It was really interesting to actually sit down and think about this objectively, since the point wasn’t to purposely list self-serving questions.  It was a fun exercise, so we figured we would share it with the rest of the class.  Enjoy!

1. Will you own the site if you part ways with your web firm? This is not always a given, surprisingly.

2. Are sites built on a Content Management System (CMS), which allows users to update content without a webmaster? WordPress, the most widely adopted CMS platform, is extremely user-friendly. Obscure CMS platforms make it difficult to find a web developer to support your site.

3. How long has the firm been in business? Being a young company isn’t bad, but lack of web experience can lead to catastrophic results, so find out the history of the principals.

4. Does the firm have an up-to-date client list and online portfolio? Don’t let them tell you they are “too busy” to keep their own site current…that’s never a good sign.

5. What is their typical development turnaround time? Depending on the level of engagement, 45 days is a reasonable expectation for a basic CMS web site.

6. Do they offer support after the site is developed? If so, find out hourly rates for updates and/or enhancements.

7. How do they manage projects? A quality web development shop has a project management system, but the devil is in how they manage the details.

8. Do they arrange for hosting or do they expect you to handle it? Make sure you will get a detailed Admin document to access your hosting plan. Most small business sites perform adequately on a basic Linux plan, which starts at $5.00 per month for a basic plan and increases as necessary.

9. Will the web site company handle the roles of both designer AND developer? You don’t want a beautiful site that looks broken on an IPhone.

10. Do they use “off-shore” development services and, if so, why? If it’s strictly for cost savings, choose a different firm. If it’s because they have long-term relationship with their developers, that’s understandable. A great developer who makes sites work across all browsers and all platforms regardless of the level of customization is hard to find.

11. Can they provide you with strategic direction on how to best position your business on the web? An effective web presence is more than just throwing up a web site. Find out other areas of expertise they may have.

12. Do they have references you can talk to that can provide insight about working with their staff? Creating an effective web presence can be intimidating enough without dealing with tech snobbery or firms who are not easily accessible by phone or email before, during, or after a project. A good firm is easy to work with, organized, and responsive to your needs…sometimes even downright fun. Always call references.

Since the winter of 2008, Eat Cake! and Hilary have been fairly common topics of conversation here at digital reaction, because she is a perfect client and a fantastic friend.  People should know that Hilary not only makes phenomenal cakes, she also has mind-bending business sense. She personifies commitment, stamina, and raw determination. In the words of Hank Davis,  “Everything she does, she does at a Ninja level.” If I could hand pick a dream team, she would be one of my very first picks.

From the beginning of our business relationship, Eat Cake! rocked and Hilary rocked.  Plus she had this great logo (easily Liss Larsen’s best work in my opinion) with cool little stylistic cues we could build from. The site’s overall simple look was by design, because one of the great things about working with Hilary is that she does not get lazy with the details. No different than when she decorates a cake–details matter and there is very little guesswork. I love that because it gives us the opportunity to deliver the complete vision.

I initially did some general upkeep on Hilary’s first site and helped it evolve a little bit. At the time it was super basic, but basic in a good way visually due to the strong focus on the “Eat Cake!” brand.  We eventually did a decent-sized upgrade and turned a few screws, while continually learning about each other’s business.  Hilary’s very analytical point of view brings killer perspective, which is a great asset to a creative team. We never had to guess if we would like something, we just knew we would.

Fast-forward through a cool life event or two (huge shout out to Charlie Mahar) and several anniversary cakes (my wife and I have a standing order with Eat Cake! until… forever).  Then Hilary opens the incredible Prince Place cake studio and starts killing it instantly.

We actually laughed about the cupcake thing a bit because we had talked about it a couple times conceptually, so it was no surprise she went there and it was even less a surprise how incredibly successful they have been. I knew she needed her version of our “d-page” (our inexpensive basic template-based site) as an affordable way to connect with people–and what better way to connect than with THE BEST cupcake they would likely ever eat. She loved the idea from the start and we still laugh about the day at the Roasters that we first talked about it.

