A Cautionary Tale About Small Business Web Sites
Many of my clients do not enjoy using the internet. They think Facebook is a “brag sheet,” or a waste of time, or worse, just a way to gossip and cause trouble. They generally know how to use email, but would prefer to talk on the phone, or best of all, face to face. They realize that having a web site is necessary, but generally have no idea how to build one, or even how to go about hiring someone to do it for them. Several times, prospects have said, “I don’t care what you do. I just want it to work.”
Those of us who do enjoy having a world of knowledge at our fingertips often forget that there is this huge class of very smart people out there who don’t understand why anyone would want to use a service like Twitter, what a backlink is, or how one might go about attracting business with Google. People who find that they are comfortable online, enjoy the constant change and development of new technology, and who have skills within a particular industry often find themselves in high demand.
Have you ever thought about how difficult it is for a person who knows very little about technology to establish a presence on the internet? When I need to shop around for anything technology related, I turn to the internet. I read reviews, ask my networks for recommendations, and visit lots of business web sites. If I could not use the internet in that way, I’m not sure what I would do – and the people who are not comfortable with the internet are in that boat, exactly. The phone book is not what it used to be. The number of people who have been in your shoes that you can call is probably limited.
Remember the old Saturday Night Live skit with the IT guy? Unfortunately, there is a reason for that stereotype. It’s bad enough when the crabby IT guy works for a company. It’s much worse when you hire him to provide some service for your company. It’s even worse when crabby becomes scammy. I’ve met so many people who have either been blatantly ripped off and have no idea, or who have been burned so many times they think that anyone who does anything concerning the internet for a living is a thief. Right now, I am working with a client who has one of the stranger stories I’ve heard:
This person had owned several businesses throughout his life, and several years ago decided to start a new one. He is excellent at in-person networking, at managing, planning, delegating, and all of the other areas one must master in order to
There must be a way to bridge the gap between business owners and technology service providers.
run a business successfully. But he needed a web site.
He found himself in need of a service, with no idea of even what kind of professional he should hire, which is understandable. I’ve asked technology professionals how to refer to what they do and they didn’t even know what to call themselves. On top that, the pricing just seemed crazy. He was hearing numbers all over the place, and had no clue at all what kind of price would be fair, or average, or exorbitant.
Although I am a copywriter, I’ve had several clients who have asked me to find someone who could either build or fix their web sites because they simply have no clue whether there will be any difference in the site that results from a fee of $1000 and a fee of $10,000. I’ve heard, “Can you just explain it so I will understand?” more than once.
Besides the hard, cold numbers involved in trying to find someone you trust to do something insanely important for your business that you do not understand at all, there is the way it feels. No one likes to feel dumb, especially established, successful businesspeople. But when you are talking to someone and you only understand approximately one-fifth of what they are saying, you might feel a little dumb.
Finding himself in this uncomfortable situation, my client did what any smart businessman would do: he turned to his colleagues. He started asking questions, and telling a few people his conundrum. Eventually – probably because he is a super nice guy – one of his connections gave him a phone number and said something like, “This is my tech guy. Give him a call and tell him what you need and he’ll fix you up.” This kind colleague owned a company large enough that the “tech guy” was actually an employee in his IT department, so it wasn’t a referral, it was a favor.
Within a short time, my client had a site that did what he wanted it to do, and, at that time, all he really wanted it to do was show up when someone searched a couple of keyword phrases. Fast-forward four or five years: he calls me and needs some help creating and managing a Facebook Page for his company, and is interested in other types of content marketing. After talking to him for a little while, I suggest that he add a few articles to his site, or even start a blog. And that’s when he tells me that he has no clue how to change anything on his site, that the “tech guy” no longer works for his friend, and that he doesn’t pay for hosting and has no idea what any passwords to anything might be…
Without even knowing it, my client locked himself out, and handed the virtual keys to his business to a total stranger, then watched him disappear into the mists of cyberspace. In this case, nothing terrible happened, but what if the “tech guy” got mad at his former employer and decided to wreak a little havoc? My client didn’t even remember purchasing his domain name, so wasn’t even sure if he owned it or not. If the “tech guy” had decided to start posting pornographic images to my client’s site, there wouldn’t have been a way to stop him.
Eventually, we figured it all out, and I referred him to Ego Systems, here in Chattanooga, and got everything straightened out and secured. I am now working to re-write and update the copy on his site, and will be training him on how to make simple changes in the near future. The thing is, I know that this business is one of hundreds in the same situation – just in Chattanooga. There seems to be a giant gulf between business owners and the technology community, but it would be to everyone’s benefit if there were a solid and easy to find bridge across that gulf.
I don’t have any words of wisdom to offer in this post. Instead, I’m asking you: How can we fix this? How can we connect tech-savvy service providers to business owners? What needs to happen for business owners to trust those service providers? Please feel free to share your suggestions, or personal stories, in the comments.
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We do several things differently in order to bridge communication and build trust with clients.
