Great Customer Service will always win the day
No matter what is going on in the world, people always will respond positively when they have a good customer service experience. When it comes to my business that comes in the form of responsiveness. When one of our clients requests a change to their website, we always respond the same day. Now, this seems like something everyone would do, but you would be shocked that some firms take weeks to respond to a request to simply make a small text change to a website. So no matter what is going on in the world, whether it’s a pandemic or good times, people will always respond to good service and will recommend you to their friends and colleagues. I know of what I speak, as I have been doing this since 1996 and we are still experiencing tremendous growth, even during the pandemic.
BS will never get you very far
We’ve all dealt with people who had a great line of bullsh*t, but in the end that’s all they offer, fast talk and nothing to back it up. I have never considered myself to be a great salesman, although I have a closing rate of around 98%. I don’t tell people things just because it’s what they want to hear. I would rather be honest and set proper expectations. That way people are happier in the long run versus someone who sells them a bill of goods and then doesn’t come through. This is true now more than ever before as people are very careful of who they will do business with. They need to feel comfortable and sure that you’re there to help them, and that your actions speak much louder than your words. Talk as they say is cheap!
Thinking long-term rather than short term
A lot of people get into business and have a short term plan as to how they will approach their business. This is almost always a mistake as you have to plan into the future and set goals to get there. This has always been the case and it will not change due to the pandemic or any other disaster which may confront you. In fact, long-term planning is more important than ever. Now you need to plan for a possible re-occurrence of a horrible virus. That way you can survive, and even flourish in the event of another pandemic. Listen, no one thought this would ever happen, as we haven’t had a pandemic like this since the Spanish flu. Now that it has happened we need to be ready, and the best way to do that is the plan for any eventuality.
Substance over Style
We run into a lot of companies who are pushing very glossy solutions. But most of the time they’re missing out on the true mission of the company they are working for. That is to explore what problems we are solving for them. Taking my business as an example, anyone that looks at our portfolio will see that our sites are all easy to navigate, pleasing to look at and accomplish our clients goals. As I take over a lot of sites to manage I ran into many which have serious engineering issues. As Steve Jobs one said design is not only what something looks like, it is how it works. And you can see this in most Apple products, they are not on the good looking, they are functionally near perfect.As Duct Tape Marketing says:
“Your website is the heart of your online marketing efforts. All other channels should drive users back to your website, so it’s critical that you build the most effective one that you can. Good website design is way bigger than just building a site that looks appealing. Truly effective website design is about the substance underlying the style.”
Buying a product is more important than buying a price
You may recall a blog post we had about this very topic, You Buy a Product or You Buy A Price. I used to work with a web developer who was a former finish carpenter and a brilliant musician. He told me that people either shop for price or they shop for a product. If they’re shopping for price then you’ll never be happy no matter how good the product you offer may be. And in the long run they almost never succeed with their company goals as they only care about who gives them the lowest price. Now I am not telling you not to consider price, just consider what are you getting for your money. The proposal that may be a bit more expensive may also net you a much better end result. One other thing to consider is what the company will be doing for you after you build and launch your website. We believe that the management of your website is every bit as important as the design and development phases. So when we make a proposal, it also includes a management plan. This is so important as we not only backup your site daily, we also keep your website plugins and themes up to date. This is critical for Content Management Sites, such as WordPress which require constant attention.
Bottom Line: So just as the last post we had talked about five things that will change forever, these are the 5 Five things that will never change for small business websites, no matter what the world is going through at a given point in time. If you need help with your website design or the management of your site, please feel free to contact us anytime. And please let us know what you think will never changes, we’d love your feedback.
My clients often ask me how often should they be reviewing their website and social media campaigns. Well, being a web guy I look at my web properties all the time, every day.
But I realize other people have other priorities, and running a business doesn’t allow you the free time in order to always check out your web and social media platforms.
So what I try to do is get my clients to review their sites at least a few times a year, taking a good hard look at everything they own. I look at the change of seasons as a perfect time to review everything you are doing. The leaves are falling down, schedule some time with yourself and review everything you’re doing. Make a list of what’s working, what’s not working and where you’d like to improve. Do the same at the start of each season.
Here is a handy chart to use. Put these dates on your calendar and have a meeting with your staff.
Next, schedule some time with your website management company. And if you don’t have a website management company, then you aren’t doing justice to your business. Contact us, we are happy to help you come up with a management plan that will work for you and your enterprise. Have a meeting to go over your findings, and also ask them what are they seeing, where do they think you can improve? They may have a different take on things, but between the two of you, you’ll be able to formulate a plan that will set you up for the next quarter or so. This is especially good time to review any advertising you are doing. Are your Google adwords working well for you? Are you using social media ads, how are they doing? You have to review these things from time to time and change up what you’re doing. What’s working today, may not work tomorrow. For instance, I have seen more success lately from my social media ads versus my adwords expenditures. This of course may change, so I review what I’m doing all the time. Now this doesn’t mean to panic, because you have to give your ads some time to percolate.
It is really easy, to let your website & social media properties go. The sad part is they will grow stale and people who visit your website or social media pages will not do business with you. Think of yourself as if you are a brick-and-mortar store. If someone came in and your inventory never changed, what do you think would happen? I can tell you what will happen, you will close. You will fail. So think of your website the same way, it needs to be up-to-date, it needs to have a pleasing design, it needs to be responsively designed so it looks good on mobile, and it needs to have current news & information. This will give your customers an opinion that your company is successful, that it is moving forward and they will be more likely to do business with your company.
My clients often ask me how often should they be reviewing their website and social media campaigns. Well, being a web guy I look at my web properties all the time, every day.
