacted scores) so he's probably not in the market for hiring...or so it would seem.

Tinsley's spun the small shop angle to his advantage within his content even boldly stating what many clients like to hear: "When you hire Reed Tinsley CPA, you are hiring Reed Tinsley. Your work will be handled by me personally and not delegated to an associate."

Another area where the score was impacted is in regard to personality--though the site is attractive and clean with a strong homepage image, we felt the site, packed with great info, is a bit light on imagery. And we'd love to see a picture of Reed--who's the guy we are getting with all that personal service? :-)

The content is thoughtful and complete, if not a little wordy, and liberally using "we" (could be written from a more client-centric angle). The litigation support page, though, takes into account that lawyers who will use him don't want to read through gobs of text, so he keeps it short and sweet and, quite wisely, provides a long list of case citations. Lawyers considering him will love that. So will clients.

Overall great job. We'd love to see even large firms large learn from this site how they can better position their practice groups and prove they are market leaders.