National Notary Association Surety Bonds
The National Notary Association (NNA) had a website, but it wasn’t working for them. Built using a simple brochure-style design, it provided basic information and customer service through its quote request feature. However, those things were not enough to meet changing customer expectations, especially since some of NNA’s customers had a need for urgent, instant issuance of surety bonds.
The Challenge
B2B ecommerce sales can be unique due to their higher likelihood of volume purchasing and increased need for account-specific personalization. Each invoice could include hundreds of items, and large companies may fulfill as many or more individual invoices per day. Organizations also often offer unique pricing and terms for their many accounts as a result of reps and customers negotiating special deals. Thus, B2B ecommerce tools must be capable of managing increased complexity through features like unique buyer storefronts, instant ordering and delivery, and bulk purchasing, shipping, and tracking capabilities.
Contractors needing a bond to quickly bid a project, auto dealers seeking immediate compliance with regulations, or state notaries looking to purchase or renew their bond as part of their 6-year term requirements needed an instant online sales solution NNA simply couldn’t provide. In fact, the inherent nature of NNA overcoming key challenges in digital transformation required collaboration between six different organizations over several months. With NNA and The C2 Group clear on the project’s desired results, they partnered with teams and individuals from WebTalent Marketing, Stripe, Merchants Bonding, and Covalent Marketing to completely redesign the site’s services and functionality.
As customers become increasingly digitally savvy, businesses can no longer depend on outdated ordering channels like email, phone, and fax. Thus ecommerce as a whole is growing, with B2B commerce projecting 53 percent of its revenue from digital sources in 2025, up from 30 percent in 2021. This increasing demand for products and services accessible through digital channels means companies must enhance their presence in the B2B space to remain competitive.
As customers become increasingly digitally savvy, businesses can no longer depend on outdated ordering channels like email, phone, and fax. Thus ecommerce as a whole is growing, with B2B commerce projecting 53 percent of its revenue from digital sources in 2025, up from 30 percent in 2021. This increasing demand for products and services accessible through digital channels means companies must enhance their presence in the B2B space to remain competitive.
As customers become increasingly digitally savvy, businesses can no longer depend on outdated ordering channels like email, phone, and fax. Thus ecommerce as a whole is growing, with B2B commerce projecting 53 percent of its revenue from digital sources in 2025, up from 30 percent in 2021. This increasing demand for products and services accessible through digital channels means companies must enhance their presence in the B2B space to remain competitive.
Solution
In many ways, B2B orders are similar to those in B2C (business-to-consumer), but some unique aspects of the sector call for advanced technology capable of integrating multi-organization systems. Before digital transformation (DX), buyers purchased goods in person or via catalog. Today, they expect increased access to items and services through electronic means to make buying fast, easy, and available in any setting at any hour. For businesses to remain competitive, they must meet customer demands using efficient and effective digital solutions. This includes companies selling in both direct-to-consumer and business-to-business scenarios.
To more efficiently and effectively serve its customers, NNA needed a site that could meet the demands of modern digital buying. The best solution was to migrate their site to Optimizely, a robust digital experience platform (DXP) that integrated with an online store for instant purchasing and product delivery. This move enabled the association to upgrade its site experience and provide services to meet the needs of new and existing customers.
Instant issue bonds: Customers can now purchase and download instant issue bonds directly from the site.
The Results
The replatformed and redesigned NNA website is now a dynamic, user-friendly site. Not only does it offer greatly improved user experience and customer service features, but the option to instantly purchase small bonds has increased sales and reduced cost to serve.
NNA customers seeking immediate bond purchase and delivery can now self-service this need using automation. This revolutionary feature is even available on mobile, allowing direct issuance regardless of location or time. The entire process now takes only minutes, making it faster and easier to meet legal and contractual obligations in the field.
The replatformed site also streamlined the internal sales process, saving salespeople’s time and giving them more bandwidth for tending to more complicated high-yield bonds that require more expertise to manage. This improved operational efficiency and productivity, refining labor needs and increasing orders.
Other Features and Functionalities
Ultimately, effective change management in transforming NNA’s site improved both customer experience and internal operations. After digital transformation, key features and functionalities of the site now include:
- Integrated credit checks and quote system: The new site is integrated with Merchants Bonding to perform credit checks and deliver personalized quotes, which users can accept and complete immediately.
- Salesforce integration: Quote requests are automatically sent to Salesforce, ensuring the sales team gets immediate access to leads.
- Payment processing: Stripe integration offers a robust payment system and sets the stage for broader payment options across NNA’s websites.
- User accounts: The new account-creation tool allows customers to create accounts for ongoing access and management of their bonds.