Then, POW! Hilary is suddenly doing Cupcake Wars.  She is literally on her way to LA to do freakin’ Cupcake Wars. Let me rewind a bit and say that during the past few years digital reaction had been pretty active as well. We were building sites in ways we hadn’t before after partnering up with some incredibly talented developers, so the sites we were making were just awesome. We were fresh off the heels of another fantastic project, teamshatter.com, so I was really embracing the whole CMS-based site concept and using WordPress to do it.  Everything we do now is integrated with WordPress so the projects we deliver are loaded with powerful features, empowering our clients to take a hand in their marketing efforts. It’s been just a huge shift in the way we develop sites and do business in general.

Because the developers I work with are just monsters (HUMONGOUS shout out to Forward, Inc.) the ability to build the new site however we wanted already existed. I’ll talk about working with Otto, Ian, and their insane wrecking crew of developers in another post because trust me, these guys are the real deal …

So when the time came to prepare eatcakeonline.com for the inevitable flood of traffic I knew it would get from the show, I knew we were going to build something great.  I actually remember Hilary saying at one point, “I like being at the cutting edge of the internet; I’m mad that we aren’t right now”, which totally set the tone for exactly what kind of site we would build.

The new Eat Cake! site would need some really cool things that we thought were really important:

• Big on Pictures: one of the biggest complaints about the old site was the number of pictures so we customized a gallery that is super easy to use and equally as easy to update and manage.
• Ease of Use: Hilary wanted some very focused areas of customer interaction and insisted that they be easy to use for everyone.
• Style: We already had great colors and a fantastic logo, plus one or two other design cues (upside-down scallops were a great nod) we could use with the new site in a similar but evolved way.
• Blog:  This was the big thing for me initially, “Hilary you have to have a blog!” She was a bit reluctant (time-management concerns) but gave me the green light to build her an awesome blog.

We based the blog off of the digital reaction.net blog, which is a slightly modified blog from the inFocus theme (nearly perfect in my opinion) so we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. Hilary was mainly looking forward to interacting with her customers and friends in an open and loose forum. So far it looks like a hit, with a few good posts and an absolutely adorable comment by an 8-year-old girl. The initial few posts confirmed that the blog was going to be huge, just as I suspected all along.hi. i am amanda and i am 8. i just watched my favorite show cupcake wars and you were on it so i asked my mom to find you. i thought you did the best and i hope my mom brings me to your store so i can see you. you did awesome. amanda

We are still smoothing out a few bumps and re-thinking a few technical choices, but the site in general is performing great and getting a TON of traffic and great feedback all around.

So what about the future? I love that question because we are already in discussions with Hilary about integrating the site with some really powerful marketing automation tools that are super interesting and should provide impressive results. We had some pretty crazy secrets under the hood for a few months leading up to all this and we couldn’t be happier for Hilary and Eat Cake!.  It’s awesome to be this close to something so cool.

So there you have it–my version of a case study. As for the thoughts and ideas that came to mind when thinking back on a few years of working with someone and being able to share in her success?  Cool doesn’t quite describe it…

Client focus is where we are at our best and having great clients like Eat Cake! kicks it into the stratosphere. Their success is our success, and we love to be able to thrive off of that kind of synergy.

To see the fruits of our labor, visit eatcakeonline.com, check out Hilary and Aubree kicking major butt on Cupcake Wars and of course make a trip to the Prince Place cake studio for what I guarantee will be THE BEST cupcake you ever ate…

digital reaction…now accepting great clients!

Cheers!

-rob

Agreement # 1 – We both came to the agreement that we wanted to define customer experience as just that: everything a customer experiences while dealing with a specific company.

Agreement # 2 – We agreed we wanted to define customer service as all of the human-to-human interaction between customers and the representatives of the company they are dealing with.

Agreement # 3 – We agreed customer service and customer experience are two very different things.  Customer service is a component of overall customer experience just like products, locations, technology, etc.

Agreement # 4 – We agreed we consider the “human-to-human” customer service components to be incredibly important and controllable elements of the customer experience.

