Wadner Cotez owns Allure Detail in the greater Los Angeles area.
LA could have the most mobile detailers in the world. It’s brutally competitive.
So how does Wadner stand above? With a website that:
- Tells the owner’s story. Look at his about us page.
- Proves he’s good. Every page of his site has 50+ reviews, presented by Customer Lobby, that prove Allure detail shows up, does it right, and charges a fair price.
Take a few minutes and click around . You’ll get ideas for improving your own site.
Rebuilding your site: tips from Wadner.
“This weekend while sitting in L.A.Traffic on the 5 thinking how was I going to start this Blog my uncle brought up a good question out of the blue. Why are you still with Verizon? “ it has good coverage and I have the unlimited plan” which he replied “so do I, but for 60% cheaper..” after discussing the numbers he proved he had a good point and you know what? numbers dont lie!
My Grandpapa has his own business as well (it runs in the family) and he runs it old school way. which is fine, thats how he knows how to do it and he might see the change as a big leap, and if clients have been walking in this way, why change? theres a lot of factors that come to mind when change is presented to us. He pays for a business phone line, pays the yellow pages for advertisement, invested real estate show-room with past work and new designs when potential clients come in to his office and so many other things just look at all the objects your smartphone has replaced. That’s a lot of money every month!! While I in the other hand I have the foundation from where i run my business.. my website! the place where I promote my business, show my work, share what clients are saying about me and much more. With being online comes the perks of Free services, am listed in over 10 major search sites and Review sites, have one cell phone thats linked with my personal number and my business number, (when answering I always know if I should put on my game time face or if its personal). I have a few social media Websites linked to my website that store pictures to show-case to the world. And Most of these services are For Free!!
So you have been thinking of building a website to establish a feeling of trust between you and the client and you don’t know where to start?
I understand not every client is this picky but we must establish it so the when the moment approaches, the mood is set. One of the biggest tools of information a website will bring us is how are our clients finding us?, how are the interacting with our website?, whats making them call us?. As organized as we try to be some of us still have the problem that we don’t ask “Where or how did you hear of us?” directly or have it on the vehicle inspection form as a required fill in question. Now that’s bad, And it would be worse if we didn’t know what worked or didn’t on our website page. Now with advancement in the computer world we have three options to choose from:
- Small business Designers from your neighborhood that you meet. $200-$3k
- WordPress,Google blogger.. free- $125 (host domain fee)
- Squarespace, Wix.com, you design it, you see it fully done then you pay! $8-$30 a month.
All three options are good. I will go down the line quickly, as its all based on my experience and needs.
First small business designers are a great choice because you can build a relationship and whenever you need something edited you can just email/call the person and they will change it for you for a small fee or free sometimes. Down side is that unless you know someone in the same field you’re in, they will not understand your business and the selling points of your business. You want your website to attract and make the sale easier for you. For example I used a mobile carpet cleaner/ web designer, of course he knew nothing of detailing, so I had to spend weeks writing and making sure that the right information was being used to make my sales easier. till a few weeks later I read about his company being recommended on a Facebook post by a fellow detailer on detailer buddies.
WordPress, Google bloggers or Facebook are great if you are familiar with how the internet works, you like typing to share information, and share photos. If you can follow directions and have the time to learn You can have a website done in a few days through WordPress or Blog. Downside is you would supply all your designing creativity which might take days to do and time away from detailing or family.
And third.. websites that already have templates ready for you. All you do is supply the wording and pictures and copy and paste on to the templates. Don’t like the templates? you can choose another one and once you are satisfied with the outcome, you can type in your C.C. info and pay a monthly fee of $8-$25. Downside is that you have to do the work, add the pictures and links to all your social media pages. again that takes time from detailing or adds an extra load to you schedule at the end of the day.
What about if you have a website and you want to redesign it? What you include in a website is totally your choice, But there are a few must haves on any website if you want it to be easy for your client to access information:
- Social media links (Facebook, twitter, Google+, Instagram)
- ReviewLinks ( Facebook, Google+, Yelp, Customer lobby)
- “About you” section
- A professional appointment layout
- Easy to read, easy to load website
- Website that is mobile Friendly!!
and finally the holy grail of any website Analytics report. One of the mentioned companies Customer Lobby has a Analytics graph that gets Emailed to every client to show how their websites are doing and numbers don’t lie!. Facebook Page, Yelp, Google also offer this FREE service!. So why not take advantage of these low cost or free services.. And it doesn’t take that long to do, a few hours once a month is more than sufficient time to maintain your website looking fresh and you up to date on what your clients are interested in. Am sure there’s more in-depth articles on Analytics but most of that stuff is way over my head so we will save that discussion for later. Good luck on building or redoing your website.
-Wadner Cortez”