Customer acquisition is a hot topic.  In this economy, customer acquisition seems to be very difficult for some companies.  In our particular segment of the market, it is just not the case.  We mysteriously seem to acquire more clients in an economic down-turn than in an up-swing.  There are three hypotheses for this:  1) small to medium sized companies can no longer afford the larger agencies to do a complete re-design, web development and marketing package; 2) small to medium sized businesses want a “small batch” shop to work directly with them in crafting their website; or 3) clients are finding out that a lot of the larger agencies are simply outsourcing the coding part of the project because they can no longer afford to have a coder in-house–subsequently, they are experiencing a breakdown in communication.  The designer is approving certain features that the client is requesting, that the coder isn’t able to implement, and the client doesn’t find this out until they see the final product.

Having said that, our biggest issue right now is not acquiring customers but keeping them happy.  Every one of our projects is unique, thus there is no “one-size-fits all” customer care manual.  Most of our clients’ projects are entirely different in nature. What’s more, each of our clients have varying desires as to how much communication they want to have with us during the development process. Unfortunately, we as typical web developers have very little innate desire to communicate.  So how do we strike a balance?

1.) Friday Status Reports-We’ve implemented Friday status updates to each of our clients.  They’re quick and dirty, and comprise of a list of “Tasks completed” and “Next steps.”  Clients are always encouraged to call or email if they have any questions. This keeps us from having to change contexts too many times during the week.  We can get the real work done, heads down, Mon-Thurs.  Friday mornings we send out status reports and Friday afternoons we clean up any last bug fixes before the weekend.  At 5 o’clock sharp we bust out the cervezas.  Most clients are thankful for the updates and feel more in the loop–and as a bonus we feel a huge weight lifted off our shoulders.

2.) Weekly phone calls- It is a little bit harder to find time to do this.  Programming is an intense sport.  It’s like going 15 leagues under the sea.  To come up for air every few minutes makes it impossible to get anything done.  For clients who want a little more interaction, we schedule a weekly call to go over any questions they may have as well as to discuss our progress. These can get tricky, because of what we call the “Feature Creep.”  We have to be very disciplined in sticking to the specs of the project and not adding any more features, otherwise the whole scope of the project can get out of hand.  We are a small shop– three developers, and one marketer–phone calls are not our favorite thing…but again, we aim to make the customers happy.  And for some, this makes them happy.

Attention web developers: Learn from our mistakes. Communication is key.  Even if your product is superior, communication is key! Don’t be an unavailable enigma. Talk to your customers!

Rule #1 Stop Looking in the Mirror- You Look Great

The first thing we think to do when we want to improve our marketing, is to take a long hard look at our website, our branding (logo, color scheme, etc.) and our mission statement. We think, “If we just look better to people, they will like us more and spend more of their money with us. The reality is that we need to stop spending precious time and resources obsessing about how we look. A re-branding and website re-design is a lot of money and often takes months to compete–the difference is not usually significant enough to warrant it, and in some cases, it can actually back-fire.  Take Tropicana’s re-branding as an example.

It’s like this. Have you ever ran into an old friend from high school who looks like she is still in her twenty’s even though she is pushing forty? Did you ever think after the conversation, “Wow, if she had spent more time on developing herself, and less time on how she looked, that conversation might have turned out differently. We might have actually had something to talk about.” Well, you, my friend, are about to be that woman–if you don’t stop worrying about your image. I see websites all the time, that frankly, look like shit. The font and color schemes are out-dated,  flashicons (my euphamism for the GeoCities-era bling) are littered all over their homepage, and their site-map makes no logical sense, but somehow they have incredible page rank and a customer base that would blow your mind.

Whaaaa?!! How do they do it?
They do it by getting in on the real action. They find a way to get to the virtual watering holes on the web where leaders in their industry are hanging out, and where potential leads will be drawn to. They start conversations that are compelling enough for others to join in on. They show up to Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter and people actual know their name and what they think about things relating to their industry. 

So next time you obsess over your company’s image, turn some of that time and energy into finding ways to get involved in the conversation.  There is a lot of life out there on the web and it’s time that they get to know you and you them. It’s time that everybody knows your name.

Practical Steps: Twitter is a great tool for beginners

1.) Join Twitter-use your business name if at all possible and use your personal head shot as your profile pic.  The more people see your company as a real person, the better.

2.) Follow- Find people who are in the “know” in your industry.  Follow them.

3.) Re-tweet and direct message people who you follow.

Here is a great article on 17 ways to use Twitter from one of my favorite bloggers, Maki.