Agreement # 5 – Last but not least, we agreed that too many people seem to have forgotten about good old-fashioned human-to-human customer service.  Nowadays, people seem to be so very excited about doing everything electronically and, unfortunately, many of the core, personalized, high-touch business and customer service skills and practices seem to be falling by the wayside.

This last conclusion is troubling!  As the Dalai Lama says: “social interaction between human beings is the essence of our existence.”  Last time I checked, saying something is the “essence of human existence” means it is probably pretty important.  He did not say email is the essence of human existence, he did not say product quality is the essence of human existence, he did not say best price is the essence of human existence.  He said: “social interaction between human beings is the essence of human existence.”  Pretty powerful stuff I think.  Unfortunately, too many executives do not see how this plugs in to their business model.  The best ones not only see how it fits in, they embrace it and are passionate about it.

We are not suggesting product, price, technology, facilities, etc. are not important components of the customer experience.  Of course they are!  They are all incredibly important!  We are suggesting you make sure you maintain a strong human component to your business.  People are sometimes loyal to products, but most of the time they are loyal to people and they will drive past two stores to get to a third to see people they like dealing with and they like doing business with.

Here is how we define the key components of a great human-to-human customer service interaction:

We use the term G.E.A.R.S. when we talk about the key phases of great customer service:

Greet – The first step in any great interaction is the first impression.  The greeting considers everything from the way you are dressed, your body language, facial expression, handshake, smile, and first words.  There is something to be said for making the first few seconds warm, comfortable, and welcoming.  There is also something to be said for demonstrating to the customer that you are actually genuinely interested in helping them out.

Engage – Once the greetings are done and you have made the person feel welcome it is time to engage them in a deeper conversation.  Engaging somebody has a lot to do with asking questions and effective active listening.  As a general rule a great conversation is typically the result of great questions and great listening skills.  This is the phase where the CSR ventures to learn as much possible about what the customer need is.  They have to ask base questions and in many cases continue to dig deeper to fully understand the customer’s needs.  In this phase they should also be reading body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. At the same time they should be in full control of their own as they listen to the customer explain their need or situation.

Advise – Ahh!  Here it is!  The holy grail of customer service excellence.  Being able to deliver tailored advice that works backward from the information shared in the engage phase is the pinnacle of high-value customer service.  Being able to suggest specific products and services and, in some cases, suggest a lower cost alternative is what this model is all about.  Believe it or not, I might want to be talked out of buying that blue shirt when you think the green one looks better on me.  It is sincere advice and not “sales hook” advice that I want.

Resolve – In this stage we help the customer resolve to move forward.  We answer any questions they might have, deal with objections and, if there are any terms to negotiate, we do that as well.  Finally, we resolve their problem and make a decision on the right solution for them.  The sale is made and I went with the green shirt because the CSR told me it matched my eyes and the colors of the season.

Service – Once the the person we are dealing with becomes a customer now it is up to us to make them a repeat customer who is likely to recommend our company to others.  We do this by doing all of the little things well.  We need to be responsive, proactive, easy to work with, energetic, and very knowledgeable.  We also need to start the G.E.A.R.S process all over again the next time they come in.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could get everybody to do this during every business interaction?

Wouldn’t it be great if these were the rules for every form of customer interaction?  Maybe our electronic presence should be a bit more human as well.  Maybe our web sites should employ the G.E.A.R.S approach.  Why shouldn’t a site greet, engage, advise, resolve and service?

Come to think of it maybe they can.

Now don’t get me wrong. We love best practices! We are a best practices firm. We specialize in uncovering the best of the best customer service best practices of the best customer service professionals and companies out there, and in teaching those best practices to customer service representatives and their leaders. The problem I have is with this whole “strict adherence” concept. Nothing is worse than an overly scripted CSR who is reading to me right from a script as we try to have a flowing, natural conversation. It is the worst! In my opinion, this is as bad as customer service gets. Scripts are great to have but they are terrible to read from. If the script was crafted correctly it should be chock-full of great things to say and talk about. But! (And this is a big but!) They should never be read from during a customer interaction. The scripts should be internalized to become great content that reveals itself in the natural flow of a good conversation. Have the right things to say, but don’t have them read to me in a robotic voice. Let the conversation flow naturally and the overall interaction will be a success.