First of which, we do a thorough consultation to find out every aspect of what’s needed by the client, we don’t just build a website, blog, or offer Facebook page management, we offer holistic marketing solutions. I think this is one area where service providers lack communication skills, and business owners lose trust in what we can provide on the web. It’s not selling them a service they don’t need, it’s letting someone know, they need all these tools in order for things to work correctly, not piece solutions.
Secondly, we ask numerous questions. For example, do they host their own site, do they need additional training on services, do they have time to maintain there new social accounts. This is a second step where the service provider/business owners lack is communication, in the client brief. In fact, you weed out a lot of clients with questions either they aren’t ready for your services, or need something else all together.
When a service provider offers benchmarks, it can rebuild trust. For example, if a client needs a website, write it in the proposal, here are your passwords, where it’s hosted, your site will be finished in this timeframe. Also, if you’re a business owner, educate yourself on these tools or at least be aware of what you’re having done, ask questions, no question is off limits in our office.
Speaking of timeframe, a lot of clients expect over night success with these new tools. But it can’t happen over night, it does take time but if you’re up front about that timeframe, you can rebuild trust.
I know from experience, as a marketing service provider, you get price shopped a lot. Happens all the time, and you do a lot of proposals before signing a client, regardless, each client deserves honesty, respect, and the best you can give them. Communication is the only way we can rebuild the bridge. Great post!
I agree that communication is of utmost importance. I worry, though, about the business owners who really just don’t know – they don’t know what to ask, or what they need or what half of the words we use to talk about web sites (platform, host, URL, domain, etc.) even mean.
Moss Media Labs does a fine job of education clients, though. I think you guys are out there everyday, making the rest of us look good
I am not a professional, but I have been in the situation where I am the person doing the favor and starting a website, facebook, twitter, indiegogo campaign for someone. I think the responsibility is with the person doing the work, not the business owner. You know what level of ongoing commitment you have, and you need to be upfront with the people you’re working with. It is not unreasonable to assume that the business owner has no idea what goes into the service you’re providing. It’s like buying a car, you don’t need to know how it works to be able to drive it, but there is ongoing maintenance, and you should get a service manual with your purchase.
Emily, I LOVE the car analogy. Most people who drive have some idea about how an internal combustion engine works, and most people have some idea of what to expect as far as maintenance. In this case, though, the person who built the site did it as part of his job, and it was actually his boss who was the one providing the favor, so it was a little more complicated that probably most situations.
This is totally applicable to me lately. I have struggled with four different web developers and have yet to find one that I enjoy working with. I have found one who is occasionally available and affordable but not dependable. One who is absolutely professional but charges for it and acts like they know it all and their clients know nothing. I have found another that appears to not do any of the actual work themselves but farms it all out to India and does everything poorly and slowly. Yet another does things well and is very nice about it but it seems that she is unavailable for 30 days at a time. Having Terri on my team (a prior IT director) is a great help but Purely Poultry is her first venture into working with an internet business. It was amazing to me that there are people out there who will take $10,000 worth of your money and then they retain control of your entire site anyway. I don’t know. I have about had it with trying to figure out all this stuff. I need to figure out my strategy. Do I have Terri learn how to do Zen Cart, or do I go back to the jerk, the unreliable, the storefront for Indian low quality or…
Tyler, you aren’t the only one in this situation. I would be happy to give you the names of a couple of people who might be able to help you, or who could probably give you other referrals. Referrals are the way to go, most of the time. Maybe Terri knows someone with online retail experience?
Chanté is absolutely right about the importance of a consultation. The problem often isn’t what the consumer doesn’t know — it’s that he or she doesn’t even know what kinds of things he or she doesn’t know and, on his/her own, would never consider.
As a professional in a non-IT field, it’s my job to anticipate as many of the potential questions and problems, but also try to extrapolate and determine what the client might not even have considered. After all, a doctor or lawyer can’t just cover what the patient or client brings up, but must go far afield to cover all eventualities. The disparate members of the IT continuum would benefit from clearly defined titles, but more so from clearly defined processes.
But Dava, the best piece of advice is the one you offered — don’t give your keys to a stranger. I may never log into my site — I may think FTP goes in my car
— but I’ve got all my account info and passwords for my domain and my hosting. I can’t fix anything, but I’ve got a “valet key” for the safely getting the job done.
A “valet key” is a great image. Part of the problem, of course, is the fairly low barrier to entry in the web site building profession. On one hand I celebrate that fact because my own profession has a pretty low barrier also, but on the other hand it can make things tough on consumers.
There are a lot of people who still don’t know how to build a website or how to write copy that will bring them business. If a company dosen’t have a web presence they are leaving loads of opportunities on the table for someone else to grab. Unfortunately a perception that the IT guy can build a website is not always best. There is design, function and the backend to consider too especially in e-commerce. Great article Dava, you write good!
You are right, Tony – there ARE a lot of people who don’t know how to build a web site. There are even a lot of people who don’t know that there is a difference between a designer, a coder, a systems administrator, and a software developer. A great many of those people who don’t know also own businesses. What should they do? How do they figure it out? It can be really overwhelming navigating the waters of technology if you are simultaneously trying to run a successful business. Thanks for commenting, and for the compliment – both are much appreciated.