Question

Topic: Student Questions

What Message Does Our Website Convey About Our Co.

Posted by Anonymous on 6/13/2008 at 6:54 PM ET 250 Points
We are a computer service company that makes house calls and office calls to families, individuals and small businesses to solve computer problems and help them to better use their computers. We are trying to convey the image of being your friendly, reliable, neighborhood professional computer specialists that can relieve frustration caused by computer issues. We have a proven track record having been in business for 7 years and assisted over 15000 families and 1000 small businesses address their computer issues.

We are having difficulty differentiating ourselves from smaller, less experienced sole practitioners or less experienced firms.

We are reviewing our website to try to better convey the image I have described above and are looking for unbiased expert opinion on it:

I would welcome any constructive feedback and suggestions on the effectiveness of this website in the following areas:

1. Messages and impressions you feel are conveyed by the site
2 General Effectiveness
3. Layout/Design/Navigation
4.. Strength of call to action
5. Overall Professionalism/etc.
6. Copy strength
7. Search engine optimization
8 Anything else you think would be helpful

Thank you for your assistiance to this important matter
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 6/13/2008 at 7:44 PM Accepted
    I assume your website is Geekhousecalls.

    The site is friendly and easy to move through.

    I think the cartoon characters are cool... but I would prefer a picture of a professional looking guy in a geekhousecalls shirt..

    I would include some words like Professional, Bonded, Insured and I would make the picture of your branded vehicles more prominent.

    I would also include something about the dangers of hiring a "would be" computer expert. Maybe even include something about not knowing the difference between the computer repairman and a serial killer. Too often these experts pull into your drive in a rusted out 1983 Cutlas and hop out of the car in wrinkled jeans and an AC/DC shirt.
  • Posted on 6/13/2008 at 8:47 PM Author
    Sorry Business Card Amy, the website is www.geekhousecalls.com
    Dave
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 6/14/2008 at 8:35 AM Accepted
    Instead of your slideshow, turn the slideshow's headlines into bullet points on your home page. Besides being a better thing for the search engines, it'll let me see your menu of services easier.

    Show me a map of your service area to make it easier for me to figure out if you can help me.

    You don't "support gadgets", you really improve people's gadget-relationship. You FIX, INSTALL, and OPTIMIZE.

    Put a testimonial (or two) on your home page.
  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 6/14/2008 at 10:15 AM Accepted
    If you want to differentiate you need to have a web site that looks like a larger company. Your site looks like a home made site from the 1990s.

    I don't think having the 2 choices as you have them help. When I search for something like computer repair, I want to immediately understand that you are very experienced and offer the services I want - on the first page. My first priority is getting it fixed. Then I decide if I want a house call or take it in. Also I want to know you work on my type of computer. Mac. PCs whatever. You might consider listing the top 5 or 7 things that go wrong with computers and list them, again on the front page.


    You might also do some regional PPC ads on Google and Yahoo.
  • Posted on 6/17/2008 at 10:27 AM Accepted
    It looks a bit amateurish. Ditch the slide show of the vans and show something that looks like a benefit to me (the user) instead. Put the things you can fix up front on the home page (not buried three clicks into your site). Focus on the benefits your clients get, so they can go ahead with their lives, instead of tearing their hair out over computer problems.

    Show pictures of yourselves, and (if you can) happy customers. Play up the quote from the Boston Business Journal, instead of hiding it deep on the "about us" page. Put testimonials on the home page, as well as a "kudos" page and eliminate some of the weaker ones. Highlight those that tell a story of how you saved your client from "the blue screen of death" or a nasty virus, etc.

    Lastly, get a good copy editor to review your pages and correct the random acts of capitalization and grammatical errors.
  • Posted on 6/19/2008 at 12:19 PM Author
    Thanks Frank, Jay, Harry, KSA, Ozdesign, MissG and jKaplan for your constructive remarks about our website. I have forwarded them on to my business partner- Andy, who is responsible for our website, along with some of my additional suggestions and we are in process of updating our site to incorporate many of these suggestions.

    This has been my first experience with participating with MarketingProfs forum and will continue to participate

    Thanks
    Dave Ehlke
    Geek Housecalls
    dave@geekhousecalls.com
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Student Questions)