A hot day in NYC absolutely demands a smoothie. I was in Grand Central enjoying a delicious medium Aruba – pineapple, strawberry, orange and coconut. Yummy! And I got an extra treat – an impromptu business lesson from the customer behind me, who was simply trying to pay for her smoothie.
“What did you order?” The counter person asked, ready to ring up the total. The customer replied, “I just ordered a smoothie. No one asked for a size.”
It struck me how often people don’t realize what they are ordering unless prompted by a salesperson, counter person or consultant. We let other people make choices for us. This might mean a far larger and more expensive smoothie than you were expecting – or a drink that just wasn’t large enough to quench your thirst and cool you off.
It’s a phenomenon we see all the time in the web world. That’s a troubling thing. While being presented the wrong sized smoothie doesn’t have a large impact on the typical person’s day, failing to make critical choices about your web presence can absolutely devastate your business.
When you think about developing a website or hiring an online marketing firm you need to know what size website you want and need. More than that, you need to know what ingredients go into the website. If you know what you want and are clear about what you need, you greatly increase your chances of getting the website your business needs and deserves.
Being informed is the first step. From there, you can order up a website by using a pre-packaged service or template provider. Or you can be more hands on, and create your wireframes and function document to give to a contract developer. The choice is yours. As for your marketing you can create your plan and find a contractor to implement it for you.
Getting What You Expect: Peering in the Kitchen?
Your enjoyment of religion and sausages will be much improved if you stay out of the kitchen. This old joke speaks to how we enjoy things more if we don’t really understand how they’re brought before us – but that’s a luxury we can not afford when we’re considering the presentation of our business online.
Begin by examining your expectations. We all tend to form impressions and expectations based upon who we’re doing business with and what we’ve heard about them. For example if I order a steak from a chain restaurant like Chili’s or TGIFriday’s I can expect a good steak for a good price. My expectations are in line with the restaurant, but if I go to Executive Chef Tom Colichio’s Craft Steaks my expectations change. They are elevated and consequently so is the price. The quality of the beef is different and the team in the kitchen has been trained in different techniques.
The web is not that different from the rest of the world. There are fast food places and there are ‘fast food’ website providers. Firms or individuals who aren’t looking for loyalty but for a project. These firms may not prompt you to tell them what size website you want and when it’s done you may have a website that is small with less function than you envisioned – or they may upsell you features and functions that you don’t need, that don’t help you or your business, and that cost far more than you may have expected!
You have gourmet restaurants created and run by executive chefs who will change a menu based on the quality of the beef. These are the equivalent to web firms that will choose technology that is a best fit to your project. Both types of businesses have quality standards and policies for satisfaction.
Not all agencies are created equal and you need to know if you want filet from the executive chef and his team or skirt steak from the national chain. The choice is yours but the important thing to remember is to understand what you’re investing in. Be informed! Do not allow others to make choices for you. Know whether you want small or large and the quality behind the project!
