Are You Ready? Before spending time and money to create a client-only site, marketing coach and author John Jantsch suggests answering these questions:
Do you have a good business reason for launching it? Your objective should determine how sophisticated your private site needs to be. For example, do your clients want to be able to follow the entire project remotely or do they just want to see progress photos? How technically proficient are your clients? Are they used to doing business on the Web? As a rule, you shouldn’t invest resources in features clients won’t use. How can you avoid reinventing the wheel? Hire an outside vendor to develop and host your site. But be sure to thoroughly check out candidates before hiring; those with custom software on their server will have a harder time keeping up with changes in technology. Have you ironed out how files from different programs will interface? Will you convert all files to PDF (portable document format) or will you keep them in their original form? Will clients be viewing CAD drawings online? Who will have access to the site? Will you let all your employees and subcontractors have access? Who will be responsible for keeping the site updated? A full-featured site that never gets updated is of no value. Some companies designate one or two employees who act as screeners to minimize sending the wrong message to clients. Will all the people who will have site access be trained on how to use it? How will you use this client-only site to market your business? Will it be a key selling point? If so, make sure you can demonstrate the site to prospects. Also, you can use the site to measure customer satisfaction by posting surveys at the end of a job. Consolidate to Conquer In 2004, Bakken Building and Remodeling in Big Lake, Minn., launched one of the most robust client-only sites in the industry. All contracts, schedules, financials, and paper related to a project are online. Clients can issue a digital signature to authorize change orders online. The company even posts possible paint colors, door pulls, and cabinet styles online in what have become mini-showrooms. Any changes made to a client’s site automatically generate an e-mail to all involved.
“It gives us one place for everything to be housed,” says project manager Troy Braiedy. Bakken Building and Remodeling used a product called Icon from ForeCom Systems, which hosts the site for a fee of $200 per job. The site streamlines communications between clients and the project managers, salespeople, employees, and subs involved in each project. Everyone, including subcontractors, can access the pages. What used to take days can be done in minutes.
“A lot of people are on the Internet every day anyway,” Braiedy says. “Our aim was to free up time spent on the phone and make the remodeling process more efficient.”
The biggest challenge was putting all the material online and getting the system to make sure it was updated, but Braiedy says the effort was worth it. He has cut the time he spends on the phone by 50% and has fewer problems caused by miscommunication.
