What to do with a company website and other demented ramblings?

sammywilsonjnr

I'll apologise in advance if this question has reared it ugly head before. I work in a company thats at a point where we need to make some pretty big decisions (in weeks rather than months). Like many businesses we've had it fairly tight the past few months but have kept out heads above water and more or less in the black. July wasn't kind and August will be something similar - holiday periods have always shown a tail off in sales but nothing like we've seen recently.
We're in a position at the moment where short-term we can either lose bodies (myself included) and attempt to rough it out or look to changing something we're already doing or doing something new with what we've got.

This year, to date, we've brought on a couple of new products and offered a few new services to existing and new customers. All have gone down well and are giving decent return. We've had a look at our pricing structure and cost base, done some bundling of services and prices and I think done an ok job of retaining customers and taking on some new ones.

After that pre-amble my question is what do we do with our website? I can't give a link to it but basically its seven or eight pages that introduce the company, its staff and various products. Its got scope for updating both content and appearance but I'm not sure what direction it should take.

Not trying to cause a ruck.... but what function does a website actually fulfil if its not selling a product etc.. online? Or closer the point - what should it do? I've spent the past few days thinking myself into a corner over this. My catch 22 is that at a very basic level I'm absolutely 100% sure that a website can/is of benefit in promoting any business venture even if all it does is give contact details and directions to a business location. However at the same time I'm convinced that a poor site does more harm than good & what we have is of no use to man or beast being like an online brochure.

One of the issues we have as a business is that we've built and promoted ourselves to date as providing services to trade customers. We basically fill the gaps in knowledge, machinery and production capacity for our customers allowing them to sell a range of products which exceeds their capability. This approach is something we are committed to - we will never compete directly with a customer, we won't knowingly approach an end user served by one of our customers and if we are approached by a potential client we know to deal with a customer of ours we'll declare our interest and potentially price ourselves out of it. This has served us well in building relationships but we now find increasingly that equipment we invested in to service the trade market is reaching a price wherby customers can buy and complete their own orders - the curse of the early adopters?
We've never used our website to win or retain business. Its there because, again as a company that invests in new technologies and equipment early on, an awful lot of money was spent a few years back developing not only the website but an on-line digital archival & retrieval system that there were high hopes for but to date has yet to interest customers. That said, we own the server that manages the system, its capable of online trading & merchant accounts are set up.

So we could sell online, and the services we offer lend themselves to this (but its also a competitive online market). By doing so we'd no doubt hack off a number of trade customers and potentially do our reputation no favours while at the same time run the risk of our online sales not meeting expectations.

How else can we use what we've got in terms of web presence to promote ourselves as a business? Why do people visit websites? - personally my list centres round buying something, needing info or entertainment or for communication. How and, maybe more importantly, why do I bring potential customers to my website? What if not a purchase opportunity do I offer?

Again I apologise if this question has been asked and answered before, but to be honest its done me some good just to get it all out of my head and onto paper in a way.

Cheers.

DubTony

Just a couple of quick ideas.

Use the web site to generate qualified leads for your trade customers.
I gather that there are some technical aspects to the products you sell. Use the site to display schematics and all the technical info your customers need.
Use the site to help end users find a trade source for your product.
List your "approved trade suppliers" so end users can get in touch with them, instead of you. Sometimes the cost of supporting an end user can make some work unprofitable.

we will never compete directly with a customer, we won't knowingly approach an end user served by one of our customers and if we are approached by a potential client we know to deal with a customer of ours we'll declare our interest and potentially price ourselves out of it.

Absolutely. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. But why not sell the products online and pass the business to the trade? Therefore you're pretty much ensuring that it's your product that gets sold and keeps your trade customers happy. This can work very well if the trade guys are selling at somewhere near your recommended selling price, which, if you're giving adequate discounts, they should be.

maxwell smart

Can you allow your customers to log into their account from your website to check the status of their order? Also to check your stock levels, check their account?
Also, how about a monthly e-zine to the decision makers showcasing new offerings they may be interested in?

Lplated

sammywilsonjnr wrote: »

This has served us well in building relationships but we now find increasingly that equipment we invested in to service the trade market is reaching a price wherby customers can buy and complete their own orders - the curse of the early adopters?
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If this is your problem then I think the website isn't your most pressing concern, you need to to rethink your business model to restore (in some fashion) what was your competitive advantage.

That said, I agree that the website is important - for info, driving sales etc... - but if your model is wrong or out of date which it now seems to be, then thats what i would be concentrating on.

calahans

You are looking to sell online without checking what successful competitors are doing. You say that you spent money on a digital retrieval system which customers are not interested in? Dont make the same mistake twice! All you need it probably a brochure site laying out clearly your services and testimonials. If you offer some kind of use of equipment you could allow clients to book it online, but I wouldnt create a client area for the sake of it.

With regard to direct competition with you trade customers, why dont you form a second company? It seems that you have better knowledge than your clients (as they are going to you for help), so you should be able to offer it cheaper than them.

sammywilsonjnr

Thanks to everyone whose taken some time to read and reply to my post. Lplated & Calahans - I agree with what you're saying - we need to address how we do business as much as what business we do (getting the right set-up/model) which is one of the reasons we are looking at the website and trying to work out what it does for us as it is and what more it could or should be doing. With this is mind Calahans advice not to throw good money after bad stands to reason.

There is a temptation to form a second company - but that usually comes in the middle of a sleepless night when I occasionally think "Fup this and fup the customers"! Our problem in this regard is that we've built what we have on trust and strong relationships. To form a second company to promote directly would be a huge kick in the stones for a lot of our customers - and they'd have to know. The country's too small to keep it hidden and to be fair I'd find it harder to be found out than to be open from day one and take the abuse.

I've had a pm through from another poster with a possible compromise; involving existing customers and their work in a monthly e-zine. Promotes us, promotes the customer and hopefully gives others some ideas about not only what we do but what their competition are doing with our products and services. Just need to negotiate the reluntance a lot of businesses (ourselves included) have when it comes to promoting themselves/their work to prospective customers and at the same time allowing their competition a peek into what they do.

Thanks again.