A prospective manufacturing client invited me in the other day to talk about offering customers new digital goodies on its website. The company's bread and butter is made-to-order metal work, and its leadership thought it would be a good idea if prospects could upload a CAD file and get a quote.
The idea wouldn’t be difficult or expensive to execute — even for a company with a website that right now offers little more than contact information and a basic capabilities overview.
In fact, what the website communicates now is the picture of a company that is old-school in its approach to business: personal relationships, hands-on craftsmanship, and face-to-face work with customers.
During the meeting, I asked the client why they wanted to add the digital complexity.
“We have an image as an old-fashioned mom-and-pop business,” the client essentially told me, “and we want to snap it up.”
“But you are a mom-and-pop business, and you are old-fashioned,” I countered. “There are lots of companies that can do the work that you do, but I suspect that your customers choose you because of the way you get the work done.”
I asked how they planned to respond to electronic RFQs, and whether the turnaround, pricing, or service level might change. I asked if they were prepared to deal with a large increase of tire-kickers and price-nigglers — whether they were prepared to deal with customers who didn’t relate to an old-school handshake type of shop.
They did not jump out of their seats to answer “yes.”
I suggested that if they want to accept CAD files electronically, they could do so via email, but by building a section of their website around it, perhaps they were sending the wrong message.
If an old-fashioned company seeks to become a next-generation leader, the place to start is with the DNA, not the website.
Customers respond to authenticity. Even companies that provide lousy service and average products can succeed if they manage to attract those customers who will forgive everything in exchange for the lowest price.
That’s the free advice I offered, before suggesting some other things they could do to make their website a more effective marketing tool.
They haven’t called me back for a second visit — possibly because they found someone else who was more excited to add website gadgets.
But I hope, instead, it’s because they’ve decided to take a more authentic approach.
By Bob Rosenbaum, Editor, The MPI Group
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