So the question is this:  What are the characteristics of a great (flowing, natural, successful) customer service interaction?

The answer is this:  The best customer service interactions are CRISP!

First of all, let’s quickly look at the definition of the word “crisp” before we move on to the actual components of the acronym CRISP.

As defined by my trusted online dictionary, the word “crisp” means a way of speaking, interacting or writing briefly, decisively and concisely, without hesitation and/or unnecessary detail. I think that is a pretty accurate description of how I would like my customer service interactions to flow.

Now let’s look at the acronym CRISP because I think you will all agree that these are exactly the types of interactions you would like to have but, too often, do not participate in:

The C in CRISP = Compassion – Feeling or showing concern or sympathy for others.

The R in CRISP = Rewarding – Providing satisfaction; gratifying.

The I in CRISP = Interactive – Two or more people influencing and having an effect on each other.

The S in CRISP = Simple – Easily understood and done with limited to no difficulty.

The P in CRISP = Personalized – Interact in such a way as to design or customize to meet a person’s individual requirements, needs or preferences.

Sometimes I am still amazed by the power of the average dictionary. A big shout out to Dr. Samuel Johnson for giving the English language it’s first really kick-ass dictionary. If more people read to truly understand the contents of the average dictionary we would have a much better world to live in.

As defined by my trusted online dictionary the word “crisp” means the following: A way of speaking, interacting or writing briefly, decisively and concisely, without hesitation and/or unnecessary detail.This acronym above clearly defines for me exactly what I am looking for in most interactions with customer service professionals. And I really want to emphasize the personalization piece. We have to allow our interactions with customers to flow and take on a shape, texture and life of their own. People are different and unique and we want to be treated as such. We want to be heard by somebody who will react to us and not to the next box in their customer interaction flow chart! We want our interactions with a CSR to be CRISP! Compassionate, Rewarding, Interactive, Simple and Personalized.

If your team cannot move away from “strict adherence” to rigid and consistent scripting for every call you are going to have a tough time competing with those companies who have the ability to conduct unique, customized, CRISP conversations.

Are you a CRISP conversationalist or are you a robotic script reader? Where do you rank on the CRISP Olympic Scale (1 to 10)? How CRISP are your leadership conversations and how CRISP are your CSR teams conversations with customers? Move these scores as close to a 10 as possible and you will have very loyal customers!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Hank!

We realize that a solid hosting plan is the backbone of any great website, so digital reaction total web solutions has launched digitalreactionhosting.com, our all-new hosting service portal.

This comprehensive site addresses all of your hosting needs, including the following products and services:

• hosting packages for every need
• full-service domain registration
• simple-to-use SEO tools
• email plans
• Email Marketing
• 24×7 tech support

Ultimately, our business is about our clients and how we can best meet your needs. Input and suggestions we’ve received from many clients made us realize you want a seamless and reliable partner to handle the all-important hosting aspect of your web business.

So, who better to do that than digital reaction total web solutions?

We invite you to visit the new site, see what we have to offer, and let us know what you think.

We already put that big orange “d” on there so we know it better be good…

Cheers!

-rob

A: Because Ferrari realizes that Bridgestone makes the best tires, so they use Bridgestone tires to make their Ferrari a better Ferrari.

Q: Why do countless top-notch game developers license the Unreal Engine from Epic Games?

A: Because it’s the best game engine out there, so People Can Fly used the Unreal Engine for their forthcoming blockbuster video game “Bulletstorm”.

Q: Why did digital reaction start offering ThemeForest’s templates sites in addition to our custom sites?

A: Because ThemeForest has some of the best-developed themes and developers on the planet, so our theme-based sites rock.

