No, absolutely not every small business needs a website.
At the beginning of March I wrote the first part of this series where I concluded that “yes” every business could benefit from a website (read it here). But we both know that isn’t technically or exactly true. Read more →
Do any of these situations sound familiar?
Still think having a website, or some some of online base of operations is an option, not a necessity? Still think you can ignore what customers and prospects are saying about your business online because you do business with local clients who have to see you face to face?
Here’s a little story that proves just how wrong you are. It shows just how far the Internet has matured and how much power the online marketing savvy really do hold over the profitability of your business.
My car broke down. It died on the side of the road and I had to have it towed to my favorite mechanic. He’s a certified master mechanic who has treated me fairly for years. It hurt him to have to tell me I needed to take it to a dealership for the diagnostic equipment and tools they have.
It hurt me to learn they wanted $800 to fix my car. It hurt me even more that I knew the person I spoke to was padding the repair heavily describing each part in terms such as “essential plugs and wires” and misquoting what this or that part does. I called my mechanic back and asked what he thought of the estimate and work to be done. Then I called the dealership back with a request for an estimate on just the one vital part to be replaced.
The dealership came back with two “absolutely crucial” things to be fixed and a new quote of $500. Thank God we got the $300 tune up off the table. I bet he thought I should have been happy he was looking out for my best interests. He raised his voice to emphasize just how sincere he was about not wanting to let his own wife or daughter drive off in a job half done not knowing whether that second part could go bad at any time. I didn’t need my master mechanic to tell me that was a scare tactic, but it was very nice of him to apologize to me on behalf of a fellow mechanic none the less.
This dealership is probably well aware of the marketing fact that a happy customer will tell 3 other people about their experience and that an unhappy customer will tell 9. So I’m sure in their staff meetings there is a Service Manager who drums home being polite to customers, sounding sincere, etc. Under those circumstances even an unhappy customer will have cooled off somewhat by the time they drive home and in a day or two will have moved on to other gripes. If you act politely, they may only tell 2 or 3 friends after all.
What they most assuredly haven’t taken into account is that the Internet has changed this enormously and permanently. In addition to having this blog, I could also post about my experience on Facebook, MySpace, and in my Friendfeed rooms. I also have Twitter account.
I’ve searched my local midwest metropolitan area for other people who use Twitter. Between Rockford and surrounding areas, there are more than 100 Twitterers. In 140 characters, I can make sure that everyone of them know about my situation. I could rally them to retweet my warning to everyone who follows them. I could link through to this blog post, or any one of those other social posting places and do all of that in less than one hour if I chose to.
By the end of the day, how many people will have heard? How many people have every been in a situation similar to mine? Do you think they would be easily persuaded that I am telling the truth? I am by the way, but I ask that to drive home the point.
If you are in business today, you have to be listening for this kind of chatter. You have to know what people are saying about your brand if you want to protect it.
And, If you are in business today, you simply must have an outlet to tell the world who you are, what you are and what you stand for. You need to have your story told somewhere, somehow, and you need to be able to jump in to the conversations around you right now. Today. This morning.
You may choose not to respond to every story like mine. In fact, if this dealership was a client of mine I would done everything possible to convince them NOT to respond immediately or in kind to my story, no matter how many twitterers contacted them to find out if it were true. But they still need to have a way for all those twitterers to reach them.
Long before this morning and this story I would have had them using those avenues to tell people stories of the repair experiences that went right. We would have included a disclaimer that not all do and may have even pointed out that sometimes we had to turn repair requests down, but we would have been able to do it in a controlled way.
If even a local car dealership’s service department needs to be able to talk to their customers where their customers are today, don’t you think you owe it to your business to be able to do so
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