WORK IN PROGRESS Gilkey Window Co., the Cincinnati-based manufacturer and installer, has one of the industry’s most straightforward, easy-to-use Web sites. But it wasn’t too long ago that the site was thought to be “marginal” in its value to the company, says IT manager Larry Wright, primarily because it wasn’t producing enough appointments, according to marketing manager Chris Riel.
With the help of local ad agency FocusMark Group, Gilkey Window began rebuilding its site last summer. And although it’s still not quite where Wright wants it to be, it’s getting closer to providing customers with information they need to make educated purchasing decisions, and driving more business to the company’s five showrooms.
When Gilkey Window started revamping its site, Wright was adamant about making it compatible with as many browsers as possible. Some features still need work, such as the video stream of an interview with owner Mike Gilkey that couldn’t be viewed by Mac users, at least as of October 2006. But most of the site is accessible to all visitors, including a 17-photo slide show of Gilkey Window’s factory in Cincinnati. Users visiting the site’s products pages can scroll their mouse arrows over drawings of different windows and doors to see corresponding photos of those products within interiors and exteriors of homes.
Like other window replacement installers that manufacture their own products, Gilkey Window’s Web site plays up the quality of its windows with cutaway drawings that show the products’ unique designs. But the company avoids technical jargon. “We tried to keep it as simple as possible,” Wright says. For example, the page devoted to the company’s “G-10” window system uses a simple chart to compare that product’s U-value, which measures heat loss, with standard low-E and double-pane windows, as well as with Gilkey’s System 5 and System 6 windows.
On the home page, visitors can type in their ZIP code and be directed to the contractor’s showroom nearest their home. There’s also a feedback page. But Wright wants the site to provide customers with answers to their questions before they get to the showroom, which is why the company will shortly add a FAQ section that, Wright says, will explain such things as why customers should choose a triple-pane window rather than a double-pane one.
Wright didn’t have enough data to draw conclusions about how customers are using the site, although he says initial reactions have been positive. And he’s confident enough in the progress the company has made to launch a separate site for Gilkey’s commercial window business. So far, Gilkey Window only gets about 5% of its leads from its Web site. But Riel says he’s hopeful that, with the right tweaking, the company could eventually draw half its leads from its Web sites.
CUSTOMER SERVICE, GUARANTEED Garden State Brickface, Windows & Siding, in Roselle, N.J., gets between 20% and 25% of its leads from www.brickface.com. About one-third of the visitors who click onto the page actually schedule an appointment. All the company’s marketing ties back to its Web site, and this year Garden State Brickface plans to add streaming video that will give homeowners more information about the remodeling process.
But contractors must constantly prove their honesty to a wary and suspicious public. So, on October 11, 2006, to remind homeowners of its trustworthiness, Garden State Brickface, Windows & Siding took the unusual step of posting — at the top of its Web site’s home page — a facsimile of a certificate that guarantees its customers’ satisfaction.
Every employee in the company’s sales, marketing, and production departments involved in that remodeling job signs that certificate, the last being the sales rep who hands the document to the customer.
The certificate and its Web site posting were the culmination of a six-month examination by the company into its customer service procedures. Garden State Brickface does around 1,000 jobs each year, and was spending a lot of time fixing problems with that small percentage of customers who “fell off the conveyor belt,” chairman David Moore says. He means that at some point in the process — from Garden State Brickface’s initial contact with homeowners to a year after the project is completed — some customers felt they had been let down. Moore attributes that mostly to a lack of follow-up and to some employees failing to see the project through the eyes of the homeowner.
This introspection led Garden State Brickface, Windows & Siding to make several process changes, such as mandating that every customer be called within 48 hours of the first visit. Those changes are the contractor’s “PACT” with customers, and are stated on the certificate. (PACT stands for Professional staff, Attention to detail, Constant communication, and Timely completion of the project.)
Moore couldn’t say how long the certificate would stay up on the Web site. But he compares the document itself to Avis Rent A Car System’s “We Try Harder” slogan. “What this says, in a straightforward way, is that you’re not going to have a contractor’s nightmare with us.” —John Caulfield is a freelance writer and editor based in New Jersey.
FIVE THINGS TO DO TO IMPROVE YOUR WEB SITE
- Integrate the Web into your marketing program. All ad materials should relate to one another and have a consistent look and message.
- Improve the appearance of your site. Blurry photos and amateur-looking renderings undermine any claims to quality.
- Make sure your site is compatible with search engines and browsers. Don’t let technology impede your connection with customers.
- Regularly update your site. Adding something fresh gives visitors a reason to keep coming back.
- Track visits and Web leads. Otherwise, what’s the point?