Website Personality Question

[BradD]

Very curious to see what you think makes for the best website for reaching your customer on a personal level.
I'm not asking what is the better looking website for layout or content, but more of what is the best level of showing who you are.
I have taken some screen shots of the first page of some websites of cleaners (some from this forum and some from other places also names have been blurred to protect the innocent). I know it can depend on if you are a one truck operation or a 20 truck operation, but is it better to show who you are on a personal level or is it better to show strictly business info?

• Column one only business (nothing personal)
• Column two semi-personal (company equipment / trucks on location)
• Column three personal (family pic or pic of who you are)

View attachment 3617

 

[FredC]

I think the answer is somewhere in the middle. Going by similar questions here in the past the results are usually skewed toward family/Owner Operator/ "I'm your carpet guy" site. Usually because they had a few people say they picked them because of their site. With no A/B testing and the comments of a few that did choose to use them....my website=stellar performance.

Not saying that being family owned/OO can't be a good point to differentiate your business but it probably shouldn't be the central theme.........and usually the people you are competing with are using the same schtick anyway at least in most non metro areas....I just searched a couple zips in my area and many if not most have family pics on the front page and the copy is meant to be "personal". I guess I just go by who has the cutest baby........

 

[Newman]

IMHO, always better to bring it to a personal level. Other than my home page, my most visited page is my "Who Is Norm" page.

 

[FredC]

move your "who is norm page" so it isn't effectively the second link for all hits to the site. Maybe to the "norms quality guarantee" position where the actual location isn't changed much

give it a month and see what your second most visited page is

 

[The Great Oz]

Website should be "friendly professional" since that's what people want from a service provider. They have friends and don't need the carpet cleaner to be one.

Leave the personal/cutesy/funny stuff for your Facebook business page.

 

[BradD]

Website should be "friendly professional" since that's what people want from a service provider. They have friends and don't need the carpet cleaner to be one.

Leave the personal/cutesy/funny stuff for your Facebook business page.

I agree with "Friendly Professional". Would that be the same if your service area was a town with less than 100K people?
It seems one of the major concerns for women that are home alone is "Will I be safe if this person comes into my house". I would think that a nice family photo on the front page for the owner operator, or even a page with employee/tech photos & short bio page would be comforting to the typical residential client.

 

[Steve Toburen]

For most markets I vote for the "Friendly Professional" approach. However, don't under-estimate the Fear Factor of having a strange tech in the customer's home...

... a page with employee/tech photos & short bio page would be comforting to the typical residential client.

We've been pushing this "Employee Profile" idea at SFS for some time. What to include?

"...a photo of the employee, along with a brief bio. Even better, also include a “facebook” type page on our website for each employee where they can put up photos of their family, names and ages of their children, professional experiences and certifications, list their hobbies, favorite ice cream, whatever! (Obviously you need to retain “censorship” privileges.)"

Steve

PS The hidden benefit of this is when you offer to email the customer a profile on the tech(s) "so you can get to know who will be working in your home" most jump at it and you have captured the client's email address.

 

[jcooper]

It seems one of the major concerns for women that are home alone is "Will I be safe if this person comes into my house". I would think that a nice family photo on the front page for the owner operator, or even a page with employee/tech photos & short bio page would be comforting to the typical residential client.

Anything that conveys trust.

People want to know you are normal!

 

[idreadnought]

I think family is a no no. To many people abuse the family angle.

It really comes down to your message, if you want a quality customer then put a quality looking person on the site and showcase a clean van. Thats my opinion. If you want lower end customers that are more price sensitive but expect less service then put something that highlights price.