Yo Ho, On The Internet Shall We Go?

No doubt you have heard the hoopla about THE INTERNET. "It will change our lives and our businesses", they say. "It will gather leads, be a silent salesman, and almost guarantee your financial freedom and millionaire status overnight."

Frankly, I'm tired of hearing that the Internet is a cure-all for every business woe. It simply isn't. The Internet can't make a sales call, can't write an estimate or design a building and can't soothe an angry client. But the Internet can and does have some practical and interesting applications for the building trades.

This article is a case study on our experience developing a web site, and a look into the future.

Our Desires

1. To offer potential clients a means of evaluating our company.

2. To explain our design/build program.

3. To have a lead form that gathers lead information from potential clients and to have the lead form faxed or e-mailed to us.

4. To have an employment form that can be filled out and e-mailed or faxed to us.

5. To be able to sell forms (like our personnel manual) to other remodelers electronically- with a shopping cart, MasterCard and Visa, etc. When the purchase is made the file is downloaded directly to the buyers e-mail.

6. Perhaps have e-mail for our company.

7. Perhaps have a method of allowing a person to get a price on the net. The person would inquire about a potential project and put in the sizes, colors, and selections. The cost could then be e-mailed to them. And, in order to get the price, the person would have to give their address - which would go right to our mailing list.

8. Internal Links:

a. Meet our sales staff
b. Examples of work
c. Explanation of our design build program
d. Project of the month
e. Employment application
f. Lead information- gathering, locals who want estimates
g. Sale of forms to other remodelers
h. Automatic pricing feature- gathering of mailing addresses for potential client .

9. External Links: Founders Trust Personal Bank, Wood Radio, some suppliers, perhaps manufacturers like American Standard, Kohler, Andersen, Marvin, and Pella.

We met with two web site developers and examined the list, item by item. Then, based on the meetings, we refined our list. We expanded some items and deleted the idea of pricing jobs automatically (too expensive and too inaccurate) and the idea of providing external links to other sites (takes visitors away from our site).

What did it cost? The budget for the project was set at $7,000, which included web design and implementation. A realistic timetable of 3 months was set with a deadline of August 15, 1999. We missed our deadline by 2 months. By October the website was up, running and only slightly over budget. Our site looked good and did everything we expected of it.

What did we get? So, what exactly did we expect of our site? And what did we get? Well, we have gotten a total of 2 leads in 10 months, which is somewhat less than expected (read "a miserable failure"). But how many people call us as a result of visiting the web site? Who knows! We ask but they don't always tell. We have not gotten a single employment application. On average, 10 to 25 people visit the site every day. Not bad, but we were thinking a bit more optimistically, like 500 to 1000 a day. Silly us!

We do get revenue from our site. We sell forms on-line (like our remodeling contract forms, personnel manuals, and carpenter profit sharing forms) to other builders and remodelers. It required an e-Commerce license, a hassle with our bank, and a lot more web development costs. We have sold a few thousand dollars of these forms on-line with little involvement on our end (read "Cool! It will help pay for the site development!"). About $5,000 of our development costs were strictly due to the e-commerce portion of our web site.

Was it worth the effort? Yes, we believe so. It costs us $600 a year for web hosting, which is the cost of a small yellow page ad in our area. If in the process we get a couple of good leads a year, sell some forms on-line, and have a web presence, all the better. One nice thing is that I can mention our site on my weekly two-hour radio show. Our listeners can go to the site and see what we're all about, actually see a picture of me in the studio.

What's next? What does the future hold for builders and remodelers on the internet? Consider these exciting ideas:

1. A job site web-cam on a project to see what's going on (i.e. is the drywaller REALLY there like he said?).

2. At 10:00 PM, checking to see if your local lumberyard carries 24' southern yellow pine 2 x 10's, and how many they have in stock.

3. After a week's worth of rain, posting a revised schedule for all your subs on every job you have in progress.

4. Collecting progress payments automatically from clients by E-checking (that'll be the day, huh?).

5. Reviewing and paying supplier invoices.

6. Time cards posted by your off-site employees via the net.

7. Potential clients doing a virtual tour of your house plans on your web site.

8. Ordering a lumber package from the lumberyard on Saturday afternoon for Monday first delivery, and being assured it will happen that way.

9. Collecting lien waivers that are quick and legal on the web.

10. Doing a total system check of a client's entire house, from foundation to roof, and scheduling routine maintenance.

Certainly some of these things are being done now on the Internet in a limited way, and others are in development. But stay tuned folks. If you don't have a presence on the web now, perhaps you should investigate and see if you should be there. Or at least register your domain name. The way things are headed, if you are not using the web today for doing business, in three to five years you probably will.

For more information, contact:
Rob Blodgett CR, CGR
President
Blodgett Construction & Home Improvement Co.
3831 Linden SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49548
Phone: 616-243-3333
RobBlodget@aol.com

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