subject: Focus On The Process! Not Design Alone! [print this page] With the rising demand for professional services, marketing and organisational structures are changing bringing to attention the significance of delivering high quality service. It is time web design firms realise that merely providing web presence solutions at the cheapest or lowest cost possible to potential or current clients are not going to be successful in the long run. Often web design firms channel their efforts in ensuring on the service quality of their websites but fail to grasp the fact that service quality needs to be integrated into other areas as well. A good pitch to potential clients involves not only designing on spec but providing an all rounded solutions taking into consideration online and offline marketing. For this, you have to be agile, adaptable and be able to align their interests together with yours to achieve a mutually sustainable triple a competitive advantage (SCA).
Agility for business to business marketing refers to intellectual acuity. Before you meet your potential client, ensure that you study the background of their industry so that when they come in, you have sound knowledge of what they are talking about and they can see your obvious efforts to assist them. This is the most important stage in achieving customer satisfaction. It is during these moments of truth or service encounters that clients gain a snapshot of your organisations service quality. Ensure that you work out the various needs that they may have and possible design solutions for the differing needs. When your clients come in, do not overwhelm them straight away with your knowledge. Allow your clients to talk about what they need. Use the opportunity that you have to draw out a mind map for your clients while they are talking. This will allow you and your client to visualise what the clients actual needs are. Most of the times, whilst your clients are talking, you can figure out the way they are choosing to head.
Analyse their competitors thoroughly. Quite often, your clients themselves may not have analysed their competitors enough. They may want a website because they see a sustainable competitive advantage in having one. However, they overlook the fact that their competitors may have poor web presences but they may have powerful offline marketing strategies. Raise these issues with your potential clients and educate them. Inform them that one cannot look at the tip of the iceberg to find the problem or get an easy solution. You have to delve beneath it to find quality solutions that will help you and your client attain the SCA. Invest some time into integrating both online and offline marketing activities together.
It is equally important that both parties are adaptable to each other. The aim for every organisation is not to have satisfied customers alone as they can easily be manipulated and taken away by competitors. The goal is to convert them into evangelists. In order for you to retain your customers, be flexible with them. You can cultivate Angel customers by getting them to be involved. Forget the old school way of doing business by stopping communication after deciding on a deadline and payment method. Go the extra mile and invite your customers often to experience the website as it is being done. If you are doing an interactive site, get them to play with the tools you have. This will allow them to think and place themselves in the shoes of their own customers and understand what they actually want. By involving them, your clients will actually be more adaptable to your suggestions. Moreover, for most clients, using web technology is a new experience. Therefore, getting them to be involved helps them to mould their own learning capability in terms of e-commerce and apply their abilities through exploratory behaviour.
By incorporating agility and adaptability as customer service strategies for your web design firm, you will eventually become skilled at aligning your clients interests against yours. With your outstanding customers service quality, you definitely can get 100% evangelist rate with your clients.
by: Kerry Lunn
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