Three dry cleaners and the design of your website. 

I was visiting with one of our design partners, Scott Hannaman with Hannaman Design, about the importance of websites for local businesses.  We are in the process of creating a cold call script that will allow us to engage local business owners on the importance of effective websites.

Scott had a great analogy of a consumer looking for a place to take their dry cleaning.  Imagine a shopping center in Norman Oklahoma with three dry cleaning businesses. 

Dry cleaner one has a beautiful storefront located in the center of the shopping center with a neon sign outside that says “The Finest Dry Cleaning Available, Period”. 

Dry cleaner two has a well kept storefront in the front of the shopping center with a nicely printed sign that says “Professional Dry Cleaning / Great Prices”

Dry cleaner three is located on the side of the shopping center, has a crack in the front window, and a faded sign that says “Dry Cleaning”. 

Which of these businesses are you going to consider doing business with, or more to the point, which of these businesses will you not consider doing business with.  It is perfectly possible that dry cleaner three provides better service and lower prices than its two competitors.  Are you willing to roll the dice on dry cleaner three in spite of their run down appearance?

A direct parallel can be drawn between a brick and mortar storefront, and your website.  The goal of a storefront is to set an expectation of what the customer will find in the store, and get them in the door. 

Consumers use the web to evaluate local businesses to determine who they want to do business with.  Many of today's consumers when looking for dry cleaning services, are using local search engines to visit 3-5 websites.  What they find on-line determines which dry cleaner they take their laundry to. 

Continuing with our dry cleaner analogy, consumers that don't want to sacrifice quality for price will choose dry cleaner one.  Consumers looking for the best service at the best price will choose dry cleaner two.  Dry cleaner three will most likely not be evaluated at all since they are hard to find.  If their site is found, the customer will probably take one look and use the back button to continue their search. 

Bottom line, the appearance / message of local websites, and where they are located in local search engines, has a direct impact on how many and what kind of customers a business will attract.