There have been a number of requests for project solution quotes by people who do not have any form of communication other than a telephone. No fax. No e-mail. No text messaging. Some of which did not have a functioning computer at the time of the conversation. It wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for the fact that the project requirements discussed involved websites that included a great deal of interaction with the visitor. The details presented to us included many functions where the user would connect with a website to acquire a specific solution to a need. That’s great, however what is not so great is what would be required on the site owner’s end. A computer. One that is connected to the Internet.

You cannot expect to build a website that interacts with visitors unless you have the support structure behind the scenes to fulfill the needs of people that are looking to become more than just visitors to your site. Those are called “customers”. There’s a theory of practice out there known as customer service and it requires time and effort. A website will only be able to do so much. Granted, the level of service provided by the website can be extensive…but there is still a responsibility of the site owner to routinely maintain the product/service offerings of the site.

If you offer a product or service, how do you expect to receive order requests or inquiries with a modern mechanism of delivery (e-mail or even text message)? What is your plan to complete the process of conversion in a way that does not inconvenience the customer? Most transactions are handled electronically and some products only require a digital delivery. However, some of the prospective clients we talked to wanted to deliver physical products with no way (that was apparent to us) to be notified that an order was placed. Other potential clients wanted sites that “do all the work” without realizing that the data driving the website would need to be added. It doesn’t just magically appear. It is also not the primary responsibility of the development team to produce the content for a client website.

Website owners need to understand whose responsibility it truly is to own and operate a website. Theirs. It is an extension of your business…even if your primary business is the website. Ultimately, you as the owner are responsible for the information and the products and services offered on the site. It is your responsibility to insure that customers can complete whatever goals you define for the site (buy products, requests services, find information…etc.). The website development, hosting and search engine marketing teams you employ are there to support your efforts. Their goals are to provide you with the best services available. That does not mean they can run the online portion of your business for you. They can only work to transform your ideas into a functioning website or digital application.

We appreciate opportunities to work with clients, but there must be a mutual understanding of the roles all sides play in the process.

How does that relate to your business? It’s a sure sign of things to come, which means you should already be aware of how your company is represented on the social media websites. That includes the reputation of your products and services to the management team and all the staff that represent your company on a daily basis.

What do search engines have to do with a company’s reputation? More often than not, social media and blog posts are indexed by search engines and can appear in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s). Those posts could contain negative or even inflammatory statements about your products and services. All it takes is one unhappy customer to post information regarding your company or its products and services. Others will have the opportunity to read it and it could affect their opinion of your company and ultimately result in a reduction in your potential sales.

Mobile web browsing is increasing, so the spread of information has gotten more efficient. A person has the ability to research information about potential purchases any time, any place. If a negative representation of a product or service is visible it could affect the decision to finalize that purchase….whether it is for goods or services.

Small to medium businesses do not have the luxury of losing customers like big brands do. However, that is not preventing the big brands from being more proactive in the social media arena. McDonald’s has shown that they want to insure the message of their product is positive across all forms of media (TV, Radio & the Internet – especially social media). How McDonald’s implements their strategy for maintaining a positive brand image on the social media sites and search engines remains to be seen.

For reference, we looked at a few of the big brand Facebook pages. There were both positive and negative remarks amongst many of them. As a consumer, confidence in the product or service of the company with negative posts would be exponentially increased if the posts (both positive & negative) were addressed by the company. Especially if the negative comments resulted in some form of resolution of the complaint / issue…and ended with a positive comment from the person who originally posted the negative comment. We can all agree that there will always be people who just want to make negative (often vulgar) comments for no apparent reason. A company is best served by deleting those types of malicious comments.

How is your business working to remain proactive about its reputation on the search engines and on social media websites?

4/14/2010 – Follow-up: More proof of the need for online reputation management – Google Making Every Tweet Searchable: http://bit.ly/cGcnhg