Web site is indispensable for businesses

OK, I admit it. I’m a closet technology lover.

How do I know?

If I find myself with an hour on my hands, rather than make a trip back to the office I go to the Davenport Hotel or Riverfront Park, pop up my wireless laptop and get some work done.

At 2 a.m. I’m awake and want to make dinner reservations, order a book, or plan a conference. I use the Internet to do my research, e-mail companies with reservations, and order that book.

Considering we live in such a wired city, how can there be so many business people with horrid, non-interactive Web sites or worse yet, no Web site at all? How can you run a business without e-mail? Well, from my perspective you can run it, but you’re sure not going to expand it to the potential that’s out there.

Commerce over the Internet is growing faster than any other form of consumer and business spending. But of the 3,200 BBB members in our region, a full 25 percent don’t have e-mail.

Business people are unsure how to move into an Internet presence, so they simply do nothing.

If you take orders over the phone, over the counter or over the fax, why would you not take them over the Internet? Would you remove an incoming phone line just because you’re not sure how it works? Of course not. But that’s the logic companies use when they tell me they don’t want to deal with customers over the Internet or mess around with e-mail. Heck, some companies never even check their in-boxes.

Where do you begin when you know the time has come to get your company on the Web or upgrade your existing site?

Look at Web sites you like and make notes as to why you like them.

Check out your competition and see what they’re doing.

Ask your customers what kind of service they would like to access through your Web site.

After you have a general outline for your new or changed site, call the companies whose sites you like and ask them who produced theirs. Easy, right?

You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a Web site, unless you have a huge e-commerce need or other special requirements. Sit down with several Web people, interview them, check them out at thelocalbbb.com and hire the best one.

Building a Web site is a whole lot like a remodel, so find someone you like who communicates well and is capable of translating the kind of image you want. Your Web site is just another store window, but an increasingly important one. Add a timetable to the contract so the designer doesn’t take control of the whole production.

After it’s done, make sure you update your site often — especially if information is your primary product.

If you offer a general e-mail address for questions or reservations, be sure someone is checking and responding several times a day

So, who are these nerdy, techno-savvy customers anyway?

In general, they do more research than other customers and are more likely to compare several options and products. In some cases, they research only to make a physical purchase in your bricks-and-mortar store. They’re usually better educated and have a higher income level.

And they’re busy people who aren’t fond of demands on their time — when they want an answer or an item, they want it now. If they’re turned off by your site or slow response, they probably won’t come back.

I can see my inbox full of arguments against a bigger Internet presence: “Jan, I don’t have time to deal with spam,” or, “I got ripped off by a Web designer five years ago, and will never walk down that road again.”

Look at it this way, when telephones first came on the scene, don’t you suppose business owners made comments like, “If we get a phone, a slew of salespeople will call and I don’t have time,” or, “I don’t trust how this ringer works and won’t have one of those in my store.”

Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But remember, you create the same ill will when you fail to answer an e-mail as you do when you don’t return phone calls.