NFIB

Beyond Sales
06/ 12/ 2002

by Mardy Fones

The World Wide Web is well-known as a venue for e-commerce, but it's also invaluable for small firms seeking to build relationships and foster new opportunities with customers.

Bonding with The Bakery

At The Bakery in New Platz, N.Y., owner Dan Santner says his Web site keeps him in touch with customers. "It's cheaper than doing a newsletter, and it's more immediate, more intimate," says Santner. The 20-year-old business employs 30 and is known for its baked goods, plus breakfast and lunch service (www.ilovethebakery.com).

Each morning, Santner spends 15 to 30 minutes posting the day's menu on the site. "One way we know it's working," he says, "is if I make a mistake and someone orders an item we don't have."

The site also speeds up special orders, since customers can peruse the choices on the Web site, then call in. "That gives us an opportunity to talk directly with the customer," he says.

Santner created the Web site after teaching himself to use Microsoft Front Page software, but he cautions that the do-it-yourself approach isn't for everyone.

"You have to pay attention to the visual design," says Santner. "You work hard to make your store look good, but if your Web site doesn't, it will reflect on you. So you may need to hire someone to do your Web site to get the results you want."

House Hunting Heaven

Web sites have increasingly become an important resource for custom home builders such as Froehlich Signature Homes in Bakersfield, Calif. Chris Cunningham, head of sales, says Froehlich can trace at least four home sales directly to customers' initial contact via its 3-year-old Web site, which can be found at http://froehlichhomes.com.

"The look of our site communicates we're not a builder of tract homes," says Cunningham.

The 15-year-old company specializes in building homes priced at $400,000+. The magazine-style site, built by a local Web designer, uses Fireworks software for the graphics and was hand-coded in HTML. Elegant photos of the company's homes and romantic text are included to attract customers who are using the Web to find builders in the Bakersfield area. An e-mail link for additional information, says Cunningham, documents site traffic. Froehlich overhauls its site about every nine months.

Altitude's Approach

Catching attention is the goal of product development firm Altitude's site, at www.altitudeinc.com. "As it became easier to find vendors on the Web, we created a site to give people an easier way to contact us," says Dan Cuffaro, design manager with the 9-year-old, Somerville, Mass., company.

The site was initially designed using Dreamweaver and Flash software by one of the company's 22 employees. Since then, the site, which Cuffaro describes as "clean and modern but not cold," has been intermittently upgraded. The company measures the site's success, in part, via an email link for requesting additional information.

"We're still not satisfied with our site," says Cuffaro. "We want to be able to update it more quickly, to provide project updates to current clients in a secure way and to include more descriptions of our processes and capabilities." He says that means moving to the next level, requiring the company to hire professionals, something he doesn't see happening soon.

"Ideally, we'd have a Web and print and advertising strategy that ties together," says Cuffaro. "But with the current economic slow down, that's cost prohibitive for us."

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This article originally appeared in the June/July 2002 issue of MyBUSINESS magazine.

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