A very smart client once told me that he doesn’t care about my opinion as an individual even a fraction as much as he cares about the aggregate total of the opinions of my partners and peers. In other words, he doesn’t want my fifteen years of experience, he wants the hundreds of years of experience that I bring to the table as a result of my willingness to seek out and collaborate with the most talented professionals and sources in the industry.

Those of you in the design industry are likely aware of the ongoing debates and forum riots regarding the use of themes in the design field.  For those new to the concept, a theme is a pre-built website available for purchase and then modified by developers to better reflect individual project needs.  One side of the argument has purists who are against them and the other side has designers who support them.

We actually understand both arguments, but we realize that sometimes the benefits are just too strong to ignore.  So as we strive to remain competitive and provide our clients with the latest and best web offerings available, it’s impossible for us to dismiss this growing trend.

Now let me just get this out of the way…digitalreaction.net is actually a heavily- customized THEME!

“What?!  A designer using a theme for his own site? What’s up with that?!”

Allow me to explain:

As a web designer/developer, one of the single most important things we do for our business is ensure that we have a STRONG website–visually compelling, technically sound, and showcasing the latest and greatest technologies–so our clients can get a feel for what we are all about.

However, this just so happens to be the most EXPENSIVE thing we can possibly do. Allocating our time and resources to re-imaging our own website takes us away from working on revenue-generating projects for our clients. In other words, our capacity to work with our clients during internal development cycles is drastically reduced.

And…we are absolutely brutal on ourselves.  When designers/developers work on their own stuff it’s incredibly painful and time consuming—talk about setting the bar high and endlessly obsessing over minutiae!  The project becomes the quintessential moving target and always winds up taking months longer than originally intended, which becomes very expensive for us and causes delays for our clients.

Remember, Ferrari doesn’t make their own tires, they buy them from Bridgestone, the company that actually does make the best tires!Fortunately, for developers like us who use WordPress, some amazing templates created by some of the best in the business are available.  There are themes out there that are freakin’ spectacular, plain and simple. I challenge any design professional to walk through ThemeForest.net and tell me that some of these guys aren’t at the top of their game.  I’m talking top-notch designs with amazing features and new technology sets perfectly built in, but without the months of internal resources it would take us to literally reinvent that wheel—which, in my opinion, is a poor use of our time.  Remember, Ferrari doesn’t make their own tires, they buy them from Bridgestone, the company that actually does make the best tires!

“But what about the customization?”

Well, that’s the best part. By the time we finished writing the content, designing the individual design elements, and customizing the CSS, Jquery, and other components to better reflect the digital reaction brand, we still had invested more than 5 weeks internal time with our principal team. If we did all of that from scratch, we would have spent the better part of 3 months just to get our new site off the ground, cutting our client projects by two-thirds!

As of November 2010, we have been working theme customization into our offerings and are just getting ready to launch our first round of client projects. For a fraction of the cost of our straight-up custom work, you can have a strong, CMS-driven website that will look super professional while meeting most of your small-business needs.  The theme we are presently leveraging is called Industry, a fantastic, flexible, and powerful theme that’s easily customized to reflect most business types.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some drawbacks and limitations–most notably the layout and overall structure, more generic design elements, and other items that benefit more custom sites. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t end up with a great site; in fact, our most recent projects are pretty impressive and surpass most, if not all, offerings at the same price point.

The bottom line is this—in today’s day and age, a polished and professional web presence is an absolute necessity for all businesses, no matter how large or small. We recognize this, so we have always done our best to offer entry-level solutions for our clients working with smaller budgets–without them looking like small-budget projects.

So although theme-based sites may not be right for every project, they are certainly a compelling choice for a lot of small businesses.  And if a theme is good enough for our own site, it’s possible that it could be right for yours. Sure, there will be some limitations and some businesses with the same theme, but the internet is a big place. How else could you get all the benefits of a content-managed, WordPress-driven site, designed by some of the top industry professionals, and implemented and customized by yours truly?

Cheers!

-rob

*Image courtesy of EGMCARTECH